It can’t be easy to spend months building a collection, only for its grand unveiling to last little more than 10 minutes on the catwalk, before fashion’s attention turns to the next, sometimes that very afternoon. It’s a problem Chanel has been smart enough to find a solution to over the years: wait until the collection hits boutiques, travel to the other side of the world, present it all over again, and give the internet a second bite of the cherry.

The latest of these so-called “replica” shows took place yesterday afternoon in Sydney, a reprise of April’s Cruise presentation in the seaside town of Biarritz. And even then, it was split into two events: one for clients, another for editors and celebrities – among them Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie, the holy trinity of Australian stardom – whetting the industry’s appetite once more. All three have become figureheads of Matthieu Blazy’s vision for the house: Robbie and Minogue both starred in the campaign for Chanel’s 25 handbag in March, while Kidman is now as much a fixture of the front row as the Grand Palais itself. But seeing them assembled on home turf, in coordinating looks, was something of an Avengers moment. Just as special was the appearance of models Latahlia Hickling, Tatyana Perry, Tarlisa Gaykamangu, Charlee Fraser and Cindy Rostron, in what Australia described as a “watershed moment for first nations representation on the runway”.

As for the collection itself, what worked in the south of France was a hit in the Emerald City, too: both places serving as cultural shorthand for sun-soaked coastlines and the laid-back dress that comes with them. It hardly mattered that we’d seen the fish-scale mermaid gowns – famously worn by Bhavitha Mandava at this year’s Cannes Film Festival – the beach-umbrella skirts and the half-sandals before. As ’s chief fashion critic Sarah Mower observed of its maiden showing, “everywhere there was something to see”. And perhaps even more so at the after-party, if Robbie got her wish. “If Kylie and I did karaoke together, I would die and go to heaven,” she not long ago told this magazine. “What would we sing? It feels too on-the-nose to do a Kylie song. Since we’re both Aussies, maybe we’d go with the unofficial Australian anthem, ‘The Horses’ by Daryl Braithwaite.” Otherwise there’s always “Nicole Kidman”.