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Snakes add venom to fashion show

There’s no better way to ensure that you get the photographer’s pit in a lather at Fashion Week than by sending a model down the runway holding a live snake.

Add some swimwear and high heels and you have a bit of Twitter and Instagram gold.

It’s been done before, but it never fails to elicit fearful and amazed oohs and aahs from a seen-everything-already fashion crowd.

Two particularly intrepid models were given the task at today’s We Are Handsome swimwear show at the picturesque but slightly crumbling surrounds of the Paddington Reservoir Gardens in Sydney.

Other interesting accountrements today included surfboards carried by buffed, tanned guys in vibrant printed boardshorts; a huge feathered headdress on the first model out of the blocks; giant gold palm-tree earrings and palm-leaf bracelets, all of which added to the tropical vibe.

We Are Handsome have staked out a place in the Australian swimwear industry with their hip fauna and floral prints and celebrity following (their profile skyrocketed a couple of years ago when singer Rihanna was papped wearing one of their swimsuits.)

A model with an unusal accessory at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

This season they expanded their repertoire to include resort pieces – breezy singlet dresses, palazzo pants, long skirts and tunic tops that will, to use an old cliché, “take you from the beach to the bar” – a thing you can actually do in Perth, given the climate and our comparatively relaxed dress code.

All of the usual print signatures were there – the tiger and lion heads etc – but We Are Handsome added extra tropical punch to the mix this time around. There were pineapples, palm fronds, watermelon slices along with zebra heads and curling snakes (hence the live reptile).

The glamour quotient was high at this morning's Ginger & Smart show

The scene was set with lazyboys and bunches of bananas strewn around the venue. Models smiled jauntily and the soundtrack was upbeat. You could almost imagine you were in some sun-soaked cabana, if it weren’t for the gloomy grey skies overhead.

There was virtually every permutation of swimwear here, from skimpy bikinis to more covered up one-pieces. The unifying thread was an acidic-bright, almost fluoro print that almost took things into psychedelic territory. Heading to a beach rave? We Are Handsome have you sorted.