Get Ready for Melbourne Fashion Festival

Australia’s largest fashion event, the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival is returning for its 22^nd year. The annual event is about all things fashion and the arts and is also committed to fostering inspiring ideas and individuality. It’s a lovely melting pot of creative juices mixed in with just plain beauty.

The not-for-profit festival showcases both up and coming designers and Australian fashion industry veterans. It’s not all just about runway though, the event running over 18 days also focuses on insight, education and pure entertainment. From business seminars, forums, and beauty workshops to exhibitions, retail events, state-of-the-art productions and live entertainment – there’s something for every fashion aficionado all around Melbourne town.

This year, you’ll see breathtaking runway shows by top Aussie designers including Carla Zampatti, Dion Lee, Camilla and Marc, alice McCALL, Rachel Gilbert and Manning Cartell. And don’t forget the Global Indigenous Runway showing high-end fashion by Indigenous designers from Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and Canada, as well as the GQ Australia Menswear Runway for the guys that like to look dapper!

The festival will also be debuting some super special new talent with the National Graduate Showcase runway. It’s all about the ones to watch! Take note of the names of these talented young things because they are sure to blow the industry away.

Fun fact: One of the original top supermodel’s, Helena Christensen, will be in attendance this year to celebrate the launch of her new eyewear line. She first attended 20 years ago and has walked in runway shows at the festival in 1998 and 2011. After being absent for eight long years, in 2018 she’s sitting front row, pure VIP style. There will no doubt be a host of other familiar celebrity faces in the crowd, so keep your eyes peeled.

Some other events and seminars to look out for during the festival are the ‘International Women’s Day Forum’, ‘The Cool Career Conference’, ‘An Evening With: Women in Media’, and ‘Sustainability in Design’. The festival is proud to use their platform to acknowledge current issues and start a conversation.

If you need a cool drink between shows or talks, you’ve got plenty of flowing bars to choose from such as Asahi Festival Bar, 6FT6 Wine Garden and Chandon S Bar.

When: 1 – 18 March 2018

Where: Various spots all around Melbourne so check out the event program here.

words by emily carstairs