Melbourne shopping guide: where to find all the top brands during the city’s fashion festival
- Melbourne Fashion Festival, which runs until March 10, attracts over 100,000 people each year, and will showcase the work of 147 fashion designers
- Here’s our quick guide to international and local fashion, beauty, and homewares stores around the city
The concept of designers selling merchandise to consumers straight off the catwalk has fascinated the fashion industry for the past three years. Burberry and Tommy Hilfiger are among many brands to have tried the idea, with mixed results.
Melbourne was 23 years ahead of the curve on the idea, which is often referred to as “see now, buy now”.
After Australian Fashion Week launched in Sydney in May 1996 as a trade showcase of Australian Spring collections, the country’s second biggest city fired back in March the following year with an in-season winter merchandise event called the Melbourne Fashion Festival.
Now the largest consumer fashion festival in Australia, attracting over 100,000 people each year, the 2019 edition of the festival runs from March 1-10 and will showcase the work of 147 fashion designers.
The event consists of a core programme of 12 ticketed catwalk shows at the event’s central hub – currently the historic Royal Exhibition Building – alongside a plethora of other events across the city, showcasing Australian and international brands.
Highlights for 2019 include the opening Gala Runway show on March 4 that is dedicated to veteran Australian designer Carla Zampatti and the inaugural Australian Fashion Summit on March 8. Guest speakers for the latter include Global Fashion Exchange founder Patrick Duffy, American plus-size supermodel Ashley Graham and blogger Peter Xu.
