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This year's Australian Fashion Week will see one of the smallest contingents of Kiwi designers ever, as top labels from both sides of the Tasman snub it in favour of more prestigious events.
Due to kick off in Sydney on April 30, Australian Fashion Week has long been considered an essential showcase for our best and brightest fashion designers, launching Karen Walker and Zambesi on to the international stage.
But flying the Kiwi flag appears to have lost some of its glamour. For the first time in over a decade, only two New Zealand design houses will appear on Sydney's runway.
Big-name local no-shows include Trelise Cooper, World, NOM*D and Kate Sylvester, while high-profile Aussie designers Charlie Brown and Alannah Hill have also pulled out. Several others - Akira Isogawa, Mad Cortes, Lover, Leona Edmiston and Willow - are staging their own show in a Sydney mansion the night before the official five-day event.
World's Francis Hooper, who last year described Australian Fashion Week as "very important", told the Herald on Sunday last week the label now had bigger fish to fry. Despite Australia taking 71 per cent of New Zealand's clothing exports, top designers tended to focus on "international" Northern Hemisphere events. Sydney's fashion week, showing spring/summer collections, was generally considered "small and regional". Hooper said World was currently putting a collection together for a show in Paris in June.
Established designer Annah Stretton will be on the catwalk in Australia for the first time this year, along with Trade and Enterprise-backed young designer Cybele. Also backed by Trade and Enterprise, up-and-coming labels Beth Ellery, Juliette Hogan, Lonely Hearts Club, Love Lies Bleeding and Saben will present their collections.
Stretton said it was "no big deal" that some of the better known labels weren't attending.
