Melbourne Fashion Festival
The Melbourne Fashion Festival, officially PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival for sponsorship reasons, is a not-for-profit fashion festival founded in 1996. The organization showcases the profile of Australian designers locally and globally PayPal is its principal partner and currently owns the naming rights. It was previously known as the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival.
The Festival aims to showcase diversity on its runways, enforcing no animal fur, and helping democratize traditional fashion events. The festival possesses a consumer-focused operational model, a 'see now buy now' approach, with clothing worn on the runway available for immediate purchase.
The Festival provides fashion runway shows, business-related seminars and workshops, entertainment, and music performance across Melbourne. It is part of the Victorian Major Events calendar, seeking to drive tourism in Melbourne as well as promote Melbourne's existing reputation for fashion.[1] Over 15% of its public ticketing comes from outside of Melbourne's state of Victoria.
The Festival is held annually in mid-to-late March.
Controversy
In 2023, the festival caused controversy after models wore material printed in Arabic spelling out "Allah walk with me". The Australian National Imams Council condemned the inclusion of the phrase as it featured on "transparent" garments.[2]
The garments were designed by the label Not A Man's Dream, which was subsequently removed by festival organizers. An apology was also released for allowing the garments to be displayed and offense it caused.[2]
References
- Brydges, Taylor; Heinze, Lisa; Retamal, Monique (May 2021). "Changing geographies of fashion during COVID‐19: The Australian case". Geographical Research. 59 (2): 206–216. doi:10.1111/1745-5871.12460. ISSN 1745-5863. PMC 8014218.
- Ward, Roy; Singer, Melissa (2023-03-12). "'Discourtesy, disrespectful': Festival apologises for 'Allah' garments on runway". The Age. Retrieved 2023-03-12.