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Australian fashion

This Month

Indigo Stuart (far right) and Ethan Bergersen (far left), both winners of the Australian Fashion Fund Scholarship awards with their winning designs worn by models.

The young Aussie designers who could be the next Zimmermann

Zero-waste weaving and old blankets helped Ethan Bergersen and Indigo Stuart take home the $31,000 Australian Fashion Foundation Scholarship Award.

  • Updated
  • Lauren Sams

Fashion Week is back, with surprise faces from the past

In fashion, everything old is new again. While Australian Fashion Week waits for a permanent sponsor, an old hand has returned to steer it back to glory.

  • Lauren Sams
Fashion wholesaler Jenny Nakkan will bring trade show Splash Paris to Sydney next year, to revive the local industry.

Fashion Week might be over, but Australian designers have a new show

Growing a brand internationally is expensive and time-consuming, but Jenny Nakkan has a solution for that.

  • Lauren Sams
Maggie Tabberer.

‘She transcended age and time’: fashion icon remembered

Trailblazing model and designer Maggie Tabberer, who was known for her distinctive style and inclusive sense of fashion, has died at 87.

  • Lauren Sams

November

Lesleigh Jermanus of Alemais won the Designer of the Year award

The winners at the last Australian Fashion Laureate awards

The sun – and the local industry – came out to celebrate Australian fashion one last time.

  • Lauren Sams
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Models pose backstage at Australian Fashion Week in May 2024.

Industry steps in to save Fashion Week – for a year, at least

When funding was pulled for the 28-year-old event last week, the industry was left in a state of shock. Now, it’s rallying.

  • Lauren Sams
The Alix Higgins runway show for Australian Fashion Week in 2024.

Fashion Week in limbo as IMG exits Australian events

The New York-based company that has run the event for the past 20 years says it will stop running events in the country.

  • Lauren Sams

August

425 stores in 54 countries: How this Aussie brand rapidly expanded

The first time Lesleigh Jermanus went to Australian Fashion Week, she was an intern. The second time, her label Alemais was the opening show.

  • Lauren Sams

July

Mary Lou Ryan (left) and Deborah Sams, of bassike.

Bassike third local fashion business to lose a co-founder this year

Bassike co-founder Mary Lou Ryan is leaving the business she helped create.

  • Lauren Sams
An artist’s impression of Goodman’s Rosebery Engine Yards development.

Not an outlet store: how fashion brands are making discounting cool

With the opening of a new “luxury discount” precinct in Sydney, local retailers are trying to make sales fashionable.

  • Lauren Sams

June

Sydney-based designer Christopher Esber at the ANDAM Fashion Awards in Paris on Thursday.

Christopher Esber first Australian to win French fashion accolade

The Sydney designer has won the prestigious ANDAM Grand Prize, taking home more than $400,000 in prize money.

  • Lauren Sams
Country Road Group is the latest major retailer to close its stores in the wake of coronavirus.

Country Road owner probes claim suppliers pressured into ‘rebates’

Woolworths Holdings has engaged a law firm to investigate whether managers improperly pushed for price cuts, threatening to buy less, to meet earnings targets.

  • Carrie LaFrenz and Jonathan Shapiro

May

At Australian Fashion Week in early May, the industry was galvanised for the future. By the month’s end,  things are looking bleaker.

‘No guarantee that a sale is a sale’: Why fashion is harder than ever

Growing costs, post-pandemic pain, excess spending and the bugbear of online returns are at the heart of a fashion industry on the brink.

  • Lauren Sams
Designer Anna Hoang

Why Fashion Week is still important

Its star power dimmed, the week that used to be about celebrating Australian fashion is now a carefully calibrated exercise about return on investment.

  • Lauren Sams
Margie Woods

The 20-year-old brand making its fashion week debut

The woman behind Melbourne born-and-bred cool girl label Viktoria & Woods says it’s finally time to reach a wider audience.

  • Lauren Sams
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Rebecca Vallance in her new store at the Strand Arcade in Sydney.

‘New York polish, Ballarat work ethic’: the designer creating an empire

Other Australian brands are struggling. So what’s Rebecca Vallance doing right?

  • Lauren Sams

March

How Blundstone quietly conquered Britain

A decade ago only Aussies in London wore Blunnies. Now they’re ubiquitous, and are a lifestyle choice as much as a work boot. Appealing to women was key to success.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Aje has gained a cult following for its hyper-feminine, colourful dresses.

Cult label Aje cuts 20 staff after massive stock clearance

The fashion label has let a number of senior staff go, but its co-founder says the move is simply a restructure and that the business is trading as usual.

  • Lauren Sams and Sarah Thompson
Tigerlily has fallen into administration for the second time.

Private equity-backed swimwear group Tigerlily collapses

For the second time in four years, the company founded by Jodhi Meares has gone under. Its owner, Crescent Capital, tried to sell the retailer last year.

  • Updated
  • Carrie LaFrenz

January

RM Williams CEO Paul Grosmann, and chief commercial officer Steven Woolley outside the company’s shop in Soho, London.

What R.M. Williams plans to do next

NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg wears them, British Security Minister Tom Tugendhat is a fan, and so is House of Lords member Mark Sedwill. It’s no surprise the next stop for the Andrew Forrest-owned bootmaker is Europe.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen

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