Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week final line-up announced

A MONTH to go and a roll call of fashion’s newbies has been announced for the Mercedes-Benz sponsored Fashion Week from April 8.  

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week 2013

WHAT do Vanishing Elephant, The Letter Q, Serpant & The Swan and Phoenix Keating have in common?

All are hoping to play their part in helping the Australian fashion industry out of the retail doldrums.

A month to go and a roll call of fashion’s newbies has been announced for the Mercedes-Benz sponsored Fashion Week from April 8.

The industry event is coupled with a week of champagne swilling, air-kissing, blogging and some serious critiquing.

Today, event orgnasiers IMG announced the official fashion week schedule with a line up of rising talent, established brands and some returning designers who will take centre stage at Sydney’s Carriageworks.

“Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia provides an unrivalled platform for Australia’s design talent,’’ says Jarrad Clark, Director of Global Production, IMG Fashion Events and Properties. 

“(The talent) will showcase their vision to a worldwide audience beyond the event’s physical footprint and into the digital world with over half a million followers, fans and conversationalists. 

“This season’s event will take place at our new home and be opened by Camilla and Marc in honor of their ten year anniversary. Additionally, Jayson Brunsdon will also celebrate 10 years of his eponymous label, and Aurelio Costarella will join an illustrious few marking 30 years in the business in 2013.’’

Alex Perry will also return to fashion week alongside a number of designers making their debut, including Christina Exie, Zhivago, Surface Too Deep and Kahlo.

Like all years, talk will turn to the designers who have decided not to show as with some runway extravaganzas costing $100,000 to stage, the investment needs to be sound.

Carriageworks plans to welcome over 25,000 guests over the course of the event, including a fashion trade fair ‘Premiere’, giving industry guests access to additional designer, footwear and accessory brands. 

The line up for the individual collection shows at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia includes:

SOLO SHOWS:

AJE, ALEX PERRY, ALICE MCCALL, AURELIO COSTARELLA, BEC & BRIDGE, BLESS’ED ARE THE MEEK, BRONX & BANCO, BY JOHNNY, CAMILLA, CAMILLA AND MARC, CHRISTINA EXIE, CHRISTOPHER ESBER, EASTON PEARSON, GINGER & SMART, HAN, HARYONO SETIADI, JAYSON BRUNSDON, KAHLO, KATE SYLVESTER, KARLA SPETIC, LISA HO, MANNING CARTELL, MATICEVSKI, MICHAEL LO SORDO, PHOENIX KEATING, ROMANCE WAS BORN, ROOPA PEMMARAJU, SERPENT & THE SWAN, SHAKUHACHI, STAPLE THE LABEL, SUBOO, TALULAH, VANISHING ELEPHANT, WATSON X WATSON, WE ARE HANDSOME, WHITE SANDS and ZAMBESI. 

GROUP SWIMWEAR SHOW

GYPSEA, MAIDENLOVE, and SURFACE TOO DEEP. 

New Generation designers include: 

BETTY TRAN, DESERT DESIGNS, FADDOUL, JAMIE ASHKAR, NATALIE & SARAH, THE LETTER Q, TRISTAN MELLE and ZHIVAGO. 

The Innovators will feature graduate collections from: 

ELISSA MCGOWAN, INDER DHILLON, LEROY NGUYEN, PAUL SCOTT, VINH NGUYEN and YING YUAN and Raffles (fashion school) will showcase collections from: AURELIA EVELYN SANTOSO, AYAKA ICHIKAWA, DIYANA KOSSO, GABRIEL LEE, NARA, VIRGINIA KILLORY LIU. 

Follow Melissa on Twitter at @melissahoyer