Industry body Fashion Council WA in administration, following takeover of Perth Fashion Festival

In a blow to the Perth fashion industry, Fashion Council WA has gone into voluntary administration.

Glynis Traill-NashFashion editor

Perth-born model Nicole Trunfio at Optus stadium. Picture: Colin Murty

less than 2 min read

6:12PMMarch 24, 2020

In a blow to the Perth fashion industry, its peak industry body, Fashion Council WA, has gone into voluntary administration.

It follows the Perth Fashion Festival Pty Ltd - a separate company - going into administration in November.

FCWA took over operations of the beleaguered event last year when it lost naming sponsor Telstra. The 2018 event was held at the Optus Stadium.

PFFPL co-owners, founder Mariella Harvey-Hanrahan and Perth businessman Tony Sage, put the company into administration in November, with over 100 creditors said to be owed $819,000.

A model on the catwalk of the 2016 Telstra Perth Fashion Festival. Picture: Stefan Gosatti

Administrators for FCWA, HLB Judd Insolvency WA, said that its administration came after government funding was delayed a week ago.

Between 20 and 30 creditors are owed around $200,000.

Most creditors are within the events space, relating to staging of PFF, which last year operated in a much-reduced capacity.

FCWA has operated for over 20 years, and has helped nurture the geographically isolated local industry and help its designers gain attention both interstate and overseas, especially within Asia.

FCWA chairman Richard Poulson, who has been a board member for over eight years, said in a statement, “We’ve worked very hard to achieve proper corporate governance, had amazing strategic plans, restructured the organisation and we have a solid plan for 2020.

“However as we are all aware, not-for-profit organisations require funding from various sources and unfortunately the economic challenges combined with the serious implications associated with the collapse of PFFPL, have meant that regrettably it was time to make the call.”

Poulson added that “it is time to look to the future and seek other pathways – digital or other collaborative means – to continue to tell the individual stories of WA’s fashion sector”.