Designer royalty celebrate 30 years of fashion week with intimate dinner
The faces of Australian design united for one evening during Australian Fashion Week.
Vogue Australia and Soho House on Tuesday came together in a fortified show of support for Australian design and a celebration of Australia’s best. At Catalina restaurant in Rose Bay, local designers, including Nicky Zimmermann joined hands to champion the nation and its creative output. Members of the community came out to support, with Pip Edwards, creative director of Ksubi, Adrian Norris and Edwina Forest, founders of Aje, Michael Lo Sordo, founder and creative director of the eponymous brand Michael Lo Sordo, and Alex Schuman, CEO of Carla Zampatti, all attending.
Co-founder of Sass and Bide, Sarah-Jane Clarke was also there and spoke to the significance of the affair, as well as the history of many other collaborative efforts like this one.
“Those fashion dinners were so important,” she said, “They served as a celebration of creative talent while fostering meaningful connections and friendships throughout the industry, particularly in an era before social media. The gatherings strengthened not only personal relationships but also cultivated a collective understanding that the fashion world had room for everyone, reinforcing the importance of mutual support within our fashion community.”
Edwina McCann, editorial director of Vogue and News Prestige added, “Without the design talent there is no fashion week, no fashion magazines, or PRs or hair and makeup artists working backstage — our design talent are the genesis of it all. It’s important that we celebrate them, and create an opportunity for the next generation to meet the legends such as Nicky Zimmerman, Collette Dinnigan, Akira Isogawa or Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton. There is no other occasion which brings designers all together to swap notes, experiences and support one another.”
The celebration coincided with Australian Fashion Week becoming an industry-led event, mirroring London Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week, after previous owners IMG pulled out unceremoniously last year.
Following a successful first full day of fashion week, guests sampled a three-course culinary feast with curated cocktails. Dan Fontaine’s five-piece orchestra accompanied the experience, merging a symphonic odyssey with a contemporary twist for the ages. Haloed under the lights curated by Mandylights’ Richard Neville, the restaurant — and its creative forces dining within — was bathed in a rosy glow.
Engineered as an extension of the Soho House experience, the event precedes the opening of an Australian outpost — slated to be located a slingshot away from Oxford Street in the heart of Darlinghurst.
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