Australian Fashion Week: Jodie Haydon jumps in with some fashion fixes

The Australian fashion industry gathered at Kirribilli House to discuss new technologies and opportunities to collaborate.

From left, Adrian Jones of Blocktexx, AFC chief executive Jaana Quaintance-James, Meriel Chamberlin of Full Circle Fibres, Jodie Haydon and APC chair Marianne Perkovic.

Jodie Haydon, the fiancee of ­Anthony Albanese, has joined ­forces with the Australian Fashion Council to help pitch solutions to some of the challenges faced by the ­industry during a showcase event at Kirribilli House.

The event highlighted Australian technological innovations to address ­issues such as waste or provide new production methods.

AFC chief executive Jaana Quaintance-James said the sustainability and innovation showcase was also an opportunity to flex the might of the Australian fashion industry.

“What I would love to achieve under this event is recognition of that homegrown ­innovation in Australia,” she said.

Attended by some of the fashion industry’s top designers, including Mary-Lou Ryan (bassike), Pip Edwards (PE Nation), Kit Willow Podgornik (KitX) and Camilla Freeman-Topper and Marc Freeman (Camilla and Marc), the event was an opportunity for different sectors to find ways to collaborate.

It’s something Ms Quaintance-James says is essential. “I really want to make sure we are … bringing everybody – industry, government and our industry allies – together to really try and tackle some of the things that make it more difficult for our industry to succeed,” she said.

“Let’s come together as an ­industry and think more positively and strategically about how we ­invest in the right way to support retaining some Australian manufacturing.”

Adrian Jones, co-founder of Blocktexx, an Australian technology company that recycles ­textiles to produce new fibres and connects manufacturers with ­retailers, believes more collaboration and investment is essential.

“I’m pleased that there’s events such as this,” he said. “The Australian fashion industry needs to recognise it has skills here onshore to help and support it, and it doesn’t currently. If we’re going to be ­really successful as a small ­island on the bottom of the world, but with a large level of consumption and a high degree of waste, we’ve got to do something different.”

In February Blocktexx raised $7m and is in talks with several major players in the international fashion industry to utilise its ­technology. Mr Jones would like more Australian companies to follow suit.

Meriel Chamberlin, founder of social enterprise Full Circle Fibres which in 2023 became one of ­fashion retailer Country Road’s Climate Fund recipients for her Mud to Marle project transforming low-value Australian wool and cotton into a natural yarn, said there was real capability to create and scale low environmental impact solutions in Australia because many of them already existed.

“Everybody thinks we need to invent new things,” she said. “It’s like we didn’t used to make this much waste … we actually have a lot of practical, scalable answers, now, it’s just [to] use them means we have to do things in a more considered way.”

This included, she said, finding ways of working between different textile businesses – from fashion designers to those making school uniforms and hospital scrubs.

Margie Woods, founder and creative director of Australian fashion label Viktoria & Woods, which next week will mark its 20th anniversary with a debut at Australian Fashion Week, said producing predominantly in Australia, using merino wool, was important but it came with challenges. “As we continue to grow, the local manufacturing industry is declining, limited by machinery and specialist skills,” she said.

Australian Fashion Week, presented by Pandora, runs in Sydney from May 13 -17.