The Australian fashion industry has united in support of a new kind of fashion week
The announcement that IMG would exit Australia’s premier fashion event has opened up new opportunities within the industry.
Industry leaders have come together in Sydney to call for a reimagined Australian Fashion Week following news that IMG would exit the event after 20 years.
Jaana Quaintance-James – chief executive of not-for-profit industry body the Australian Fashion Council, which has been instrumental in gathering support – said now was the time for the industry to mobilise.
Speaking at the gathering outside the Sydney Opera House on Monday, Ms Quaintance-James said the fashion and textile industry was worth $28bn to the economy and employed more than 500,000 people.
“I think there’s a lot of shock and disappointment around the announcement of IMG,” she said. “But I think it’s really affirming that it’s a really critical moment for the fashion industry and that this is a real opportunity for change. While there’s some trepidation and uncertainty, I think there’s also a real positive excitement around what this could be.”
Ms Quaintance-James said the AFC was committed to developing an event for May 2025.
During Monday’s event, the AFC announced a working group for a new fashion week that will include the founder of Australian Fashion Week Simon Lock and members of the fashion industry.
Attendees included fashion designers such as Carla Zampatti chief executive Alex Schuman, Marc Freeman and Camilla Freeman-Topper from Camilla & Marc, Pip Edwards, Adrian Norris from Aje and Bianca Spender.
NSW Arts Minister John Graham, also in attendance, said a reimagined fashion week would need to be industry-led but had the support of government.
The NSW government this year included fashion as part of its Creative Communities policies to support the sector. “We really have been deeply engaged since the Creative Communities policy was launched,” Mr Graham said.
“We’ve been working specifically with fashion as one of the key creative industries, in fact the biggest of the creative industries in NSW. Those discussions highlighted how important it is to have a platform in Sydney for fashion for those designers,” he said.
Fashion week has launched the careers of many of our best-known fashion creatives and “That’s why the government’s committed to backing the industry and the fight to have something here, have that platform,” Mr Graham said.
Spender, daughter of late fashion designer Carla Zampatti, said fashion week played an important role in fostering creativity and she believed this moment presented an opportunity for the industry.
“I’m so excited by this opportunity to really bring the industry together to sculpt what AFW can be,” Spender said. “We’ve had a huge evolution since it started and there really are so many different layers to the industry and thinking with it coming from the vision from the industry, you can just feel that [this] is an initiative that will pave a strong path into the future because there is so much creativity in Australia.”
Edwina McCann, editorial director and publisher for News Prestige and Conde Nast titles in Australia, said having a not-for-profit industry-led approach ensured a transparent and future-fit platform for Australian fashion. “This reset is about the industry working for the designers,” she said. “AFW is an essential launch pad and pathway – the great fashion brands of today were born from this platform.”
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