Exhibit honours 15 years of fashion week

20 April 2010

A new exhibition opens this week celebrating 15 years of Australia's leading fashion event. Taking place from 22 April to 29 August at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum, Frock Stars promises an inside look at the history, highlights, controversies and achievements of Australian Fashion Week.

With a catwalk of fifteen seminal Australian Fashion Week outfits from the first shows in 1996 to the present touted as a highlight of the exhibition, Frock Stars will set the tone for this year's Fashion Week, which takes place at Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal from May 3 to 7.

A fashion week spokesperson said the exhibition would be just one of "many exciting events" taking place to celebrate the fifteenth birthday.

"It's going to be a great fashion week, celebrating how the event has evolved and grown over the years."

She also dismissed recent pre-event coverage claiming local designers had ‘defected' from fashion week. According to reports in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Collette Dinnigan, Carla Zampatti, Sass & Bide, Leona Edmiston, Willow and Akira were among a number of labels that have decided not to take part.

However the spokesperson said it was understandable for some designers not to be at fashion week.

"Designers can't be in several places at once."

The presence of designers such as Brunsdon and Perry, along with industry stalwarts including Zimmerman and Lisa Ho, confirmed fashion week was going strong in its fifteenth year, she said.

"We've also got new generation labels like Dion Lee, Therese Rawsthorne [pictured], Romance Was Born and Gary Bigeni, all of whom have evolved as designers since first showing. Dion Lee has his own show this year and recently clinched a deal with David Jones, so the mood is really upbeat and exciting. There are some great stories coming out of fashion week."

 

 

 

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