For as long as I have remembered, I have loved fashion. Since I first got my Vogue Australia subscription for Christmas when I was 17, I have dreamed of one day attending Fashion Week. This year, I decided to cash in one of my weeks of leave at work and attend Melbourne Fashion Week. After a couple of days of relaxation, because I was taking leave off work for a reason other than MFW, I filled my schedule for a whirlwind to days of events, exhibitions and screenings.
Wednesday afternoon - Dries screening at ACMI
I always love fashion documentaries. Being able to go behind the scenes of collections, an edition of Vogue or a fashion exhibition is something that never fails to bring me goosebumps. Sadly, I missed Dries at the Melbourne International Film Festival, so when I saw it would be showing at ACMI with MFW, it was the first event on my list.
Dries was a great insight into the work of Dries Van Noten. It was a look into some of his most recent collections, while also reflecting on some of the collections from the past 30 years. To see how he has grown as a designer, learning from his mistakes and still staying true to himself and his vision is inspiring.
Wednesday evening - Premium Runway Five at Melbourne Town Hall
Wednesday night I went to my first runway show. The most amazing thing happened. I had bought one of the cheaper tickets for the balcony, but I was in the front row and I was happy just to even be there. When I showed my ticket to go upstairs, the person checking the tickets asked if I was by myself and if I wanted a better seat. I was like, sure thing. Turns out the seat was in the second row! It was a dream to be able to sit that close to the runway.
Mesa Jacket and Calma Skirt from Búl
Paloma dress from Kate Sylvester
As I was paying for all of my tickets to events out of my own pocket, I knew I could only go to one show. I chose Premium Runway Five, which featured Gorman, Kuwaii, Búl, Kate Sylvester, LIFEwithBIRD and Alice McCall. I have always loved Alice McCall, and the only designer I didn't know much of was New Zealand designer Kate Sylvester. All of the collections featured items I loved! Gorman presented a wearable spring garden perfect for the warmer weather to come. Kuwaii's basics looked sleek and comfortable at the same time. Búl's collection brought in a reminiscence of Spain blended in to the American West. The 80's inspiration and dusty rose from LIFEwithBIRD had me wishing for warmer days, and Kate Sylvester and Alice McCall both showed off their use of lace and embroidery that is positively dreamy. Whoever said florals for Spring were overdone clearly hasn't seen these collections.
Karina Jumpsuit from Princess Highway | Lora heels from Novo
Cherry Blossom Bomber and Cherry Blossom Skirt from Gorman
Mesa Jacket and Calma Skirt from Búl
Paloma dress from Kate Sylvester
As I was paying for all of my tickets to events out of my own pocket, I knew I could only go to one show. I chose Premium Runway Five, which featured Gorman, Kuwaii, Búl, Kate Sylvester, LIFEwithBIRD and Alice McCall. I have always loved Alice McCall, and the only designer I didn't know much of was New Zealand designer Kate Sylvester. All of the collections featured items I loved! Gorman presented a wearable spring garden perfect for the warmer weather to come. Kuwaii's basics looked sleek and comfortable at the same time. Búl's collection brought in a reminiscence of Spain blended in to the American West. The 80's inspiration and dusty rose from LIFEwithBIRD had me wishing for warmer days, and Kate Sylvester and Alice McCall both showed off their use of lace and embroidery that is positively dreamy. Whoever said florals for Spring were overdone clearly hasn't seen these collections.
Thursday afternoon - MFW Exhibitions
As a lover of both art and fashion, I am a major sucker for a fashion exhibition. There were a few on as part of the Melbourne Fashion Week festivities. Claire and I managed to make it two of them: Creative Collective presented by Creative Victoria, and Imagined presented by FashionMasters.
Creative Collective exhibition
Casssie Karacsay, Imagined exhibition
Creative Collective certainly was an interesting exhibition. With a maze of white drop sheets and a haunting soundtrack, it was quite an experience. Some works were completely exposed while others were hidden behind a screen and could only be viewed by peering through a hole in the barrier. Ultimately, despite the fact that it threw me off with its new way of presenting fashion (from what I have previously experienced) I enjoyed how unexpected it was.
Imagined was a small exhibition located in one of the studios at the FashionMasters school on Spring Street. It showed some of the works from the designers featured in last years' Student Runway. My favourite work was by Cassie Karacsay (picture above). The modern elegance and detail was beautiful.
Thursday evening - Australian Fashion Film Awards screening
Silk tie-shoulder peplum top from J Crew | Gingham pants from Zara (similar)
Thursday evening I attended the screening of films submitted for the Australian Fashion Film Awards. The screening started with a small number of Australian films (around 5 or so all up) and then showed a number of international submissions. The Australian films were not the best, but you can see that the talent is definitely breaking out slowly. I hope next year there will be more Australian-made films in the mix. My favourite films were Burberry's festive film from 2016, The 'The Tale of Thomas Burberry' (10 months on and I still love it), 'Cinderella' directed by Sophia Banks, Three Apostles for Zeynep Tosun and 'Elle Fanning's Fan Fantasy' from Vogue.
I had such an amazing time being able to experience Melbourne Fashion Week for the first time. It has been a lot of fun. If anything, it has solidified in me that I love fashion so much that sometimes I cannot even put it into words. It will forever continue to be a passion of mine.
I am already counting down the days for the Melbourne Fashion Festival in Autumn!
Love from Australia,
Grace.
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