Fashion Week Australia Upset
Two of Australia’s biggest fashion names, Dion Lee and Josh Goot announced that they were withdrawing from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia just two weeks before its opening on April 30. Mind you, the two were just named in a list of ‘‘Australia’s biggest designers” only a few days ago.
So the big question is, Why? According to Smh.com.au, The two labels are choosing to focus on the international fashion calendar rather than Sydney’s. Dion Lee is planning to show at London Fashion Week in September and Josh Goot is planning on presenting a resort collection to international buyers in June. So it’s all about timing. Designers now work with very complicated season schedules and they literally have to choose where and when they show a collection, as the weeks seem to almost overlap. Australia’s fashion week sits between Fall/Winter and Resort showings, making the opportunity more about promotions and not so much about sales. Fashion labels need to make money and present themselves before the most beneficiary audiences, of course, but how does this sit with Australia? Does the fashion community feel abandoned by their homegrown talent?
