Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Australia starts Monday – are you excited? We are! We’ve got all the behind-the-scenes news, from the live-streaming that’s taking MBFW into the 22nd century to the insanely cool supermodels stomping the runway. Read on for your fashion fix!
This year the fashion weeks have all gone high-tech. And if you think Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Sydney is going to miss out, you’re dreaming.
IMG have announced a partnership with JASU.com to live-stream all the shows – backstage passes for everybody with a web connection.
The runway at Carriageworks will be broadcast live, and it’s thanks to the City Of Sydney and some very far-reaching technology.
If you don’t have a ticket and can’t sit at home, fear not – there’s a special viewing site set up in Martin Place, with a Pelicano bar, live DJs and insanely chic cocktails. It’s Fashion Week partying at its best, only without the guest list – everybody’s welcome.
This live-stream is all the more important for MBFW, because Sydney is too far to travel for many buyers and fashion editors – so IMG and JASU are bringing the fashion to them. They’re hoping that the on-screen experience will make the distance melt away, and raise peoples’ appetites for buying Australian fashions for overseas stores.
The shows streamed, including Ginger & Smart and Camilla And Marc, won’t actually be in stores till August, so it’s a unique chance to get your fashion fix before it ever shows up in shops. In fact, it’s the proper elite Fashion Week experience, and we hope it leads to huge exposure by Aussie brands who could really appeal to overseas tastes.
The high-tech edge doesn’t end there, either: there’s a special app, Stackla, being implemented for Fashion Week consumers to see the clothes in real time.
Getting into the action on Twitter? Follow the hashtag #MBFWA for all the action, and check out @MBFWA for gossip – plus the show organisers are Instagramming over at @mbfashionweek.
Go to mbfashionweek.com.au for the streamings!
Julia Nobis may not be a household name, but she certainly holds attention in the fashion world.
Not every young Australian model walks for Dior, after all.
And now Nobis has been confirmed as walking for Phoenix Keating, alongside fellow high-end catwalker Ruby Jean Wilson. Both are massive coups: even though it’s no longer show season in Europe, both are busy shooting campaigns and magazine editorials, so they must have been well-lured to return Down Under.
Nobis is a particular show-stopper: she’s in the top 20 models in the world right now, according to Models.com, the arbiter of such things, and has worked for everybody from Balenciaga to Burberry.
Wilson is no slouch either: she’s a favourite of Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton.
It’s always excellent when true catwalk giants return to their roots – so we suspect Phoenix Keating will get exactly what he bargained for when the paparazzi swarm…
Image: Julia Nobis strutting for Dior.
Jayson Brunsdon is 10 years old – and his show will be attended by a fitting amount of guests.
900, to be exact.
It’s a sign of the times for Brunsdon, who has only soared in popularity since he launched in 2003 – and the show is going to be a blockbuster.
Set in the Carriageworks, it’s apparently going to be inspired by cinema and couture, winding the two together into an experience that nobody will forget.
We’re all ears for whispers of the designs, but only know that the runway will be black and that the show will focus on ‘contrasting colours’ and ‘mid-century couture shapes.’
For the fashion-unversed, that means big skirts and nipped waists – a favourite look of all ladies of shape. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with for his decade anniversary.
Image: Brunsdon surrounded by models.
Talulah are a long-standing favourite at Fashion Week: this is their third showing and it’s always packed.
Now they’re adding to the wow factor by launching a new swimwear line, Talulah Swim.
It’s all about prints: the head designer said that they’d transitioned because the prints translated well into bikinis and one-pieces, and we can’t disagree.
It’s not for the shrinking violet, either. Neons, clashes and brilliant colour notes are apparently a huge part of the swimwear line – we suspect the front row will wear sunglasses.
Are you looking forward to Talulah Swim?
Image: Talulah 2013.
Sydneysider Leroy Nguyen only graduated from TAFE in 2012, but he’s already made some very influential friends in fashion.
Now he’ll be the opening act at MBFW’s Design School Group Show, debuting his second collection, The Candy Shop.
The collection that got him noticed was called Natural Born Killers – a futuristic, clean set with lines that stood beautifully away from the body.
And it got him places: he’s been interviewed in Vogue Australia, asked mentor Peter Morrissey for advice on the pages of Rag Trader, and featured in major editorials over at Harper’s Bazaar.
Not bad for a guy who was only finishing his final collection within the last year.
What do we love about Nguyen’s work? That it’s fresh – one of his jackets was picked out by Aussie street style snapper Candice Lake at London Fashion Week, and made it onto the blog of Teen Vogue.
The Candy Shop is apparently all Willy Wonka, all the time- but not in the crazy Romance Was Born sense. Apparently it’s focussed on the future of fashion: digital prints.
We’re guessing some big things will happen very fast for Nguyen, so we’ll keep you posted as his show career starts with a bang this Fashion Week…
Image: Leroy Nguyen in Harper’s Bazaar.