Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia reveals Resort 2020 dates

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Nov 30, 2018

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia (MBFWA) returns to Sydney in 2019 for the region's most prominent and emerging designers showcasing their Resort 2020 collections, event organisers IMG said on Wednesday.

Scheduled to run May 12-17, Australia's official industry fashion week will be held once again at Carriageworks, with an official designer lineup to be released at a later date.

In its 24th year, MBFWA is fast becoming a must-attend industry event for fashion professionals including foreign editors, and global retailers and buyers, as the latest in leading Australian design is presented for the first time during the event.

In past years, major Australian fashion exports Dion Lee and Ellery have returned to show their collections, despite having already showed that season in New York and Paris, respectively.

In 2017 and 2018, the event recorded a 35% increase in international media attendance, with a 5% increase in global buyer attendance, and 13% increase in designer participation. The increase was seen both on the runway and via The Suites, a curated onsite showroom offering designers a new forum to present their collections, said IMG, adding the positive change made three years ago to make the event exclusively Resort, a world-first in the fashion world.

"The event’s continued growth underscores the value of its 2016 repositioning, which established Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia as the world’s first Fashion Week focused exclusively on Resort Collections,” said Natalie Xenita, Executive Director, IMG Fashion Asia-Pacific.

“We’ve since seen double to triple-digit growth across designer participation, international media and buyer attendance.”

In addition to the fashion week dates, IMG announced that online applications are now open for St.George NextGen, a program to support and mentor emerging Australian fashion designers.

Participating designers will be selected by a panel of industry experts, with winners announced in February 2019. The four designers will also show as part of the NextGen runway show at MBFWA 2019.

As part of the prize, each will receive mentoring, industry networking opportunities, exposure to MBFWA’s attending buyers, as well as marketing, publicity, digital and social media support.

Previous winners include Camilla and Marc, Kate Sylvester, Gorman, Sass and Bide and Akira.