Australian Fashion Week takes place once a year in May, essentially kicking off the industry’s resort season. The week-long event sees designers from the country—and neighboring New Zealand—set up shop at Carriageworks, a late 19th century railway workshop that since 2007 has become a hub for artists and creatives. Although the big story going into the week was the lack of so-called “big name designers” like Dion Lee, Zimmermann, and Christopher Esber, all of whom have since decamped to Paris or New York, the week still had plenty of exciting talents.
Because Australian Fashion Week is focused on the resort season and the fact that Australia is seen as an eternal land of sun and surf, there is a (somewhat unfair) expectation that the country’s design scene revolves entirely around swim and sportswear. Sure, those labels have a presence, but there are also young designers mixing fashion with art and performance, eveningwear for femme princesses and femme fatales, and even collections of beautiful modest gowns. Scroll through to get a glimpse at the Australian Fashion Week scene—and .
Theatricality is a big part of Australian Fashion Week, but at the Wackie Ju runway presentation, designer Jackie Wu proved they had the technical chops to back it up. Born in Beijing, Wu moved to Melbourne in their teenage years and later attended the famed RMIT school in the city, where they still live. Wu’s collection was characterized by exacting tailoring in exciting fabrics, .
