PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival has announced a partnership with Australian Made, to elevate Australian fashion to international audiences.
The new partnership builds on the international engagement the event garnered in March 2021 through its hybrid online and physical program.
To capitalise on this, the Festival will launch a dedicated shoppable digital runway as well as virtual Shop The Runway magazine to UK and USA customers.
Featured designers on the digital runway include Bassike, Bianca Spender, Bec & Bridge, Bondi Born, Arnsdorf, Manning Cartell, Strateas Carlucci, Macgraw, MAARA Collective and Viktoria & Woods.
Shot at Cranbourne Royal Botanical Gardens, the digital runway will showcase pieces that have been licensed to carry the Australian Made logo.
Australian Made CEO Ben Lazzaro said the organisation was thrilled to showcase the best of Australian Made fashion overseas.
"Australian Made is proud to partner with the PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival and shine a light on some of Australia’s leading fashion designers and makers.
"Australian fashion and accessory products are well known for their high quality and our makers have a reputation for producing world-class designs with sustainability and ethical production at their core.
"We are excited to be able to help champion many of these makers to a global audience and provide a channel to market for them," he said.
Meanwhile, the virtual Shop The Runway magazine will also showcase and profile the best of Australian makers within the fashion industry.
It will also be rolled out across the UK and USA, targeting fashion savvy viewers, giving them an opportunity to access genuine Australian products that carry the Australian Made logo.
PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival acting CEO Yolanda Finch welcomed the partnership with Australian Made.
"The Festival has long played a role in promoting Australian fashion to international markets, including working with both State and Federal levels of Government as the fashion voice of creative diplomacy missions over many years, including to Asia, UK, and USA.
"The partnership with Australian Made will further support our Australian made designers and showcase them on a global stage, growing an international network of advocacy for Australian made fashion.
"This is the natural next fashion step forward," she said.
The Festival's partnership with Australian Made comes as research by Horizon Consumer Science found that 97% of respondents have a positive first impression with the Australian Made logo.
85% indicated that they feel confident that products carrying the logo were genuinely Australian, while 72% said they become more interested in a product because it had the logo.
According to the findings, the main reasons international consumers buy Australian fashion and accessories are quality, reputation and ethical standards.
The 35-year-old Australian Made kangaroo logo is the only registered country-of-origin certification trademark for genuine Australian products.
PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival will run from March 3 to 12.
The Australian Made Runway will be available to watch and shop from 10.00pm (AEDT) on Wednesday March 9 via the Festival's social channels and on the Melbourne Fashion Festival website.