Graeme Lewsey was appointed as the new CEO of the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF) in March last year. Daniela Aroche profiles Lewsey ahead of the 2012 instalment.
Graeme Lewsey readily admits he’s “no wallflower”. And, given the media attention that surrounded his appointment to the newly-created position of CEO for the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion
Festival (LMFF) – that’s probably a good thing.
“I’m the kind of person that is always happy to have a chat, lots of energy. I’m not a shy person and I’m no wallflower,” he says. “My strengths lie in goal-setting and planning and I think
also in experience now, but one of my weaknesses is that I’m also very passionate – probably overly passionate.”
It is these characteristics which make Lewsey stand out as more than just a suit. It’s probably also what caught the eye of one of his first employers, UK-based designer Paul Smith, who,
realising his untapped potential, herded a 20-something Lewsey into a role as junior press officer for his brand. This, Lewsey says, was most likely the beginning of his transition from
fledgling RMIT fashion design graduate – Lewsey studied at the Melbourne-based institute in the 1980’s – to the formidable force in the fashion industry that he has now become.
“I won the Australian Designer of the Year awards in my final year at RMIT [1986], which offered an incredible introduction and opportunity to work within the fashion industry in Europe on
scholarship. After that, I ended up back in London and wasn’t quite sure what to do, so I slugged my portfolio around London looking for work as a fledgling designer,” he tells.
“I ended up working in Covent Garden for Paul Smith in the store and it was Paul himself that pulled me to one side and really helped mentor me more into the business, publicity and marketing side of fashion. He invited me to take up the role as a junior press officer, which I relished and totally loved, and that was really a big part of my sabbatical and inroads into fashion.”
Now, after 14 years at the helm of Australian Fashion Week’s marketing machine in Sydney, Lewsey has moved back permanently to his birth city of Melbourne, and is preparing to take his
legacy to the next level. His new focus – maximising the potential of the largest consumer fashion festival in the world. To many, this might seem a significant challenge – LMFF has been
running successfully for 15 years – but for Lewsey it’s a piece of cake compared to his days as a aspiring designer.
“Professionally and personally, I don’t think this is one of my greatest challenges to date – I actually think some of the most challenging times for me was when I was a young designer to be really honest,” he says. “It was certainly one of the most challenging periods of my life, and even in my role now, where I’m a little bit wiser and little more experienced, I still remember those days and I think that’s why I’m extremely conscious of how we can try and improve that position and have some stronger designers emerge.”
It’s with these memories in mind that Lewsey has taken the reins of LMFF, and while the festival itself remains a core focus, Lewsey is also looking at the bigger picture – increasing support for designers and retailers - and priming the event with a view to taking it global.
“Initially LMFF was termed a consumer fashion festival many years ago, but this is not just a consumer event, so understanding what we could do to be of better service to the industry was
one of the first things I did when I started this role,” Lewsey says. “And that really means talking about what goes on behind LMFF – the festival is just really one of the many things we do
365 days of the year. That’s the untold story and I think that’s also the area of growth that you’ll be able to see move so quickly in the next few years to come. Because while the festival
is certainly our key vehicle and the jewel in our crown and in the major events crown for Victoria, we are doing many other things around that and hoping to do many other things going
forward.”
These initiatives will include ramping up the ‘Designer Resources’ division at LMFF, a service launched this year, specifically for designers and retailers. So far, Lewsey has added an
industry resource page within the LMFF website which contains content sourced exclusively for page members from LMFF partners and others within the industry. This includes trend reports from trend forecasting agency WGSN, information on industry jobs, news from industry publications, legal advice from Middletons and more, and there are plans to boost the service further in 2012.
On an international scale, Lewsey reveals that the evolution of LMFF will include increasing its reputation around the world, not just in terms of the event, but also for the industry itself.
“We do see a responsibility to constantly be flying the flag for Australian designers and we are looking at increasing our international reputation. For example, we have been invited by the
British Fashion Council to represent Australia as part of London Fashion Week next year, and it’s an incredible opportunity,” he says.
“Generically, these sorts of things are effectively trade missions to assist the industry, and we have done and will continue to do things like that around the world and regularly.”
Back on home ground, Lewsey has also concentrated on improving the Melbourne-based event this year by boosting the business events series, adding associated travel packages via an innovative ‘Retail Tourism’ strategy and travel packages for ticket holders, and creating a Cultural Program to to “inspire, engage and provoke”.
Lewsey reveals the festival will also help promote other opportunities for retailers around the event, such as showrooms run by Thibaud Cau-Cecile, founder of niche trade show The Wearer’s Right.
“The Wearer’s Right will be running a clever concept of showroom space where designers who are participating as part of LMFF program can also look at doing some appointments in a really cool environment,” Lewsey says. “LMFF is really very much an umbrella event as well, so obviously if we think certain things are going to be of benefit to the industry, then we’ll bring them in as part of our core programming. And this again is us looking at how to improve the whole festival experience – not just for consumers, but for retailers as well.”
However, as expected in the field of fashion, appearance is important – and this year, Lewsey has also altered the event’s look via cutting-edge promotional campaign that clearly communicates the festival’s change in direction, and leadership.
“One of the key things that Grant [Pearce] started last year was just trying to create a bigger sense of accessibility to the festival, so that people understood that they could go to it, and I really wanted to take that one step further,” Lewsey explains.
The end result has manifested as a noticeable shift in direction for the festival creative campaign, with celebrity ambassadors switched in favor of Australian talent. Shot by an Australian photographer, the 2012 LMFF campaign was headlined by local models Myf Shepherd, Nicole Trunfio and Alexandra Agoston, showcasing Australian designer collections.
The creative also incorporated a long line up of Australian talent, dubbed “Friends of the Festival”, including artist Vincent Fantauzzo, principal dancer for The Australian Ballet Andrew
Killian, restaurateur Sharon van Haandel, blogger, personal shopper and stylist Micah Gianneli, DJ/producer Andy Murphy, and radio journalist and newsreader Lauren Brain.
“We wanted to completely uphold our creative endeavour of in terms of production capabilities and the relevance to industry and being world class, but we also wanted people to understand that they can attend it. So we came up with this whole campaign to not rely so much on celebrity endorsement – because we have talented people in our industry,” Lewsey says.
In order to increase anticipation of the 2012 instalment and drive the message home, the campaign is also being released in stages, via a three tier strategy.
“The three tier strategy in its final stage will see videos and vignettes of the festival ambassadors talking about their personal style, which will add a voyeuristic quality to the campaign. But all of the festival goers will also have the opportunity to be photographed in that ongoing montage of the festival creative,” he says.
The full effect of this new strategy is still to be seen, with ticket sales to continue until the event start on March 8, but according to Lewsey, the results so far appear promising.
“Tickets sales are tracking well, we went on sale over eight weeks earlier this year so people could purchase tickets as Christmas gifts and the response has been fantastic,” he says. “This
is an incredible effort and has put us well ahead of schedule. We release our full program and designer line ups on February 1 so we expect to see another increase from this time as we
countdown until the event.”
Indeed, the positive response to the event’s 2012 instalment is all the more impressive, given that the festival’s exclusive designer line-up for the seven catwalk shows of the L’Oréal Paris
Runway series, have not yet been announced to market. The star-studded list, which includes the likes of Josh Goot, Gorman, Life with Bird, Extinct, Kirrily Johnston, Lisa Ho, Thurley,
Yeojin Bae, AG, Dion Lee, Carl Kapp, Carla Zampatti, and Megan Park, is sure to be a crowd pleaser, but it’s also a key component of Lewsey’s LMFF vision.
“We talk about fashion and industry a lot, but in terms of consumers and our shoppers – LMFF is also about entertainment – and we must never lose sight of that. I mean, we’re selling tickets and promising an experience, entertainment and it must be of a high quality otherwise consumers won’t be satisfied,” he says.
There’s always room for doubt, but it’s unlikely the wow factor will fall through the cracks. Plus, having previously shared a unit block with the likes of UK wild child and model Kate Moss,
one would expect Lewsey is well-versed in what constitutes entertainment. Just in case, Lewsey has also secured celebrity Dita Von Teese as a star guest for the 2012 Festival, and she will
also take to the runway on behalf of Target Australia to showcase the retailer’s latest collections.
Lewsey certainly seems to to have his hands full for the moment, but he says there’s nowhere he’d rather be.
“It’s interesting, me sitting here as CEO of LMFF. I’m a Melbourne boy, born and bred, but of course I’ve been very heavily involved in the development of the Sydney-based fashion industry for years. But that has just just involved a hell of a lot of travel for me, and I think a lot of my industry colleagues will always say that I’m the proud Melbournian that used to always fly the flag, so I love how it’s come full circle,” he says.
One of those industry colleagues, no doubt, is Lewsey’s predecessor Grant Pearce who still keeps close ties with the festival, despite relinquishing is role as LMFF creative director last
year. “Grant and I go back many years, and he got an incredible promotion by Conde Nast so he stepped down as creative director due to his commitments there, but I speak to him regularly and as creative advisor, he helps facilitate the creative outcomes and the international engagement through using his networks,” Lewsey says. “He is a travelling roadshow Mr Pearce, but a very valued part of our family and he’ll be at the festival.”
No doubt Pearce will be watching with interest when LMFF 2012 finally kicks off in March, but it’s Lewsey’s baby now, and he plans on taking good care of it.
“Our top three priorities at the moment are to increase national engagement, increase international reputation and consumer experience. I‘m sure there will be changes, but structurally we’ve already planned our visionary path for the next five years and I think we are pretty well set up,” he says. “I still don’t know what my biggest professional achievement is. I’ve had many, and maybe this will be the ultimate one, I don’t know - we’ll just have to wait and see.”