Sisters doing it for themselves

MELBOURNE: Visiting relatives is something of a chore for many, but for three Melbourne Fashion Incubator (MFI) designers it could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
The trio - men's and womenswear designer Ryan Whelan, Colin Sheppard of edgy label Do It Baby and milliner Ann-Maree Willet - visited Melbourne's sister city and fashion heartbeat Milan earlier this month as part of a design mission set up in conjunction with Melbourne City Council and Tourism Victoria.

Dubbed Melbourne a Milano the program gave the designers a rare opportunity to meet with Milan buyers and showcase their work to the international fashion community, confirmed MFI CEO Cindee Smith, who described the experience as surprisingly affirming.
"You'd think taking fashion from Melbourne to Milan would be pretty scary but the response we got was incredibly positive, we were blown away by it. Milan is such a creative, fashion and design oriented city that we found people incredibly open to anything new and interesting."

The designers took a small collection of their pieces on the trip, including a kangaroo hide corset with a woollen undergarment by Ryan Whelan and Colin Sheppard and hats and headpieces featuring Australian opals by Ann-Maree Willet.
Featuring a fashion show at exclusive design centre Corso Como and a dinner in the presence of leading fashion industry opinion makers, contacts forged through Melbourne a Milano included a meeting with top European label Borsalino for Willet - whose exotic creations garnered comparisons with design god John Galliano, as well as contact with Vogue Italy fashion representative Patrizia Gatti.

"She really loved Colin's work, as well as a collection of artist inspired jeans that Ryan is working on featuring elements from artistic greats such as Smith described the sister relationship between Melbourne and Milan as an invaluable asset for Melbourne designers.
"We would never have gained all those contacts without it. Even if you go to fashion houses in Sydney or Melbourne it's often hard to get an appointment, yet we got appointments with Vogue and some of the top fashion houses. That aside, for Anne-Maree Willet to get compared to Galliano was amazing. That alone made the whole trip worthwhile."