With the Australian Fashion Industry Awards fast approaching, Ragtrader is taking a daily look inside each category — the finalists, the work behind the entries and the strategy that earned them their place.
Next up: Design Excellence Award, showcasing the most striking and commercially successful fashion ranges over the last year. The seven finalists are Akubra, Camilla, Hommey, Honey Birdette, Peter Alexander, Rip Curl and Sheike.
Winners will be revealed at the AFIA Awards Lunch on Thursday 6 August at The Promenade Docklands, Melbourne. Tickets are on sale now.
The AFIAs 2026 are supported by Headline Sponsor The Retail Score, Gold Sponsors Better Packaging and ReStore, Silver Sponsors Apparel21 and Williams Logistics and Bronze Sponsor Afterpay.
Here's the work that got the finalists there in alphabetical order:
Akubra Hats
Akubra's Straw Collection expanded the heritage brand into the Australian summer market. The premium range was designed to bridge western heritage with modern coastal culture and attract audiences aged 25 to 45 alongside the existing customer base.
The collection is made from 100% fine palm leaf, selected for breathability, lightness and durability in Australian conditions. Selected styles are hand-woven in Mexico and hand-finished in Australia, with many featuring UPF50+ sun protection. Silhouettes including the Cape, Eyre and Nomad preserved recognisable Akubra codes — structured crowns, considered brim proportions and western-inspired detailing. The Bush to Beach campaign then brought western culture into a coastal setting.
The launch delivered more than 2,500 units sold and $500,000 in revenue. It drove 1.9 million website sessions in total, with a 230% increase in traffic to the Straw Collection pages, and returned a 7.76x return on ad spend from digital campaign activity. Hero campaign assets attracted 5.3 million video views across social channels alongside 1.3 million in earned media reach — establishing a genuine new category for the business while staying true to Akubra's legacy.
Camilla
The Met x Camilla collection set out to embody wearable art, translating 5,000 years of artistic history from The Metropolitan Museum of Art through two decades of Camilla print artistry. Immersive research within The Met's period rooms and decorative arts collections informed six limited-edition prints.
Historical motifs were digitally reconstructed and mapped in three dimensions across garments as engineered placement prints rather than traditional repeats. These were executed across silk satin, silk georgette, chiffon and cotton velvet. Pinnacle pieces pushed craftsmanship to a new level for the brand — zari work, claw-set stones, bugle beads and layered embroidery. Some garments required more than 155 hours of artisanal work by Camilla's in-house artisans across Australia and India.
Launched on 7 April 2026, the collection generated $2.1 million in sales and 2,361 units over six weeks, making it Camilla's most successful collaboration to date. The launch achieved more than 560 social placements and 22 media placements, with total reach approaching 70 million. It also reinforced full-price trading, protected brand equity and proved fashion can serve as a living extension of art history.
Hommey
New Chapters of Comfort was Hommey's first cohesive multi-category collection — spanning Bedding, Bath, Robes and Sleepwear simultaneously across Australia and the US. The Scandinavian Living direction wasn't an aesthetic whim: it was validated by a customer survey before a single unit was produced.
Product innovation anchored the range. The Cotton-Ramie Robe introduced a custom yarn-dyed fabrication new to Hommey — lightweight yet warm, shape-retaining and wrinkle-resistant. The fully reversible Versa Duvet Cover extended into new colourways in stonewashed organic cotton sateen. To bring the brief to life authentically, the campaign was shot at Heatherhill Beach House on Denmark's coastline with an entirely Copenhagen-based creative team.
The result was the brand's highest performing campaign to date. Versa Bedding grew 645% year on year across AU and US net sales, with US Queen and Full sizes selling out within three weeks. The Cream bath range hit 35% sell-through in a fortnight and has been restocked twice. Bedding holds 4.9 stars across more than 1,194 reviews, the launch event delivered a 514% ROI in entirely unpaid creator content and the campaign drew over three million Instagram impressions.
Honey Birdette
Honey Birdette's Halloween capsule was briefed to feel elevated and fashion-led rather than costume-driven. The premium interpretation of the season was built around cobweb-inspired embroidery, graphic strapping and statement hero pieces designed to transition into outerwear styling.
The key innovation was the development of first-to-market glow-in-the-dark yarn engineered directly into the embroidery and elastic rather than applied as a surface print. It was developed in close collaboration with suppliers to preserve softness and garment quality. Sparkly glow web embroidery ran across garment fronts, while custom elastic web strapping created a signature glow effect across the back. The execution spanned coordinated bras, briefs, bodysuits, suspenders and hosiery.
Stock could barely be kept in the business. The total collection achieved an 84% sell-through, with the hero bodysuit at 91% — the brand's fifth best bodysuit launch by volume — and match-back stockings at 86%, the second highest hosiery volume of H2 FY25. The bra was the highest launch volume at its price point and the collection was the US market's second largest launch of 2025. The storytelling even cascaded into a matching glow-in-the-dark toy that hit 94% sell-through.
Peter Alexander
After a 2024 licensed program spanning Polly Pocket, Transformers and Thomas the Tank Engine, Peter Alexander's challenge for 2025 was maintaining growth with a single partnership. The It's Macca's Time collection reimagined the world of McDonald's through the brand's nostalgic, design-led lens — collectible, giftable and built for sharing.
Developed with the in-house graphic design team and McDonald's licensing team, the range celebrated McDonaldland characters, burgers, fries and classic iconography. Custom prints, trims and piping ran across pyjama sets, sleep tees, shorts and accessories. Innovation carried through the detail: pocket features designed to resemble fries in a French fry box, custom burger box packaging that elevated the unboxing experience and a hero wearable backpack inspired by the iconic McDonald's paper bag.
The collection grew sales year on year over an already exceptional 2024 result, with customer engagement increasing significantly across the campaign period. Hero products sold out quickly — most notably the paper bag backpack, which generated viral social traction and became a case study in how novelty design can drive both cultural conversation and commercial performance at scale.
Rip Curl
An Endless Carioca Summer united Rip Curl's surf heritage and technical expertise with Brazilian fashion house Farm Rio's vibrant aesthetic. The design-led women's collection was built to expand relevance beyond the traditional surf customer without compromising performance credibility.
Farm Rio's custom textile artworks were integrated into Rip Curl's most technical women's franchises, including Mirage performance swimwear and the G-Bomb Tropical springsuit. The build combined warp knit fabrication, plant-based natural rubber panelling, water-based lamination, recycled linings, UPF 50+ protection and E-stitched seams. As certified B Corps, both brands embedded responsible design throughout, with custom trims from swing tags to silicon badges completing a premium execution.
The collaboration outperformed expectations, exceeding wholesale forecasts by 30% and resonating across more than 15 countries, with Australia and Europe each contributing 30% of total sales. Swim led the range as the top-performing segment at 30% of collection sales, while tiered global pricing above core ranges supported both brand elevation and margin. The partnership attracted a more fashion-conscious customer while deepening engagement with existing audiences — proof that performance, fashion and responsibility can coexist.
Sheike
Aeternum, Sheike's Autumn Winter collection, was built around the duality of modern femininity — softness with structure, romance with strength. It translated the global return of romantic dressing into a distinctly Sheike, commercially wearable form.
Corsetry-inspired seam detailing ran across denim, PU and event categories, with sculpted panel lines balancing structure and softness. Denim became a defining element through stud detailing, reworked seams and a softened stone wash palette. Blurred florals and paisley motifs were reimagined through diffused watercolour techniques and large-scale placement printing across mesh, lace and stretch taffeta. Rich plum, black cherry and jam tones offered sophisticated alternatives to black.
The April range delivered strong sales results, with winter categories outperforming seasonal projections by 20%. Key styles including the Aloha Fur and Jules jackets, the Broadway denim set and the Indiana dress achieved sell-throughs above 60% within five weeks, with some styles recut to meet demand. Campaign EDMs achieved click-through rates 28% above industry benchmarks, while coordinated set dressing and statement outerwear lifted basket sizes across key trading periods.