Australian fashion label Aje announced as the ‘Mercedes-Benz Presents’ designer for 2019.
The coup means it will open Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia (MBFWA) 2019, as part of an official sponsorship program.
It has been 11 years since friends Edwina Forest and Adrian Norris joined forces to form the designer womenswear brand.
The label will kick off Australia’s largest industry-based fashion event on May 12, by revealing its resort collection.
In being named the keynote designer, AJE joins a roll call to have opened MBFWA that includes distinguished fashion luminaries Camilla & Marc (2018), Dion Lee (2017), Toni Maticevski (2016), Kym Ellery (2015) and Carla Zampatti (2014).
Aje will embark on a year long partnership with Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific as part of being chosen as the Mercedes-Benz Presents designer.
Forest said this is a milestone for the brand.
“This headlining position gives us the perfect platform to engage and inspire the clients we place at the heart of our brand.
“As designers, our driving force remains the same today as when we started AJE: to offer a platform for women to embrace their duality. At once raw and beautiful, tough and feminine, effortless and cool, our collections echo the co-existing tensions and complexities that unite us all.”
She expects 2019 to be a turning point for the brand.
“With the support from Mercedes–Benz this year we will continue to reach out and touch the hearts of like-minded women, at home and around the world.”
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia launches on May 12 with the ‘Mercedes- Benz Presents’ runway show at a location to be announced, and then continues at Carriageworks and other special venues until May 18.
MBFWA is owned and operated by IMG.