The rebranding of Melbourne Fashion Festival to the Australian Fashion Festival ultimately boils down to two desires.
According to chair Launa Inman, there is a need to expand from a two-week program to a 12-month itinerary, and a need to expand beyond the scope of Victoria’s borders.
“In the past, we have not had a voice all year round,” Inman says. “It's been very effective for two weeks of the year, but there's so much more to fashion per se than just a two-week festival.
“The whole idea is that we're wanting to create more opportunities for the designers, the retailers, and our creative talent, and ensure that they constantly are connecting with the consumers throughout the year.”
This expansion means more touchpoints. In recent years, Melbourne Fashion Festival held a hub at the Royal Exhibition Building, featuring a line-up of runways, as well as dining and beverage options and photo opportunities, matched with a few off-site spectacles such as the Fashion Business Lunch and the National Designer Award presented by David Jones.
Inman says they are still working out the future agenda, but these touchpoints could include an ongoing podcast where they interview designers, a string of other events through the year, and other content-creating opportunities.
“We're not going to lose sight of the February/March festival. That's still going to be the main consumer focus,” Inman confirms. “But the difference is that we want to have a voice and relevance all year round, and that's going to be really important.”
As for the name change, this points to the event organisers’ national ambition. Part of this involves venturing out of the CBD of Melbourne, which the Festival did this year when it launched its Geelong Fashion Fortnight.
Inman wants to see the Australian Fashion Festival as a national fashion organisation, connecting designers with consumers both locally and globally. Inside Australia, fashion is a $28 billion industry, but also exports around $7.2 billion worth of goods each year. Fashion exports are more than double that of wine and beer combined.
But Inman confirms that Melbourne will still remain the home of the Festival, simply because the Festival is a Victorian initiative, but also acting as a differentiator to Australian Fashion Week in Sydney.
“Melbourne has phenomenal fashion design universities and colleges,” she says. “It’s a city that is pulsing with retail, commerce, and innovation that changes over the seasons.
“It is also a city of major events. We actually sit between Australian tennis and the Grand Prix, so the timing is fantastic because our event gives visitors more reason to explore Melbourne's fashion, culture and retail offerings.”
Inman says that while AFW and AFF now appear closer in name, both entities are run on different models and for different markets.
AFW is focused more on trade, bringing in local and international buyers and delegates, while AFF is purely consumer-focused. Despite this, AFW has been including consumers in its yearly event in recent years, with the backing of Destination NSW likely driving that push.
To drive the rebrand to AFF, the Festival’s organisers have also slightly tweaked their management teams. Former REA Group and Victorian Racing Club senior leader Prue Mahar has been named as executive director of the AFF, working alongside the recently appointed creative director Damien Woolnough-Reid – the former fashion editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Meanwhile, Jana Pokorny – former fashion director of Marie Claire – has been named as head of fashion programming at the AFF.
“These appointments actually give us the foundations to build the team below them, but also to build the festival through its next stage,” Inman says.
“It's all about having the right teams that we can strengthen our programming, our industry engagement, audience growth, and of course the national reach and, long-term, our global reach as well.”