On the morning of February 9, 2026, Marie Kinsella delivered a bombshell via email: “After guiding International Expo Group Pty Ltd for 10 years as the CEO, I am retiring,” read the missive.
Kinsella noted that she would be leaving IEG in capable hands and recounted her career in the exhibition industry.
It began in 1989 when she joined Australian Trade Exhibitions, whose managing director, Graeme Uthmeyer, proved to be an invaluable mentor.
Kinsella rose to become general manager and, in 1997, launched her Collins Street, Melbourne-based company, Australian Exhibitions & Conferences. By the time she sold AEC to a multinational public company in 2011 – “a bittersweet milestone” – it ranked among Australia’s largest and most successful trade fair and event organisers.
Over its 14 years, AEC presented 173 exhibitions and conferences, including 30 start-ups, and attracted more than one million trade visitors and delegates to favourites ranging from Safety In Action to Furnitex.
Her crowning glory was Fashion Exposed, which made its debut on September 10-12, 2000, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Marie Kinsella looks back on the biannual favourite that showcased numerous talents from home and abroad, spawned a clutch of other major fashion trade events and won international kudos.
Marie Kinsella: Two fair organisers, double hassle
For almost two decades, Australia’s main garment fairs – run by Associated Retailers Limited and Frontline Stores – were held at separate venues two weeks apart in March and September, and exhibitors had to show at the four fairs if they wanted to cover all fronts.
It was expensive and exhausting, and in 1999 the heads of four key Australian garment manufacturers – Yarra Trail, Boydex, Breakaway and Duchamp – urged Associated Retailers Limited and Frontline Stores to amalgamate and present a major biannual fair for Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter.
Associated Retailers Limited was on board for the first Fashion Exposed and in early 2002 Frontline Stores finally conceded that the Australian fashion industry would be best served by a united front.
Fashion Exposed arrives – along with mayhem
I was so naïve. I had no idea the World Economic Forum, being held across the road from Jeff’s Shed at Crown Casino, September 11-13, 2000, would attract 10,000 protesters and a massive police presence, and rapidly descend into chaos.
Our first day went fine. Day two was crazy – we had delegates stuck in traffic for more than two hours - and our final day was a write-off.
Despite all that, we managed to attract over 2,500 trade visitors and overall, our first Fashion Exposed was a great success. That was already clear when we sold out in just 10 weeks. In all my years in trade fairs, I’d never seen one take off like that. When we passed the 100 (exhibitors) mark, we drew the line – more than enough for a first time.
We covered the entire gamut – men’s, women’s and children’s, outer and underwear, plus sleepwear, hosiery and fashion accessories – and limited the fair to Australian and New Zealand exhibitors.
That was at a time when most of Australia’s major trade fairs were being taken over by overseas companies such as Britain’s Daily Mail Group and embracing globalisation.
Some accused us of protectionism, but in fact Fashion Exposed was Australia’s first truly independent, all-encompassing fashion trade fair – clearly, a huge attraction.
The World Economic Forum protesters would have loved us if they’d known what we were about. They were railing against globalisation!
Sydney sensation, showtime
When the fair made its Sydney debut in March 2005, it set a record at the time – the first new trade event at the Sydney Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, to fill all five halls.
By then, Fashion Exposed had a major new attraction: Preview, devoted to high-end designer labels. We presented it as an elite fair within a fair – all-white with sleek stand design – and it was the result of research that revealed many buyers, domestic and overseas, were looking for exclusive designer ranges.
Preview evolved from our Designer Showcase, which started in 2002 and featured major talents – among them, Toni Maticevski, Jenny Bannister, Trelise Cooper and Tiffany Treloar. Each season, six hand-picked designers – a mix of established and new – were invited to exhibit at a prominent group stand and half-hour catwalk show.
Those shows rapidly grew in sophistication and became a big drawcard at Preview. We had a great team producing them and they were usually filled to capacity.
Another attraction that drew big audiences at Fashion Exposed was our free-entry seminars. They featured top industry names and played a vital educational role, especially in guiding retailers.
Fashion Exposed goes international
At our 2006/07 Spring/Summer fair in Sydney, we launched a major new Preview attraction: The Guest Country Showcase – a first for Australia.
Almost 14,000 delegates, including those from countries as diverse as the US, Britain, Russia and India, attended the fair that featured a hot Brazilian swimwear show and a luxury lingerie collection created for crystal giant Swarovski by icons including Christian Lacroix, Vivienne Westwood and Roberto Cavalli – a tremendous coup for Fashion Exposed as the collection had previously only been shown in Paris.
Subsequent Guest Country Showcases, organised in collaboration with trade commissioners, included designer groups from Belgium, France, Israel and Hong Kong – each showing at a pavilion and on the runway. They were fresh and exciting, and buyers loved them.
Local fashion media was a different story – mainly lukewarm interest. The perception that “trade” and glamour don’t mix is peculiar to Australia. It’s rather like an Upstairs/Downstairs mentality and certainly doesn’t exist in Europe and America, where major fashion fairs are rightly seen as both glamorous and vital to trade.
Debut: Championing new talent
The fashion industry itself certainly appreciated us. One favourite was Debut, a competition created for new and emerging Australian and New Zealand designers.
Debut covered every major category of contemporary fashion as well as accessories and jewellery. Each season, 20 finalists in the categories of Best New Collection, Best Accessory and Best Single Garment were showcased at Preview – all included in the official fair catalogue - and the three winners each got a free stand at the next Preview.
There were no entry or exhibiting fees for Debut. It was entirely funded by Fashion Exposed.
Australian Shoe Fair
The month before all that excitement with Swarovski and the Brazilians, we had another headline event at the Sydney Exhibition Centre: our first Australian Shoe Fair, held February 17-19, 2006.
Like Fashion Exposed, it was biannual – Autumn/Winter collections exhibited in Melbourne at Jeff’s Shed each August – and the first independent fair of its kind in Australia.
The response to the first one was fantastic: fully subscribed and featuring more than 1,000 Australian and imported labels. Pre-registration exceeded the 2,000 mark – delegates from New Zealand, Britain and the Pacific islands as well as from across Australia.
From the start, the focus was on fashion footwear, from middle to top end – very much a reflection of the growing diversity in fashion. Increasingly, garment firms were expanding into footwear and accessories, and that was happening globally.
Many companies invested heavily in the fair. Some stands were two-storey with staircases and several exhibitors offered prizes ranging from Italian wine to a luxury weekend holiday for two. I remember it so vividly. All that fabulous footwear. It was a brilliant fair.
The future
I sold Australian Exhibitions & Conferences because I needed to devote more time to my family – my children were aged just eight and six at the time – and now I’m also exploring other interests, especially my work as a volunteer lawyer.
My first career was as a teacher – I have a BA in Education – and in 2017 I graduated from RMIT University with a Juris Doctor.
I now work with the Victorian Mental Health Legal Centre, which provides free, professional and confidential legal services.
It’s a whole new world – so different from the exhibition industry. I used to get an absolute buzz from launching a new event after months of building it up from nothing, but that’s over. I have no desire to go back to it.