On Monday night, perhaps Australia’s most famous supermodel walked the catwalk for the first time in more than a decade, and did it again two hours later. After QR codes flashed on huge screens next to the words ‘shop the catwalk’, Elle Macpherson, who turns 60 at the end of March, opened the fashion festival in Melbourne.
Her first outfit was a brown floor-length coat layered over orange knitwear and silk terracotta trousers from Viktoria & Woods. Later, she wore a pale yellow trench coat with matching trousers from Bianca Spender, before closing the show in a flowy black boho dress and oversized blazer from Aje.
At the 8:30 p.m. show, the second of the evening, each of her walks was met with light applause. The multi-brand catwalk shows were the first of more than a dozen to take place in Melbourne this week and also featured designers Martin Grant, Ngali, Anna Quan and Oroton.
The supermodel’s appearance at the Royal Exhibition Building was funded by PayPal, which is sponsoring this year’s event. A PayPal representative declined to disclose the cost of getting Macpherson (who is known as “The Body”) back on the runway.
When asked about Macpherson’s runway appearance after the show, podcaster and writer Maggie Zhou said, “Her hair was luscious.”
Zhao also enjoyed the audience’s reaction: “I loved how the audience was behind her… It felt like a moment of support.”
Celebrity participation has become a hallmark of the Melbourne Fashion Festival, a consumer event that sells tickets to ‘see-now, buy-now’ catwalk shows. Although a third-row ticket to the event costs $139, the festival is largely dismissed by industry insiders, whose focus is on the international fashion calendar where next season’s collections are shown to companies and press.
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The last time Macpherson, who spends most of her time in Britain, appeared on a fashion week catwalk was for Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2010.
Macpherson’s career spanned four decades and several professions, including stints as producer and presenter of Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model, in addition to a range of business ventures including lingerie and wellness products, and philanthropic work with Unicef.
Winter is the new summer for fashion blockbusters
The most comprehensive exhibition of African fashion ever shown in Australia will open on May 31, NGV International has announced.
Africa Fashion travels from the V&A in London and showcases almost 200 works of couture, tailoring and ready-to-wear, as well as body adornments from more than 50 designers from more than 20 countries. The show explores the role fashion played in the African independence movement and features pieces by Thebe Magugu, Imane Ayissi, Iamisigo, Moshions, Shade Thomas-Fahm and Kofi Ansah. For the exhibition in Melbourne, members of Australia’s African community are invited to share their own stories and images through a public appeal.
Another major fashion exhibition is also coming to Australia this winter. Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses opens at Qagoma in Brisbane on June 29. The exhibition features almost 100 garments by the Dutch fashion designer, whose work is architectural, surreal and darkly fantastic. Outfits from Beyoncé, Björk, Cate Blanchett, Lady Gaga and Tilda Swinton, among others, will be shown, alongside works of art, artefacts, a model of the designer’s Amsterdam studio and a soundscape by artist Salvator Breed.
Aja Barber’s message for Australians: ‘You need to change your lifestyle’
Fast fashion, colonialism and consumption will be in the spotlight at the Sydney Opera House on March 10 when Aja Barber, leading figure in sustainable fashion and author of Consumed, talks to journalist Jan Fran at the All About Women festival .
Australians are among the most avid consumers of budget fashion in the world. Barber told Guardian Australia that these shopping habits “absolutely” reflect the country’s colonial past. “Would we treat fair wages like it was some kind of debate if it was our friends and family fighting to pay themselves so they can eat? No, we wouldn’t do that,” she said.
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“People need to know that fast fashion is not good for anyone. You think it’s good for you because you can afford it, but it’s also destroying your planet.”
Her advice on how to change overconsumption on an individual level is to think about what draws your energy and attention. “You have to change your lifestyle. You need to change your social media. You need to opt out,” she said. “Drowning out the things that drive us to spend money… is very effective in changing habits.”
The richest prize for Australian fashion goes to textile recycler
Late last month, eBay announced that startup Dempstah was the winner of its inaugural Circular Fashion Fund, taking home a $100,000 prize – the largest in Australian fashion by a wide margin. Dempstah founder Guy Dempster has a plan to build a micro-textile recycling plant in Tasmania, but when asked by Guardian Australia at the awards ceremony he could not go into details about the machines he will purchase to sort and process fibres. Its pilot program mechanically recycled 500 kg of old clothing into yarn using facilities in China.
The announcement was made just days before the world’s only commercial-scale textile-to-textile recycler, Renewcell, said it had filed for bankruptcy in Sweden. Recycling textiles at scale is a huge challenge, and the closure of Renewcell casts doubt on the fashion industry’s plans for circularity.
Two runners-up – Rcycl and The Very Good Bra – each received $50,000 from eBay. Rcycl also sends textile waste overseas to be processed and recycled, while The Very Good Bra sells a range of plastic-free bras and panties and partners with Standards Australia to set the world’s first standard for compostable textiles.
The high-end revival of Happy Shoes
Described by Vogue as the ‘shoe of the summer’, Mary Jane ballerinas have been spotted on the feet of everyone from Alexa Chung to Zoë Kravitz, and have made a welcome return to street style in Australia too.
The semi-square toe shoes are made of fabric, velvet or mesh, with a strap over the foot. Although they are now described as ‘ballet flats’, you may know them by another name if you remember Australia in the 1980s: cheerful shoes. The affordable fabric slippers were (and still are) sold in Chinatown malls across the country.
Chanel, Miu Miu, Aeyde and The Row are currently selling their versions of cheerful shoes, while Reformation has five different styles, starting from AU$465 per pair. Whether the newer iterations offer more arch support than the originals remains to be seen.