by On Monday night, arguably Australia’s most famous supermodel walked the runway for the first time in over a decade, then did it all over again two hours later. After QR codes flashed on giant screens next to the words “shop on the runway”, Elle Macpherson, who will be 60 at the end of March, opened the Melbourne fashion festival.
Her first outfit was a brown floor-length coat layered over orange knitwear and silk terracotta trousers by Viktoria & Woods. Later, she wore a light yellow trench coat with matching pants by Bianca Spender, then closed the show in a black, black boho dress and oversized blazer by Aje.
At the 8.30pm show, the second night, each of his walks was met with light applause. The multi-brand runway shows were the first of more than a dozen to take place this week in Melbourne and also featured designers Martin Grant, Ngali, Anna Quan and Oroton.
The supermodel’s appearance at the Royal Exhibition Building was rolled out by PayPal, which is sponsoring this year’s event. A PayPal representative declined to disclose the cost of bringing Macpherson (known as “The Body”) back to the platform.
When asked about Macpherson’s catwalk look after the show, podcaster and writer Maggie Zhou said: “Her hair was gorgeous.”
Zhou also enjoyed the crowd’s reaction: “I loved how the audience got behind her … It felt like a moment of support.”
Celebrity participation has become a hallmark of the Melbourne fashion festival, which is now an occasion for consumers to buy tickets to high-profile runway shows. Although a third-row ticket to the event cost $139, the festival has been largely snubbed by industry insiders, who focus on the international fashion calendar where next season’s collections are shown to businesses and the media.
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Macpherson, who spends most of her time in the UK, was last seen on a fashion week catwalk for Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2010.
Macpherson’s career spans four decades and various careers, including stints as a producer and host of Britain and Ireland’s Next Top Model, as well as a range of business ventures including lingerie and fitness products, and work philanthropic with Unicef.
Winter is the new summer for fashion blockbusters
The most comprehensive African fashion exhibition ever shown in Australia will open on May 31, NGV International has announced.
Traveling from the V&A in London, Africa Fashion will feature nearly 200 works of couture, bespoke and ready-to-wear, as well as body adornments from more than 50 designers, from more than 20 countries. The show explores the role of fashion in the African independence movement and features pieces by Thebe Magugu, Imane Ayissi, Iamisigo, Moshions, Shade Thomas-Fahm and Kofi Ansah. For the Melbourne exhibition, members of the African Australian community are being invited to share their own stories and images through a public call.
Another fashion show is also coming to Australia during the winter. Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses opens at Qagoma Brisbane on 29 June. The exhibition will showcase nearly 100 garments from the Dutch fashion designer, whose work is architectural, surreal and wonderfully dark. The outfits of the likes of Beyoncé, Björk, Cate Blanchett, Lady Gaga and Tilda Swinton will be on display alongside artwork, artefacts, a model of the designer’s Amsterdam studio and a soundtrack by artist Salvator Breed.
Aja Barber’s message to Australia: ‘You have to change your lifestyle’
Fast fashion, colonialism and consumption will be under discussion at the Sydney Opera House on March 10 when Aja Barber, a leading figure in sustainable fashion and author of Consumption, joins journalist Jan Fran in conversation at the All About festival Women.
Australians are some of the most enthusiastic consumers of cheap fashion in the world. Barber told Guardian Australia that these shopping habits “absolutely” reflect the country’s colonial past. “Would we treat equal pay as some sort of debate if our friends and family were fighting to pay themselves so they could eat? We wouldn’t be,” she said.
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“People need to be aware that no one likes fast fashion. You think it’s good for you because you can afford it, but it’s also trashing your planet.”
Her advice on how to change overconsumption at the individual level is to think about what is getting your energy and attention. “You have to change your lifestyle. You need to change your social media. You have to unsubscribe,” she said. “It’s very effective in changing habits to drown out the things that motivate us to consume.”
Australian fashion’s richest prize goes to a textile recycler
At the end of last month, eBay announced startup Dempstah had won the inaugural Fashion Circular Fund, taking home a prize of $100,000 – the biggest in Australian fashion by a wide margin. Dempstah founder Guy Dempster plans to build a micro textile recycling plant in Tasmania, although when asked by Guardian Australia at the award ceremony, he was unable to give details of the machinery he would get to sort and processing. Its pilot program mechanically recycled 500kg of old clothes 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 extremely challenging, and the closure of Renewcell casts doubt on the circularity plans of the fashion industry.
Two runners-up – Rcycl and The Very Good Bra – were awarded $50,000 each by eBay. Rcycl also takes offshore textile waste for processing and recycling, and The Very Good Bra sells a range of plastic-free bras and knickers, and is working with Standard Australia to establish the world’s first standard for compostable textiles.
Happy shoes’ high-end revival
Described as “the shoe of the summer” by Vogue, Mary Jane ballet flats have been seen on the feet of everyone from Alexa Chung to Zoë Kravitz, and have also made a welcome return to street style in Australia.
The semi-square shoes are constructed from cloth, velvet or mesh, with a strap across the foot. Although they are now described as “ballet flats”, if you remember Australia in the 1980s, you might know another name: happy shoes. The affordable fabric slippers were (and still are) sold in Chinatown malls across the country.
Chanel, Miu Miu, Aeyde and The Row currently sell happy shoes, while Reformation has five different styles, from AU$465 a pair. Whether the newer variants offer any more arch support than the originals remains to be seen.
