PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival is returning for 2024
Photography by Jordan Drysdale
Words by Kaya Martin
“See our city come alive with creativity and excitement.”
This March, a whirlwind of creativity, colour and cutting-edge design will be taking over the city as PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival returns for its 28th year running. Taking place from February 24 to March 9, the festival will bring more than 100 unique events to venues across the city, celebrating the richness and diversity of Australia’s fashion capital.
This year’s freshly unveiled program is packed with brand-new runway concepts, interactive workshops, fashion installations, shopping pop-ups and so much more. Promising nearly double the number of designers year on year, it’s bound to be one to remember.
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“Whether you’re an emerging designer or one of Australia’s most celebrated designers, next year’s PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival will support our creative industry and see our city come alive with creativity and excitement,” says the Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks.
This year’s selection of premium runways will return to the official hub at the Royal Exhibition Building. Showcasing 85 designers – 65 per cent of whom call Victoria their home – the premium runways will be focused on themes that are central to the modern fashion lexicon, including sustainable practices, student designers, First Nations talent and avant-garde design. This year’s Grand Solo Showcase, taking place on the finale night, has been awarded to P.E. Nation for the brand’s transformative contributions to Australian activewear.
Before and after the runways, visitors can enjoy gourmet food, playful activations, DJs and entertainment in the Fashion Forecourt. The free social area is the perfect place to mix, mingle and (if you’re lucky) get snapped in a paparazzi pic. For the first time this year, the festival will also be hosting a Forecourt Afterparty taking guests straight from the runway to the VIP bar and al fresco dining tables.
As well as all of the glamour taking place at the festival hub, there will also be a ton of free and ticketed events happening as part of the Independent Program, kicking off on February 24. Bringing Victoria’s independent and emerging designers to the forefront, the programme will bring back the iconic F.A.T (Fabulous and Trendy) plus size fashion showcase as well as Let Them Eat Cake by Vintage Garage, a roving runway displaying retro, streetwear and disco-inspired outfits.
“This year we are further cementing PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival as Australia’s only true consumer major event in fashion – a true fashion destination – where fashion lovers, industry insiders and voyeurs all gather to celebrate and support the extraordinary rich tapestry that is the Melbourne and Victorian fashion industry,” says PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival’s CEO, Caroline Ralphsmith.
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