Runway raised to another altitude
With a bigger venue and a new naming rights sponsor, the Telstra Perth Fashion Festival is expected to take it to the next level this year, with more money to play with but also more seats to fill.
This year the majority of the fashion action will happen inside a custom-built marquee in the forecourt of the Perth Concert Hall. With greater seating capacity than WA Museum's Hackett Hall, which served admirably as the event's main location for the past three years, the onus - to put it impolitely - is to get more "bums on seats" for the festival's 16th year.
To this end, the 2014 Telstra Perth Fashion Festival has widened its scope beyond the West Australian industry to encompass some big-name Eastern States designers, including Alex Perry, Manning Cartell and Camilla Franks.
Influential New Zealand brands Zambesi and Nom*D, will show alongside local labels Morrison and One Fell Swoop, while a duo of international red-carpet designers, Filipino-born, Dubai-based Michael Cinco and Indonesian Sebastian Gunawan, will feature at tonight's opening event.
The organisers have taken a chance bringing the latter two designers to Perth to show alongside Perth label Ae'lkemi, designed by Alvin Fernandez.
Although they have both dressed famous celebrities, neither Cinco or Gunawan is especially known here.
Festival director Mariella Harvey-Hanrahan is committed to an exchange between the WA fashion industry and the lucrative Asian market, and this year she has secured an influential contingent from Singapore-based FIDe Fashion Weeks and the Asian Couture Federation, presided over by multimillionaire businessman Frank Cintamani.
Gunawan and Cinco's work certainly looks spectacular, so ticketholders for tonight's event are likely to get a strong dose of couture-level glitz and glamour, with red-carpet ready statement gowns fit for a princess.
The festival has also managed to bring in an impressive roster of "name" fashion commentators, bloggers and celebrities who are bound to add some frisson to the front row.
Founder of the A Shaded View On Fashion blog and film festival, Paris-based industry veteran Diane Pernet has a global following, so the whole world literally will be watching her coverage.
Fashion blogger Willabelle Ong, who splits her time between Perth and Singapore, has 80,000 followers on Instagram, while fashion commentators Claire Fabb, Kate Waterhouse and Zannita Whittington all have huge social media profiles.
Added star power will come courtesy of pop dynamo Samantha Jade, X Factor judge Dannii Minogue and TV presenter Rebecca Judd, with the latter walking in the Ruth Tarvydas tribute parade on Friday night.
However, Telstra Perth Fashion Festival has not set its sights so exclusively on wooing the Eastern States and international markets that it has neglected the WA talent on our doorstep.
Friday night's memorial tribute to and celebration of Tarvydas' four-decade career is bound to be emotional. Lifestyle label Flannel will show menswear for the first time along with its womenswear and the WA Designer Runway and Future Runway shows provide a fun snapshot of local graduate and emerging design talent.
There has been a lot of hype around local brand Zhivago, who will close out this year's festival on Monday night. The label showed what all the fuss was about in Sydney this year with a glamorous and cohesive collection.
Punters will get a taste of spring racing season trends at tomorrow's Myer Fashion Lunch, where fashionistas will have another chance - if last year's event is anything to go by - to whistle at Myer ambassador Kris Smith's every move.
