Front Row at Australia’s Fashion Flash Mob, Melbourne Fashion Week

Australia is a wonderfully peculiar place and at times is the ying to the yang of the rest of the world. When other parts of the world ready for winter, Australia warms up in their spring season. This is also the fashion season where avant-garde trends and trendsetters descend on the fashion mecca’s of the world for New York, Paris, Milan, and London Fashion Weeks.  Down under the fashion capital of Australia is Melbourne and during the first week of September, the fashion scene heats up withMelbourne Fashion Week. The season’s hot new women’s and men’s wear were on bold display in a week chock-a-block full of runway shows, city-wide events, and high-style experiences.

Now in its 24th year, Melbourne Fashion Week(MFW) has cemented Melbourne as an international destination for fashion, retail, design and hospitality. MFW has created 150 activities created to promote 300+ designers in a week bursting full of fashion presented in various formats around the city. Beyond the runway there are all types of workshops, talks, parties, exhibitions, films and free fashion experiences.

There is a certain buzz in the air during MFW and this is one city that knows how to put on a haute fashion week to rival the top…

A flash mob of fashion of sorts is the series of Fashion Pop-Ups which are Street Runway and Underground Shows that appear around the city. The organizers chose the most iconic area’s around the city and staged Street Runway shows with top men’s and women’s wear designers.  In gritty city areas, the major tourist areas such as Federation Square or the Dockland, models adorned with edgy urban wear strutted during the mid-day hustle and bustle of the city as Melbournians experiences a fashionable disruption to their normal business day.

Another unique display of fashion was the MFW Fashion Capsules. Around the city, curious glass enclosures sprung up in the midst of Melbourne’s condensed pedestrian areas. A series of six glass boxes, the size small trailer, held inside a captivating mix of far-out fashion, digital art and a multi-media display. Think of the display windows of Manhattan’s Sak’s Fifth Avenue taken over by Tim Burton and Edward Scissorhands. Each capsule housed innovative creations by Victorian-based fashion installation, digital and video artists, designers, jewelers, artisans and filmmakers.

Fashion week has a number of wonderful events away from the fashion runways as well that showcase the impact of fashion in our lives. The cross section of visual art and fashion was further embraced with the integration of Fashion and Film with theAustralia Film Meets Fashionawards. This event recognized the creators of films who integrated fashion as the film's centerpiece.