“A New Era”: Why Australian Fashion Week Left Carriageworks

After 13 years, Australian Fashion Week (AFW) is moving from its base at Redfern’s Carriageworks. Instead, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) will be this year’s hub of AFW. It’s a homecoming of sorts. 

From its launch in 1996 until 2011, AFW took place at the Overseas Passenger Terminal on the harbour, just down the road. “I think people are quite nostalgic for that time,” Kellie Hush, fashion director of AFW, and CEO of the Australian Fashion Council (AFC), says. It’s news that’s been well received. “My Instagram blew up, which is a good thing.”

Last year saw the AFC, Australia’s peak fashion and textile body, take over running the prestigious fashion week, after previous organiser IMG, in charge of the event for 20 years, unexpectedly pulled out. It meant AFW still took place at Carriageworks, “to keep the ship steady”. 

“Carriageworks is an amazing, amazing venue, but I think the industry – for quite some time – has wanted to do something different,” Hush says. The main reason behind the move is the desire to showcase more of Sydney. Carriageworks, a railway-workshop-turned-cultural-precinct, is known for its urban, red-brick appeal, whereas the MCA sits right on Sydney Harbour; an iconic Australian landmark. “The MCA is at the heart of the city.” 

There will be one permanent runway in the museum’s Foundation Hall, a 450-square-foot ballroom. Aje has previously shown there, so Hush says it’s “fit for purpose”. Details aren’t yet confirmed, but there are plans for more shows and events to be held in and around the MCA, such as Canvas up top – “which has incredible vistas of the city” – and its outdoor area, where Carla Zampatti opened last year’s AFW. Designers are free to show offsite, too.

“It’s more than just industry coming down to the MCA. It’s opening [AFW] up to the wider public and making the city feel a part of it … It’s really about opening it up and making it accessible,” Hush says. Consumer activations are back this year, too. “We’ll have a big live screen down there so people can enjoy the show.”

Though details are still “top secret,” Hush says there will be talks open to the public, sponsor-led tutorials, and more ways for visitors to experience the behind-the-scenes of fashion week. “[Consumers] might not be able to sit front-row at a show because it’s an industry-only show, but we’re going to make sure that it is accessible in different ways.”

There will be two group shows this year. “We have the DHL Emerging Designer show, and then we also have a Create New South Wales Emerging Designer Award.” 

This is the 30th year of AFW, and the dawn of a new decade comes a renewed sense of direction. “The heart of it is about showcasing Australian fashion. We’re creating some magnificent infrastructure for fashion … This truly is a new era.” 

Over 100 designers applied to be part of AFW, with the line-up set to be announced at the end of March. “Bigger doesn’t mean better. We will have a tighter schedule. [AFC is] not-for-profit, so with that comes some limitations as to what we can do,” she says. “We also are very focused on supporting our First Nations brands as well, so there are a couple of new programs this year that will be a highlight as well.”

Hush says AFW is a chance to celebrate what makes Australian fashion distinctive. “We always punch above our weight, and we’re not trying to be Paris, Milan, New York or London. We’re trying to be independent of that.”

Australian Fashion Week returns to Sydney on May 11 to 15.