Timing is everything, it seems, for Australian Fashion Week with the number of international buyers attending this year's event increasing by nearly 60%.
A shift from April to mid-May has given the fashion set Down Under a head start to showcase their Resort 2017 collections before anywhere else in the world. As a result, buyers from across the globe have flocked to Sydney.
"This year the number of international buyers attending Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia in Sydney is up 57 percent. This is a real vote of confidence in the strategic decision by IMG and the NSW government to shift the event to align with the global fashion calendar and to own the Resort Collections category," major events minister Stuart Ayres said.
Last year, the event came at the end of the Spring/Summer calendar with Australia showcasing collections at the end of the season.
The resort collections on show in Sydney from Australian designers such as Ginger & Smart, Dion Lee, Toni Maticevski, Yeojin Bae and Misha are trans-seasonal in nature with a six-month retail life and will showcase before major fashion capitals London, Paris and New York.
The date change has been welcomed by Australian designers, who are sure to benefit financially.
"Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia will now sit within a sales period for our business, which was a missed opportunity in the past. The April date has been too late to take Fall/Winter orders and too early to present Resort, said designer Dion Lee.
"The change in dates will allow us to launch our Resort collection in Sydney during the beginning of the global sales window for this collection," Lee said.
Fashion is big business for New South Wales, with more than 68,000 people employed across design, manufacturing, wholesale and retail. It also generates sales of about $A8.3 billion ($NZ8.9 billion), according to figures supplied by the state government.
International buyers in Sydney this year represent stores Bergdorf Goodman and Moda Operandi and UK designer department stores Harvey Nichols, House of Fraser, Selfridges and online leaders Net-a-Porter.
The timing of MBFWA could also account for the increase in interest from international media, up 21.27% on last year.
US Vogue editor Anna Wintour has sent fashion writer Steff Yotka to cover the event.
Other global names attending include photographer Lee Oliviera, who will be snapping for the New York Times, and representatives from Vogue Mexico, US Elle, New York magazine's The Cut, the UK's Dazed and Confused and Grazia China.
Fashion week runs until May 21 with a celebrity model appearance from US Bella Hadid and closing show from New York-based fashion house Oscar de la Renta.
