This article first appeared on Vogue Australia.
IMG, the media company known for owning and operating Australian Fashion Week, has announced that it will no longer back the annual event, which takes place in Sydney each May.
IMG Fashion Events & Properties has also announced it will no longer be facilitating the Australian Fashion Laureate, a ceremony that honours the best names in Australian fashion. It is now yet to be confirmed whether an Australian Fashion Week will take place in 2025 or when a new owner will be announced.
“We are incredibly proud of IMG’s many accomplishments leading Australian Fashion Week for the last 20 years,” IMG Fashion Events Asia Pacific vice president and managing director Natalie Xenita said in a press release. “The event has played a key role in ushering the industry forward.”
The absence of IMG in facilitating Australian Fashion Week means the future of the event is currently in limbo. The 2024 Australian Fashion Laureate will take place on 21 November and marks the final fashion event facilitated by IMG in Australia.
Edwina McCann, the editorial director and publisher of News Prestige and Condé Nast Titles Australia and former editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia, calls Australian Fashion Week “an important platform for launching Australian designers on a local and global stage”.
“While it’s sad to see IMG Events exit the market, it’s also an opportunity for the industry to come together under the leadership of the not-for-profit Australian Fashion Council to decide how this event might be reimagined to best serve Australian designers and the industry in the future,” McCann says, noting that the Australian Fashion Week has been a launchpad for brands like Zimmermann, now one of the country’s most successful fashion exports.
Australian Fashion Week is the nation’s leading fashion event and provides a globally recognised stage for established and emerging designers to present their collections. In recent years, it has seen a pivot to platforming First Nations designers as well as emerging creatives in the fashion industry. Australia’s most well-regarded designers, like Christopher Esber, Alex Perry, Romance Was Born and Akira Isogawa, can trace their beginnings to the event.
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