The Australian Fashion Council (AFC) is preparing to launch an industry working group in the next couple of days to help manage and facilitate Australian Fashion Week in 2025.
AFW founder Simon Lock will be a key member of the group. Lock sold AFW to IMG in 2005.
This comes after IMG announced last week that it was stepping away from the management of AFW in 2025, a few months after rumours began to spread that it was selling the event off - with the Daily Telegraph claiming the asking price was $1 million.
Alongside the industry working group, AFC CEO Jaana Quaintance-James also confirmed the council will issue a survey to its members to gather feedback on what the industry is keen to see in the future.
Initially, the key plan ahead is to move the event from a for-profit entity to a not-for-profit, industry-run initiative.
“Australian Fashion Week is a super important event on the calendar, and with [NSW Arts Minister] John Graham expressing his support for an industry-led event in 2025, we are essentially coordinating members and industry stakeholders to deliver that,” Quaintance-James said.
“The New South Wales Government has provided sponsorship funding for Fashion Week by IMG for many years, so it's basically exploring what it looks like to use that for an industry-led event in 2025.”
Exact details of how the event will run in 2025 have yet to be released, but Quaintance-James said the aim is to drive benefits for the fashion industry, connecting local designers and brands with the global fashion market.
It is also unclear how much the consumer market will form part of the 2025 line-up after the industry-focused event began hosting consumer runways in recent years - mostly as an encore runway that is separate from invite-only. It is believed this was done to diversify income streams after IMG began waiving participation fees amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the current cost-of-living crisis.
In a statement last week on IMG’s exit from AFW, PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival CEO Caroline 'Ralph' Ralphsmith said the market for designers is tough and consumer confidence is low.
Ralphsmith added that connecting designers to consumers is key to the success of PMFF - a consumer-driven not-for-profit runway event.
“With the digital transformation in the global economy, and the local economic climate, the investment into an industry event like AFW is challenging for designers," Ralphsmith said.
“The consumer-focused event model takes advantage of this evolution by connecting brands directly to consumers and facilitates purchases in real-time."
According to Ralphsmith, PMMF offers free opportunities for designers to connect and sell directly to consumers through its runway models.
“PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival has been running for 28 years as a not-for-profit organisation, with varied and diverse revenue sources, and is squarely placed in the direct-to-consumer space," Ralphsmith said.
“This consumer model is open to everyone to attend and in 2024 delivered over 10 per cent growth in attendance and highest customer satisfaction results on record, and planning is well underway for our 2025 Festival.”
Quaintance-James said switching AFW to a not-for-profit entity changes the game.
“It would still require commercial sponsorship or partnership as a part of it, but the difference is that with being a not-for-profit, there is no need to drive a commercial outcome out of that,” she said.
“We have an opportunity to reinvest the funding - and there is partnership funding already secured - that will all be directed towards delivering benefit for the industry.”