Fashion Forward Festival

Overview

Holding this in Paddington Town Hall is fitting (har) for several reasons: (1) FASHAN is SRS BIZNISS; (2) it's based around community participation, even if not of the 'objection to proposed development' type; (3) if you're in that area, you're probably already paying attention to your outfit. Civic-mindedness goes beyond the venue, though, with the Fashion Forward Festival giving emerging labels a platform and raising funds for the AIDS Trust of Australia. A bit more underground and a lot more public-access than RAFW, the well-cut edge of Australian design is showcased and paraded here across a couple of days of garments, swimwear and accessories.

The venue is practical, too: as well as fresh-faced and probably still only faux-jaded designers, some buyers and some people who would like to be buying, there will clearly be models at a fashion thing, and models are really tall. Not to suggest that they'd hit their heads on the ceilings of a less capacious space, but in terms of sense of scale this ends up being like an average-sized situation through a magnifying lens. That'll make you feel like you have brilliant attention to detail, which you're going to need to spot the careers as well as pieces being launched. A lot of care is taken in the festival's look(s) and there's a lot to care about in where the money it raises is going.