Your Melbourne Fashion Festival coverage kicks off right here with Voxfrock Crew mentor Chrissy Dore’s back-of-house report from Fashion On High presented by the City of Stonnington.
Words and photographs: Chrissy Dore
Fashion on High is a rare and fresh take on fashion, reflecting the unique style of a particular Melbourne community with a curation of designs from labels with physical stores on High Street, Armadale.
While locals are filing into Malvern Town Hall and finding their seats, backstage is a hive of activity: outfit adjustments, hair styling, meticulous makeup. There’s a sense of camaraderie among the professionals working and weaving around each other, knowing instinctively their place in this tiny back-of-runway zone.
Head stylist Stuart Walford (pictured) weaves around them all ensuring zips, buttons, pins, and jewels are perfectly in place before they hit the runway.
And then the show. Front-of-house, the audience is served up a succession of long gowns, chic sets, layered ensembles and accessories from Bared Footwear, Diida, Banded Together, Hansen and Gretel, Manning Cartell, Silk Laundry, Camilla, John Cavill, Feathers, Cue, Lisa Barron, Panada and Perri Cutten.
Two shows are scheduled and between them, audiences filter down Armadale’s famous fashion hub, High Street, for coffee and shopping, sometimes running into neighbours and friends: “I’ve just come from the fashion show, you should go to the next one.”
Fashion on High leaves a lasting impression beyond the runway. But if you missed it, a wander down High Street Armadale will catch you up!
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