Fashion news from here and there, with 2019 looking like a year of change and flux.

Who’s Lining up for VAMFF’s Runway?

With just over a month away until the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, this year’s iteration of the Australian fashion showcase is becoming more and more real. While international and iconic local labels will no doubt be making their appearances, the festival is also opening up space for smaller Australian labels. Presented by Fashion Journal, Runway 6 on Saturday, March 9 will feature the likes of A.BCH, búl, NIQUE, KUWAII, Lois Hazel, Hew and BYBL By Bettina Liano.

A Fully Customisable Sneaker – Only Worn By You

This week, in Milan, luxury fashion label Ermenegildo Zegna opened a new front in the never ending sneaker wars. Realising, or pre-empting, the desire to have a shoe that is exclusively the wearer’s, the My Cesare trainer is fully customisable. Options the buyer is able to alter include mesh, leather detailing and soles, as well as choice of colour. Whether this choose your own adventure-style sneaker will pave the way for other imitation products is yet to be seen, but at least we can hope that we won’t be seeing the same pair of Yeezys on every footpath soon.

Anna Wintour Speaks on Australian Fashion

While her comments on our Prime Minister’s backwards stance on LGBTQI rights caught the eye of the conservative press in Australia, the editor in chief of Vogue has continued to make an impression on the Australian landscape. Visiting the Australian Designer Showcase at the National Gallery of Victoria, Wintour had some words of advice to eleven young Australian designers. Nagnata, Maggie Marilyn, Albus Lumen, Lyn-Al Young, Acler, The Replica Project by Amanda Nichols, Chris Ran Lin, Ex Infinitas, Blair Archibald, Song For The Mute and Templa were the beneficiaries of this woman’s wisdom, who also donated two Chanel looks to the gallery’s fashion collection.

Haute Couture Further Courts Instagram

By now, the line between what we see on the catwalk and what we see on Instagram is basically non-existent, but it took last week’s Viktor & Rolf SS19 couture collection to throw that reality into stark relief. Featuring overblown tulle gowns with slogans such as “Leave me alone”, “I am my own muse” or “No photos please”, the collection was self-reflexively demonstrating how fashion is inseparable from the memes and viral images that it spawns. With designers ever more willing to embrace this social media gambit, we can expect to see more and more collections that play with this contemporary dynamic.

Sales: PE Nation

WHAT: Online sale, up to 40 per cent off
WHEN: While stocks last.
WHERE: https://pe-nation.com/womens/sale

Sales: Sol Sana

WHAT: Outlet sale, sandals $60, shoes $80, boots $100
WHEN: Until February 16
WHERE: 53 Cross St, Double Bay