04 Oct, 2018

Fashion Forward Sisters Set to Exchange Ideas

To commence this exchange opportunity, the City of Adelaide and South Australian Tourism Commission are hosting the founder of Austin Fashion Week, Matt Swinney, in Adelaide, where he will attend the Adelaide Fashion Festival.

The City of Adelaide and Austin City Council are working toward a plan for 2019 where a local designer will participate in Fashion X Austin in April, and an Austin designer will join the Adelaide Fashion Festival presented by Mercedes-Benz Adelaide & Unley.

It’s being viewed as a great opportunity for Adelaide and Austin to collaborate on a tangible project that will strengthen and celebrate the Sister City relationship – formed 35 years ago in 1983.

The exchange would give a local designer exposure to new markets in the United States, in particular Austin and Dallas, as well as the chance to raise the profile of the South Australian creative industry sector.

City of Adelaide Chief Executive Officer Mark Goldstone said that since the Sister City relationship was formed, the two cities had developed strongly in the areas of culture, arts, technology and entrepreneurship. Mr Goldstone said that collaborating on fashion made perfect sense.

“Both our cities share a number of similarities, with one being an interest in fashion, and we think this could be the start of a great collaboration,” said Mr Goldstone.

Events South Australia, the events arm of the South Australian Tourism Commission and owners of the Adelaide Fashion Festival, welcomed the partnership and the potential opportunities for the local industry.

“Hosting Matt Swinney gives us the chance to show an international industry leader the outstanding creativity and design we have here in South Australia, and to demonstrate Adelaide’s capacity to host world-class events in the city,” Events South Australia executive director Hitaf Rasheed said.

“We’re confident that Matt will be impressed by the quality of the AFF runways, and we look forward to exploring the opportunity of an Adelaide-Austin Fashion Designer Exchange that will create new avenues for our local talent.”

Fashion X Austin is the largest week of fashion events in the state of Texas and the fourth largest fashion week concept in the United States.

Matt Halliwell