Sydney
Fashion Week

Australian Fashion Week was founded in 1996 in Sydney by PR consultant Simon Lock, through his company Australian Fashion Innovators. Its inaugural season featured designers including Akira Isogawa, Alex Perry and Wayne Cooper, establishing Sydney as the anchor city for the country’s fashion calendar from the outset.

Lock sold the event to global sports and entertainment agency IMG in 2005, which ran it for nearly two decades before Lock himself departed the company in 2010. The week carried a succession of title sponsors over the following years — Rosemount Estate from 2006, Mercedes-Benz from 2011, and Afterpay through the early 2020s — before IMG withdrew as organiser and backer in November 2024, leaving the event’s future uncertain.

In 2025, the Australian Fashion Council — the industry’s peak body — stepped in as primary organiser, contracting independent agency Bashful Group to lead production, with Simon Lock returning to help lock in dates for that year’s edition.

In 2021, the week introduced dedicated First Nations designer showcases, featuring 13 Indigenous designers on the official schedule — part of a broader effort to widen who gets a platform at the event beyond its earlier, narrower roster.

Australian Fashion Week marked its 30th anniversary in 2026, moving to a new central venue, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia at Circular Quay, after thirteen years based at Carriageworks. The 2026 season, Resort 26, ran 11–15 May and for the first time opened six runway events to the public rather than trade and media alone — continuing the week’s longstanding role as the first international fashion week to preview Resort collections each year.