To see what a real fashion victim looks like close up, you just had to be in the windswept car park at Wharf 8 in Millers Point between 9pm and 10pm on Tuesday, as 300 people in black tie and once-blowdried hair stood in the pouring rain clutching invitations to designer Wayne Cooper's show. A few grumbled and left in a huff. Most just smoked and shivered in silence until, an hour late, they were hustled inside by none other than Simon Lock, the architect of Mercedes Australian Fashion Week, dressed top to toe in dripping wet, black and burgundy Wayne Cooper. Which goes to show how dedicated are Sydney followers of fashion. You can forget trying to drum up audiences for empty art galleries at West Circular Quay.
Fashion shows are the new art gallery.
Amid the current economic doom and gloom, grey skies and drenching rain, this week at the Fox Studios headquarters of AFW the sun has been shining. Much of AFW's success this year is due to our cheap dollar. But Sydney has also become global flavour of the moment, with the Sunday Times listing us alongside London, Paris, Milan and New York as the Big Five on the fashion calendar. What helps is an archaic custom that has new fabrics, which all designers use, being released in Paris in March, while the first European fashion shows aren't until June-July. And they do eat, contrary to popular belief.