Melbourne Fashion Week 2009 2

Amid the economic doom and gloom it is reassuring to know that the fashion industry still knows how to party. "We always put on a good show," said Melbourne Fashion Festival director Karen Webster, before the event's traditionally lavish launch-bash night. "It's our job to get people excited about fashion; that's what we're going to do." A thousand noisy, air-kissing, champagne-sipping, canape-nibbling VIPs kicked off the week-long festival in the ballroom of Government House last night. Fifteen models dressed in specially commissioned outfits, by as many designers, provided last night's "fashion moment", meant to whet the collective appetite for frocks to come. This year's moment was commissioned by Harper's Bazaar: 15 glamorous interpretations of stages in Australia's sartorial history. From the 1930s, Brisbane designers Pam Easton and Lydia Pearson presented a bulbous cocktail coat in vivid yellow print in the style of Poiret. The '20s were interpreted by Melbourne's favourite designer Toni Maticevski in a deeply cowled, silver-paillette, dropped-waist dress with swinging silk-fringe skirt. Alex Perry took the conservative route through the '50s with his ode to Dior, a strapless black crinoline with skirts wide as a four-man tent. Normally, the "moment" sparkles at the festival's launch party, an exclusive treat for VIP eyes only, and then is gone. But this year, it will be repeated for commuters through Southern Cross Station today at 7.30am, and again at 8am. The hosts of last night's party, Victorian Governor Professor David de Kretser and Mrs de Kretser, welcomed many of Australia's top fashion designers, including Toni Maticevski, Yeojin Bae, Kit Willow Podgornik, Kirrily Johnson, and Wayne Cooper. An A-list gaggle of better-dressed footballers, chefs, radio jocks, pop singers, soap actors and television presenters were also among the shivering, perfumed hordes spilling in and out of the ballroom and on to the Governor's lush lawn terrace, in time with speeches and bouts of rain. Ravishing young actor April Rose Pengilly, the "face" of the festival, was a social honeypot last night, and is booked to appear through the week, particularly at highlight parades on Central Pier, Docklands. Karen Webster said the event's extravagance was no more or less than in previous years, despite the recent slump in the economy. "We haven't had to cut back because everything's been in place for so long," she said. Many events in the festival's cultural program, including exhibitions and installations, are open today
http://www.smh.com.au/news/lifeandstyle/fashion/melbourne-fashion-festival-opens/2009/03/15/1237054685455.html