Nearly 200 volunteers modeled the latest fashions from local retailers at the Bendigo Town Hall on Thursday night for the 2015 Bendigo Fashion Festival.
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The styles on trend this year were floral and lace for the women and spring racing carnival suits for the men.
Festival creative director Penny Holloway said the event was an opportunity for retailers to show off their spring and summer collections as well as a chance for people to try their hand at modelling.
“We’ve got 170 local models so there’s not many people left in Bendigo willing to strut the runway, we’ve got them all,” she said.
Students from Crusoe 7-10 Secondary College, Girton Grammar School and Eaglehawk Secondary College had the chance to see their designs grace the catwalk while members of the Afghan and Karen communities showed off their traditional dress.
“We’ve got some great cultural groups and local students making pieces so it really is a big community event, it’s more than just what’s in fashion,” Ms Holloway said.
“We’ve got the Bendigo Afghan and Karen refugee groups that are showing us some of their traditional outfits that they hand make including some of their wedding outfits.
“I think it’s really important for everybody in Bendigo to see that sort of stuff and it’s so different to what we’re used to.”
Ms Holloway said the runway show, now in its ninth year, was a vital stepping stone for young Bendigo designers
“(The students) were supposed to have their own huge schools parade that happens every year but it’s been cancelled so this is their only chance to have a crack at showing what they’ve made,” she said.
Previous entrant Angus McCormack got his start at the Bendigo Fashion Festival and is now hot property in the design world.
“He was at Girton and he actually ended up closing the show for us because he was such a renowned designer and he’s gone on to do great things,” Ms Holloway said.
“This year we’ve had people say ‘Is Angus going to be a part of it?’.
“If he hadn’t had the opportunity through our runway he wouldn’t have been able to build that portfolio.”
Karen and Afghan fashions were on display as part of the Bendigo Fashion Festival for the first time this year.
Bendigo Community Health senior manager Kaye Graves approached festival organisers with the idea earlier this year.
“The Karen clothes are made on giant looms in the (refugee) camps… and they also have large looms here now and they make the clothes here,” she said.
“I saw the fashion festival was on and I thought ‘why wouldn’t we have these beautiful clothes from the Thai-Burmese border from the Karen and some of the Afghan fashion as well.”