The strategy to revive the Australian fashion industry, backed by big-name designers
Following a difficult few years for the Australian fashion industry, marked by US-imposed tariffs, a slimmed-down fashion week and the shuttering of homegrown brands, the NSW government has launched a fashion sector strategy designed to rejuvenate the industry.
Speaking at the strategy launch last night, NSW Arts Minister John Graham said, “this is such an important, unique and interesting industry”.
“It’s an industry largely driven by women. It’s a vital expression of the Australian identity. It’s a big-hitting export industry. And it’s our biggest creative industry ... Employing 174,000 people in NSW and contributing almost $10 billion to our economy. And as a government, we want to see that grow even more.”
Fashion designer Anna Plunkett, one half of label Romance Was Born, at the Carla Zampatti warehouse in Waterloo.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
In what the NSW government is calling “the first of its kind”, the three-year strategy was produced by a committee of industry leaders, including co-chairs Alex Schuman, CEO of Carla Zampatti, and Edwina McCann, editorial director of Vogue Australia.
It includes a plan to establish an “Australian Fashion Hub” at The University of Technology for “emerging and established industry participants to collaborate”, a pilot program for a “smart” factory (a digitised manufacturing facility), overseas showrooms and investment from cultural institutions to showcase the work of designers.
Schuman, who is also the eldest child of the late designer Carla Zampatti, wants to see greater recognition of the industry’s economic and cultural force.
“What I would like to see is, number one, fashion recognised as a major cultural contribution. You go to the Louvre [in Paris] and you go to The Metropolitan Museum of Art [in New York], and they take fashion really seriously as an artistic form. We don’t have that sort of cultural reverence for the industry here,” he says.
“Fashion is such a successful export industry, it’s by far our largest cultural export.”
The industry generates $7.2 billion in exports each year, more than, say the $2.5 billion generated by wine exports.
Other collaborators involved in designing the strategy include Australian Fashion Council CEO Jaana Quaintance-James, Powerhouse Museum CEO Lisa Havilah, Camilla and Marc co-founder Marc Freeman and Romance Was Born designer Anna Plunkett.
Plunkett, who co-founded Romance Was Born 20 years ago, thinks the opportunity to showcase work overseas – something facilitated to her through the fashion council before COVID and now available through the new scheme – is particularly valuable.
“We picked up all our international accounts through those showrooms … it’s something that would never have happened in Australia so we’re pretty grateful to have that opportunity.”
Speaking at the launch, Graham also announced it would dedicate a $300,000 fund to support First Nations and emerging designers to show at Australian Fashion Week and $200,000 in grants for designers to purchase “critical equipment” or “take up professional development opportunities”.
These funds will be issued on a case-by-case basis, with the idea to renew annually, a spokesperson for the minister’s office told this masthead.
The strategy also includes plans to attract further investment from local and federal government.
Dr Carolina Quintero Rodriguez, a senior lecturer at RMIT’s School of Fashion and Textiles, praises the initiative’s work in addressing issues like rising manufacturing costs and limited onshore infrastructure. But calls for greater investment.
“It’s great that we are having this funding because it’s one of the few ones we are having from the government. But in total, honesty, I don’t think it will impact the hundreds of emerging designers that we have in Australia. I think this idea needs a lot more investment, and the risk is most funds will stay with the few emerging designers that are more connected to the ecosystem.”
Artist and fashion designer Jordan Gogos: “You can be as talented as you want, but without the right machines, you can’t execute it.”Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
Jordan Gogos, a Sydney-based artist and fashion designer and Powerhouse Museum resident, was excited to see the funding on offer to support emerging designers – particularly when it comes to expensive resourcing and equipment.
“That was the biggest hurdle [for me]. There’s a very big difference in your name growing, but having access to being able to upskill and grow your practice … you can be as talented as you want, but without the right machines, you can’t execute it.”
He points out that any strategy should acknowledge the broader “ecosystem” of fashion in Australia, which includes not just designers, but specialist makers of things like buttons and shoes.
“I want to be able to go to Marrickville to my local makers and have young people make [pieces] for me so that in the next 20 years, they’re still making with me.
“In the time I’ve been in the industry, the amount of people I’ve met that were making who have shut down their business. It’s very disorientating.”
Dr Lisa Lake, director of UTS’ Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion & Textiles who was not involved in designing the strategy, is excited to see “serious focus put on an industry that does bring so much to the nation and can get overlooked sometimes”.
She is particularly interested to see the development of a smart factory, a manufacturing model that is being tested in other countries, which has the potential to be scalable and poses a “potential kind of green future for fashion production in Australia.”
While the strategy is focused on NSW for now, Quaintance-James hopes to see similar initiatives roll out nationwide in future.
“We’ve discussed it, but I haven’t seen something that’s on the radar for any other states. However, I think there’s some really positive engagement happening around fashion in different states,” she says.
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