Perth Fashion Festival 2009 Program Launch

Face of Perth Fashion Festival 2009, 2008 WA model of the year Emily Cattermole

Finally, Perth Fashion Festival 2009's program has arrived (Friday 4/09/2009 to Thursday 10/09/2009). This was a near miss. I barely got myself organised to get to the launch show at 9:30 this morning. Having only a couple of hours to spare I snapped away and said hello to a few people I know. It was a relatively cold morning but the venue - old GPO in Forrest Chase - was charming and I was so excited to see the program.

The thing is since the economic downturn there was a talk of downsizing the festival (it's now running for 7days instead of 10). For example Ray Costarella (local designer exporting to the US ) apparently refused the covetted invitation to the NY fashion week as it was deemed not viable. I say 7 days of fashion is better than non at all and looking at the program it is pretty jam packed. I'm pretty sure that WA's economy is better than most other places looking at new designer store opening in the city namely Emporio Armani and Burberry.

Perth Fashion Festival is now into the second decade celebrating its 11th year. Oh I didn't know that until today but it is certainly the biggest event in my calendar after my guy's birthday. The launch show - if I could call it a show - was all about acknowledging the sponsors, organisers and most of all the release of the official program. Who's who of Perth fashion scene were there to have some chitchats and drink some champagne - a little early I thought.

I had some exciting moments without having any champers. Jack Be Nimble's Alister Yiap and the last year's WA student designer award winner, Leanne Lim will be showing off their work as part of the WA designer collections #2 on September 5.

Also, I met Sheree Dornan from Love in Tokyo - one of my favourite stores in High Street in Fremantle. She is flat out not only preparing for the festival (WA Designer Collection #1) but for the show StyleAid 2009 which is due to happen in two weeks time. I might be able to have a sneak peek at her designs before the show.

Alister Yiap's design

As you can see Perth Fashion Festival is all about supporting WA local designers and industry. On a day like this I'm quite proud to be living in Perth. We've got only 50 days to go. Running up to the launch show I will be catching up with student designers, WA designer collection participants and visiting local boutiques participating in the festival.

Tomorrow, I'll reveal the whole program.....but not before I go though a few more shots from this morning.

Tom Bull is our Youth Ambassador for the Festival. He is studying at UWA (the BEST in WA ) and jet-setting around the world modelling (who says all models are bimbos... ?) for Etro, Vivienne Westwood, and Ferragamo. Lisa Scaffidi is the Perth City Mayor and also the Festival Ambassador and finally Lisa Cattermole, the face of the festival.

You would think by now I wouldn't make such a big deal out of goodie bags after each event by showing you a photo but I still get excited by show goodie bags. Here I have some hair products from L'Oreal, Bella Hart's perfume sample and some tube of fancy cream. Of course, there you see the program. Ok. it's been a long day and I'm off to sleep. Ciao.

UPDATE: Perth Fashion Festival 2009 Program (calendar) in JPG. Download HERE so that you can manage your fashion schedule more wisely! This is just a single page document. If you'd like a full 2009 program follow the link below.

Big THANK YOU to Renee Glastonbury for granting my request of changing the PDF program to include the full calendar and making it slim - she removed all the pages except the calendar for easier download. http://www.perthfashionfestival.com.au/assets/pdf/program2009.pdf

UPDATE: Perth Fashion Festival tickets will be available online at Ticketek or check the Perth Fashion Festival website's ticket page for more details.