Melbourne Spring Fashion Week Begins 29 August at Southgate

From 29 August-7 September, Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (MSFW) arrives at Southgate with an eclectic range of free exhibitions and displays showcasing innovative emerging designers and the creative process behind some of Melbourne's most celebrated fashion icons.

"Melbourne is a city bursting with creativity, whether it is through food, fashion, arts, design or music. As Melbourne's landmark dining and shopping destination located next to the city's famous arts precinct, Southgate recognises the contribution Melbourne's iconic fashion designers make to our ever evolving creative scene to make Melbourne a celebrated arts and cultural capital," says Southgate marketing manager Jo Gartner.

The following exhibitions are presented by Southgate in association with MSFW:

Nixi Killick Centre Stage exhibition
Presented by the Photography Studies College
Podium level alcove gallery

A collaborative photography exhibition between innovative emerging designer Nixi Killick and students from the multi award winning Photography Studies College (Melbourne) showcasing Nixi's strikingly unique techno colour designs through one-off prints captured by some of the college's most promising graduating students.

Nixi was recently chosen as one of the world's top 100 independent designers at Italy's ORIGIN PASSION & BELIEFS showcase. Her designs are a vibrant mix of bio-psychedelic artwork and sculptured techno-wearables and have been worn by Lady Gaga, Kimbra, Hiatus Koyote and Lapalux of Brainfeeder. They have also featured on the runways of MSFW, Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, AWARE and iD Fashion week.

This creative and collaborative exhibition will be on display in the podium level alcove gallery at Southgate for the duration of Melbourne Spring Fashion Week.

Melbourne's Next Bright Talents
Fashion college garment exhibition
Upper Level

Showcasing some of Melbourne's most promising up and coming designers, this exhibition will display the most outstanding garments from the brightest graduating students from five fashion design schools.

Melbourne School of Fashion's Chris Avery will be exhibiting a design from his graduating menswear collection. Chris Avery's design ethos explores the relationship between traditional and non-traditional dress in menswear: guiding men to dress to suit themselves and their own personality rather than following social conventions. He holds a belief that this brand ethos allows men to explore style in an individual way. Chris is a strong advocate for the menswear market within the Australian and the wider international fashion community.

Four other graduating student designs will be featured from RMIT, Kangan Institute, Whitehouse Institute of Design, Australia and Box Hill Institute.

Concept to Creation: Icons of Melbourne Design
Outdoor promenade exhibition

The design ethos and inspirations behind seven of the city's most innovative designers will be uncovered in a unique outdoor exhibition on the Southgate Promenade.

Along the banks of the Yarra River opposite Flinders St Station, this exhibition will offer a sneak peak into the inspiration behind the designers' collections from 6pm on Friday 29 August. You can then see some of these designs come to life on runways as part of MSFW.

Featured designers include: Dom Bagnato, Gwendolynne, Richard Nylon, Feathers, Nicolangela, Tettmann Doust and Matcho Suba.

Concept to Creation provides an insight into the inner inspirations and musings behind the creation of these designers' Spring-Summer 2014 collections, as well as their unique personalities and the ethos behind their overall brand.

Discover more Melbourne Spring Fashion Week exhibitions, displays and fashion stores inside Southgate.

Southgate is home to a range of boutique retailers including vintage and fair trade fashion, designer homewares, art deco jewellery and antique art situated amidst a diverse range of restaurants and bars.