Fiji Fashion Week Releases Show Schedule

Fiji Fashion Week Announces Designers for its 10^th Anniversary Show!

Fiji Fashion Week has announced today its schedule for this years’ shows to be held in Suva from 22 – 27 May 2017.

Reaching into its 10^th year, Fiji Fashion Week is excited that the collections shows this year includes 34 designers across its 3 shows nightly shows (Pacific Resort, Trend Setters, Couture) as well as 8 Children’s designers over 20 student designers.

Fiji Fashion always attracts an eclectic mix of emerging and established designers and this year designers include: 8 Mountains, Chamorrita Swimwear, Dane Fabricius, Engeleena, Femata Couture, Hani Haring, Haus of Koila, Hupfeld Hoerder Designs, Jade Lloyd Jones, JOAN.A, Karalina, KO-IA, KuiViti,  nasaroa, Oliver Sinclair, PNGianKala by Sarah Todd, Rachel Fairfax Designs, RIMA Designs, Robert Kennedy Fiji, Tauariki Wear, Waithiko Creation, Zuber.

It is a who’s who of Pacific fashion and the highlights for this year include:

• First ever Pacific Islands Resort Show featuring 12 designers from across the Pacific
• 8 designers showing debut collections, including debut by Australia children’s wear label Jade Lloyd Jones
• Haus of Koila to open Fiji Fashion Week with their first ever FJFW Show
• Fiji’s most accoladed designer Hupfeld Hoerder to close the Couture Show and Fiji Fashion Week 10^th Anniversary
• Collections show from the 2016 graduating class of the Australia Pacific Technical College Certificate III in Fashion Technology
• 9 designers presenting menswear.

The Managing Director of Fiji Fashion Week, Mrs Ellen Whippy Knight is delighted to see the arrival of the tenth anniversary and reflects upon the growth in the fashion industry in Fiji during that time, “We have got a lot of new talent in the market. We have emerging designers who have been looking for an outlet to showcase their work and we have got established designers who have been working with us since 2008 and now operating businesses themselves.”

Fiji Fashion Week is actively creating opportunities for Pacific designers and that is why they are launching the Pacific Islands Resort Show this year.  “There is so much talent in the Pacific – designers who are trained and building their businesses and designers who are just doing what comes naturally to them – being inspired by their surroundings and expressing that in beautiful, wearable clothes.  We want to position these designers to make the most of the media and buyers located in the region and so the show will move to Sydney in 2018” says Mrs Whippy Knight.

Another first for the event is the inclusion of a fashion symposium on the schedule.  Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker, Tracy Kennedy from Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand while present on the global business of fashion.  Other speakers include: brand developer Peter Naughton, former IMG Head of Fashion Emily Weight, and designer/artist/maker Beck Jobson A/g CEO Craft Victoria.

You can find Fiji Fashion Week at www.fijifashionweek.com.fj