Sydney celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the Australian Fashion Laureate Awards with a grand dinner in Barangaroo and a fashion flock dressed to kill.
Last week’s 10th Australian Fashion Laureate Award ceremony recognized and celebrated Australian designers who have made a significant contribution to the Australian fashion industry over the past 12 months. Awards were presented amid 260 of the Australian fashion industry’s biggest names.
Dion Lee took home this year’s Laureate, an award voted for by a panel of industry peers, which recognizes those individuals who have promoted and advanced the Australian fashion industry internationally. Winning the biggest accolade of the Australian fashion industry comes as the cherry on top of a huge year for Lee. The designer opened this year’s Australian Fashion Week with a monumental show at the Sydney Opera House and recently moved to New York, where he hopes to open his first international store.
The Zimmermann sisters, who founded their namesake brand in Sydney in 1991, won the award for Best Australian Womenswear and Jac + Jack was awarded for Best Australian Menswear. The Etihad Airways’ Emerging Talent Award went to Pip Edwards and Claire Tregoning of P.E Nation, who launched their brand just last year.
The award ceremony was first established in 2008 by the New South Wales Government and IMG, as a way to both celebrate and provide international exposure to talent within the Australian fashion industry. Carla Zampatti, Jenny Kee and Toni Maticevski are just some of those influential individuals that the laureate has presented awards to.
See below for a full list of this year’s finalists.
The full list of finalists:
Australian Fashion Laureate Award
Dion Lee (Dion Lee)
Edwina McCann (Vogue Australia)
Kym Ellery (Ellery)
Nicholas Huxley (The Fashion Design Studio)
Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett (Romance Was Born)
Best Australian Womenswear
Camilla and Marc
Dion Lee
Ellery
Romance Was Born
Zimmermann
Best Australian Menswear
Calibre
Jac + Jack
P Johnson
Song For The Mute
Strateas Carlucci
Best Australian Emerging Designer
Albus Lumen
Double Rainbouu
Kacey Devlin
P.E Nation
We Are Kindred
Best Australian Retailer
Bassike
David Jones
Harrolds
Incu
Parlour X
Best Australia Accessories Designer
Dinosaur Designs
Lucy Folk
Ryan Storer
Sarah & Sebastian