The Melbourne Fashion Festival, officially PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival, is a nonprofit fashion festival founded in 1996. The organisation showcases Australian designers' profiles with various runway and fashion events. PayPal is its principal partner, and currently owns the naming rights. It was previously known as the L'Oreal and Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festivals.
According to their event policies, the festival banned animal fur.[1] The festival possesses a consumer-focused operational model and a 'see now, buy now' approach, with clothing worn on the runway available for immediate purchase at the festival.
The festival has fashion runway shows, business-related seminars and workshops, entertainment, and music performances across Melbourne. It is part of the Victorian Major Events calendar, seeking to drive tourism in Melbourne as well as promote Melbourne's existing reputation for fashion.[2] Over 15% of its public ticketing comes from outside of Melbourne's state of Victoria.
The Festival is held annually in mid-to-late March.
In 2023, the festival caused controversy after models wore material printed in Arabic spelling out "Allah walk with me." The Australian National Imams Council condemned the inclusion of the phrase as it featured on "transparent" garments, viewed by some as provocative and disrespectful.
The garments were designed by the label "Not A Man's Dream", which was subsequently removed by festival organisers. An apology was also released for allowing the garments to be displayed and for any offence caused by it.[3]