I’ve never been to Australian Fashion Week. I’ve never been to any fashion related events. I was keen to attend having recently discovered a hidden love for fashion and so the team here and I attended this year. What I discovered wasn’t quite what I expected but I was silly to have those expectations. I’ll explain why.

My expectations for Australian Fashion Week were more in line with a music festival or even ComicCon than an industry event. When I got there and found that people weren’t partying but talking fashion, taking pictures, and attending shows. These people were serious about fashion and took the event seriously. That’s not to say that there wasn’t any fun to be had, there were several bars present, and they had their own amount of cheer, but ultimately, it felt like everyone was there to work.

While this is the first time that tickets to Australian Fashion Week were available for purchase by the public, that didn’t really seem to change the atmosphere as most people still seemed to be professionals. While there was energy in the air, it was a decidedly purposeful one.

It should be noted that we had arrived on Monday to simply check out what was going on, but we were not invited to any shows on that day so that crucial aspect wasn’t present. I could hear the music and I could see how excited people were to get inside the galleries. It makes me excited to attend shows later this week. But without a show to attend, unless you’re a photographer (i.e., what our team was there for), there’s nothing else for you really.

The best part of the day was obviously peeping and taking photos of all the outfits that were present. Such a range of styles and looks and almost all of them fabulous. I don’t think I’ve been around so many pretty and fashionable people in my entire life.

What I found funny was the very fine line of looking very stupid and looking very fashion. So many people rode the right side of the line but there were a few that slipped up and maybe took a risk that didn’t quite pay off. Observing what that line might have been for me helped me learn a lot about my own style.

I honestly thought that there would be more to say but everything was pretty chill and even the interior was fine, I guess. Some cool booths, like the Porsche booth, and whatnot but for the most part it felt like a stopover on your way to a show, which is probably what it is supposed to be.

Maybe my expectations were simply too high or completely irrelevant given what Australian Fashion Week is. It’s an industry show for industry people, it’s not a music festival, and it isn’t a fashion version of ComicCon (no matter how cool I think that sounds).

I can say I was disappointed but is that really fair when my expectations weren’t even close to what they were selling?

I’ll keep you updated as to how attending the shows actually goes to reserve a proper judgement as to how things went.

Going backstage was pretty cool though. Can’t say I’ve ever been backstage before in this capacity. I could walk around freely and that was very cool on its own.