Australian Fashion Week wraps up five-day extravaganza in Sydney

Australian Fashion Week wrapped up its 2026 schedule on Friday, bringing down the curtain on a five-day fashion extravaganza in Sydney, where both established and emerging brands showcased their newest collections to global editors and buyers.

Running from May 11-15, the latest fashion week was the first to take place at new-found hub, the Museum of Contemporary Art, with offsite shows held in exclusive locations throughout Australia’s fashion capital.

Making his return to the Australian Fashion Week programming after a 10-year hiatus, Melbourne designer Toni Maticevski opened Australian Fashion Week with a sculptural fantasy collection that was the most technically impressive of the week: wide-shouldered, couture-detailed tailored looks; reverse collared tops, slashed up long skirts, and some dreamy men’s pants in sheer organza, nonetheless.

Beare Park, one the most sought-after show tickets of the season, staged its latest womenswear collection in a harbour-facing room inside the iconic Opera House. Minimal simplicity is brand founder and designer Gabriella Perreira’s signature, and this season did just that with louche tailoring, slip dresses and workwear cut from locally-sourced silks and wool fabrics with a monochromatic palette of ivory, pearl, rust and plenty of black, just how the Beare Park woman prefers it.

Day two was an early one: an 8 a.m. Commas show on the shores of Tamarama Beach, the same place the luxury menswear brand held its debut runway show back in 2021. For resort 2027, the Sydney-based label’s founder and creative Richard Jarman sought inspiration from cricket whites, lensed through the colours and terrain of the Australian coast.

“It’s a long morning at the beach. There’s a loose cricket theme running through the collection, and what I like about cricket is that it’s one of those rare sports where people dress up properly, then roll their sleeves up and let the clothes get lived in. That high-low instinct is the whole collection,” explains Jarman, who runs his label with wife, Emma.

“We came back to Tamarama because it feels honest, both to the brand and to me. Tearing down a set the morning after a fashion show has never sat right with me.”

Under threatening grey skies, tailored linens and raw silks in off-white felt at ease alongside lightweight suiting cut for summer nights. While for cooler climates, a series of oversized chunky pieces, hand-knit from Japanese wool in Bondi by John Macarthur, cocooned the lithe models as the wind howled and the waves crashed behind.

After lunch, local designer Courtney Zheng made her AFW debut, inside the new MCA show space. The Sydneysider sent out an edgy yet sophisticated resort 2027 collection that gave a lesson in “Beauty as Resistance” (the collection’s name) that expanded upon her signature dark romanticism, cemented in her colour palette of black and white, seen in wrap skirts over trousers and relaxed suiting, with pops of pistachio across tailored shorts and powder pink silk shirts. The collection capped off by a red carpet worthy, all-black, strapless gown with pannier-inspired volume and rosebud formations at the waist.

A complete shift in gear came later in the day at Hansen & Gretel, with a summery nostalgic collection from creative director, Ainsley Hansen. Dubbed “Tide”, the youth-inspired collection was awash in saltwater blue and popsicle pinks with mother-of-pearl shell appliqué (seen on the it-bag of next summer), and hibiscus prints on halter tops and pants sets, taking guests back to the summer of ’02.

Cult-followed designer Alix Higgins closed out the second day offsite inside a jam-packed gallery, China Heights, located in the uber cool suburb of Surry Hills. Higgins returned with his playful prints and statement slogans, with this season’s “This is my show” emblazoned a tight-fit, canary yellow T-shirt. Standout pieces were the wide-shouldered polo shirts, with extreme shoulder pad inserts riffing on an American footballer, alongside Higgins’ signature bold, childlike prints seen in leggings and matching shorts.

Day three opened with Esse Studios, an emerging label that showed last season as part of The Frontier group showcase. And this season, the brand, helmed by designer Charlotte Hicks, was one of the standout collections of the season. Esse opened with a floor-length textured cream overcoat over a black silk dress with fringing from the knee, following up with a collection of muted jewel tones — emerald, plum, and mustard across blouses and slinky dresses, some with sequins and statement fringing. Esse produces 98% of its contemporary womenswear in Australia, setting the bar high for made in Australia design.

The day closed with an informed display of chic sexiness at Mariam Seddiq. The Afghan-Australian designer opened with sophisticated tailoring, including an ivory silk tuxedo pant suit, backed up by textural gowns, some in vegan leather with fringing that shimmied down the runway. Aligning with the designer’s elegance, the collection favoured a monochromatic palette of smoked plum, mulberry, tobacco, dark chocolate and washed greys.

The penultimate day of fashion week swung back to menswear, with a debut resort collection from Christian Kimber that would have fit just as perfectly on the runways of Milan, as it did here in Sydney.

The morning show opened with a bright blue shirt and short set, the latter item pleated and knee length in a welcomed revolt against the micro shorts hitting the men’s runways in Europe last summer. Later in the collection, relaxed, light tailoring in tonal greens, and browns made for sophisticated warm weather dressing.  For designer Christian Kimber, resort wear doesn’t need to be basic.

“As a brand, we’ve always been interested in the ritual of dressing, and I think that’s often lost in resort,” said Kimber, adding his collection took inspiration from the style of the men in Paros. “There’s a tendency for it to become overly simplified—shorts and T-shirts—but I wanted to bring back a sense of elegance and romance.”

After a four-year break, L’idee Woman closed fashion week with a glamorous disco show bookended by American supermodel Taylor Hill and Australian veteran model, Gemma Ward. The 30-piece, made up entirely of after-dark gowns open with Hill in a metallic plissé dress with plunging neckline and batwings, followed by muted jewel tone frocks in high-gloss textures and statement sequins reinforcing the brand’s sexy approach to party wear. As the show finished, guests were handed a souvenir mini Don Julio on a platter by an ensemble of dashing waiters, before the show’s soundtrack transitioned into French club music and guests got up from their lounge chairs to the runway-cum-dance floor for the fashion week afterparty.

At the completion of AFW 2026, a year which marked the event’s 30t anniversary, Kellie Hush, fashion director of AFW reinforced that the move to relocate Australia’s biggest fashion industry event to the Museum of Contemporary Art (after 15 years at Carriageworks in Sydney’s inner west) had paid off, setting the perfect scene for buyers and editors to witness the latest collections from Australian talent.

“Moving AFW to the Museum of Contemporary Art was a decision made at the end of last year that looked bold on paper and delivered in practice – Sydney harbour as backdrop, the MCA’s architecture as frame, and a week that held its shape from the First Nations designers who opened the program to those who closed it, a deliberate and memorable first for the event. In between, the designer lineup was as diverse as it has ever been, and every one of them showed up with something to say,” Hush told FashionNetwork.com.

“I spent much of the week alongside our international buyers, and what struck me was the quality of their attention – they came to see the brands already in their portfolios and left having discovered new ones, with real conversations and real intent behind both. 

“Many significant firsts marked the 30th year of AFW, plus culture and commerce running alongside each other. It was a week that earned its amazing result,” Hush concluded.

The Australian fashion industry is projected to reach a market size of AU$30.7 billion (US$22.02 billlion) in 2026, according to consultancy firm Ibis World, representing growth of 4.3% CAGR between 2021 and 2026.