PREPARATIONS are well in hand for the first Australian Country Fashion Week in Bathurst in late January.
COUNTRY ROAD: Bathurst can't compete with the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, but the city will aim to show off a unique country flavour when it hosts the Australian Country Fashion Week in late January. Photo: AAP IMAGE/DAVID MOIR
Bathurst Panthers, Australian Country Festival of Fashion and Shannons Insurance are combining to hold the event, which will run from Tuesday, January 29 to Saturday, February 2, 2019.
Organisers have been working since March to finalise a variety of activities, according to Bathurst Panthers events and catering manager Fiona Bowling.
“Naturally, it is a huge challenge to present a program that has a similarity to the Sydney Fashion Week and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week,” organiser Tom Pratley said.
“To offset their major city stores, designers and media coverage, we have arranged a number of activities that still focus on the main theme of fashion, but provide activities that they do not have as part of their fashion week.”
Most important, Mr Pratley said, is that all funds raised will go to charities: the Salvation Army, Lifeline, Kidney Health, St Vincent de Paul, Youth off the Streets, Ronald McDonald House, Daffodil Cottage, Careflight, NSW Cancer Council and the McGrath Breast Cancer Foundation.
The week will include fashion parades each day, dinner dances, a wine tasting, photography exhibitions and live entertainment.
On the Saturday night, the former Australian Country Fashion Beauty Pageant will be replaced by the Australian Country Fashion Week Model of the Year titles.
Mr Pratley said a well-known Sydney photographer was invited to select the ambassador for the fashion week.
“He selected Jemima Hobson, a student from All Saints’ College. His selection was based on healthy body image and someone that, in his opinion, would gain employment in the television and commercial advertising business,” he said.
Mr Pratley said a feature of the fashion week will be the focus on locally owned fashion businesses from many regions and “the prime objective of that decision is to support country-owned businesses”.
