Sacred Heart Mission takes Melbourne Fashion Week by storm!

Sacred Heart Mission delivered its first ever Melbourne Fashion Week event last month. The ‘Well Made, Well Worn’ runway collection featured vintage and designer second-hand Australian fashion, spectacularly modelled by the diverse crew who work in our op shops.

The evening was an absolute hit with 250 people in attendance.

Some couldn’t believe it was our first-ever Melbourne Fashion Week event. “If that’s the first time you’ve done that…JUST WOW!!! Applause all around,” said Dan Phelan from Feelin’ Creative.

Guests were welcomed to the evening by the fabulous online op shop celebrities Ginger and Carman. The pair, dressed in SHM finds, brought high energy to the evening.

Our CEO Hang, dressed in Gorman by our South Melbourne op shop, had everyone enthralled with her introduction. She spoke about the community created by our op shops, and the importance of our Women’s Service, which funds from the evening supported.

Then Olga Pokrovskaya (whatpeoplewear.au) hosted a panel discussion with, Andy Paltos (Rolla’s and A-Brand) & Kristy Barber (KUWAII) on what makes clothing well made.

Kristy spoke about the complexity of sourcing fabric and making clothing in Melbourne and the costs often associated with this.

Andy, who has worked with denim for most of his career, highlighted how Australia has some of the best quality cotton in the world, but the high expenses mean that he manufactures overseas.

Our last guest speaker for the evening had such a hold on the audience you could have heard a pin drop. Clare Press (the Wardrobe Crisis) presented her talk on what we can do to support the Australian and second-hand fashion industries while also providing us with some startling facts.

Looking to Australia, did you know in the 1960s 97% of clothing was made in Australia – today that sits at just 3%.

On a global scale we currently have more than enough clothing on the earth to clothe the next size generations.

It was a real eye opener for everyone.

And what is a fashion event without the runway!

30 different looks across 3 different runways. Each runway celebrated three distinct fashion locations in Melbourne: Collins Street (work), Brunswick Street (leisure) and Chapel Street (party!). And did we mention all the models were volunteers and staff members from our op shops and fundraising team?!

The models absolutely stole the show and many guests said they were the highlight of the evening.

Clare remarked that “the whole runway was just as good as any big Oxfam fashion event I’ve been to in the UK.

Every one of the Australian fashion pieces worn on the runway were hand-picked by our 14 op shops and online store! A showcase of the incredible donation we receive.

The runway and speakers were followed by a shopping event where guests could shop 10 racks of curated Australian fashion and outfits from the runway were available for sale online.

The shopping event was a huge success with $10k raised in just one hour – that’s $166 a minute!

Sacred Heart Mission’s debut Melbourne Fashion week was an absolute hit and guests are already asking for a follow up next year.

“That was something really special, completely unique, inclusive, diverse and joyous – you must do it again next year, count me in!” says Mark Coombes from Mark Coombes Creative.

A fabulous outcome…our team is already brainstorming next year’s runway agenda!

Missed out? You can shop items from Melbourne Fashion Week at our online store.