Ministerial Statement

Adelaide Fashion Festival

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:06): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: In February this year, through His Excellency the Governor's speech, we announced that the state government would take carriage of the Adelaide Fashion Festival from the City of Norwood, Payneham and St Peter's council. Just eight months later, the first edition of the rejuvenated festival has just been completed and has been hailed as a resounding success.

The 2015 Adelaide Fashion Festival took place over four days, concluding on Sunday, with 18 events across the city, based at the Hindmarsh Square runway as well as at satellite events in Norwood, Unley and Glenelg. The event joined with high-end brands Mercedes-Benz Adelaide, as our presenting partner, and Palladium on Light, both of whom provided great commercial support.

About 5,000 people attended ticketed events during the festival with most events sold out. These events took place in beautiful settings such as the Art Gallery of South Australia, Electra House, Jamie's Italian and the Richmond Hotel, highlighting the best of our state as well as our local food and wine.

The Adelaide Fashion Festival is about supporting young, creative South Australians whether they be designers, models, makeup artists, retailers or other young entrepreneurs, providing them with an opportunity to put their best foot forward here in their own home state.

Young South Australians like Kate Anderson, owner of the newly created S I G The Label, showcased her creations alongside others at an internationally acclaimed event, also young Australians like Sophie McMahon, the inaugural winner of the Premier's Design Award, who will now undertake a 12-month mentoring program, immersing her in many aspects of the fashion industry including sourcing textiles, manufacturing, planning, marketing and public relations.

Importantly, the event provided a platform for our state's emerging designers to sell their wares at an AFF designer market held as part of the festival. The Adelaide Fashion Festival is also about making international connections and we were pleased to host a delegation from China including designer Madam Zhou and Qingdao Fashion Festival Event manager, Mr Zhang, attending the event.

International and national media attended the festival, including a delegation of fashion media from Qingdao and Beijing, Vogue, Australian Women's Weekly, and a variety of influential fashion bloggers. On Sunday night, the Adelaide Fashion Festival delivered its stunning finale with the international launch of the autumn-winter 2016 Paolo Sebastian Couture Collection—with two sold-out shows.

This year's fashion festival took place amongst a plethora of other national and international events in Adelaide including Tarnanthi Aboriginal Arts exhibition, the Adelaide Film Festival, the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, the Masters Games, the World Solar Challenge and, of course, Cheesefest.

The state government would like to thank the Events SA team (especially led by Hitaf Rasheed) and the South Australian Tourism Commission for making the 2015 Adelaide Fashion Festival a success. We thank all the corporate sponsors, members of the media and, most importantly, the Adelaide fashion industry for projecting our fashion scene on the world stage.