Australia's largest consumer fashion event, PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival, has unveiled a festival-first dedicated expansion into regional Victoria with the launch of the Geelong Fashion Fortnight, supported by the City of Greater Geelong.
Anchored in one of Australia's fastest-growing creative regions and a UNESCO City of Design, the Geelong Fashion Fortnight will showcase the city's thriving local fashion scene across a series of events and activations this year, taking place during Festival dates February 14-28.
The Geelong Fashion Fortnight forms part of the Festival's 30th anniversary program, celebrating three decades of successfully fostering the future of Australian fashion talent, delighting festivalgoers with world-class events, reinforcing Melbourne's position as Australia's fashion and events capital, and ultimately delivering growth to the local fashion industry.
"The Geelong Fashion Fortnight is an exciting new step in continuing to extend PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival's footprint beyond metropolitan boundaries and deepening the commitment to fashion communities Victoria-wide," said Melbourne Fashion Festival chief executive Caroline 'Ralph' Ralphsmith.
"We're creating meaningful opportunities for local designers, makers and creatives to be showcased on a major platform, while inviting new audiences to engage with fashion in a distinctly regional context. We're proud to collaborate with the City of Greater Geelong and an incredible network of local partners to bring this program to life."
In 2026 the inaugural Geelong Fashion Fortnight will feature 16 unique events, 10 of which are free to attend, including exhibitions, workshops, runways and markets, hosted by the National Wool Museum, Creative Geelong, Murran First Nations Hub, Westfield Geelong, Millinery Australia, and more.
With the event having it's own Murran First Nations Hub, there will have a strong spotlight on First Nations talent across several events, activations and activities,
First Nations-focused highlights include a jewellery-making workshop with Wadawurrung artist and textile designer Wadawurrung Dr Deanne Gilson (21st February), Brushstroke to Bespoke: an Indigenous Art x Fashion Collaboration(18th February) with Mr Brown's Menswear, a Blak Koture First Nations designer runway and much more.
Several established First Nations designers and brands will participate in the Blak Koture runway, including Maara Collective, Liandra, Yangurrdi, Ngali and MumRed.
"As MumRed prepares to travel to Thailand for the International Design Awards 2025 — where the label has been awarded Gold in the Fashion category — the brand is simultaneously deep in creation at home, developing a powerful new capsule work for Blak Kourure in collaboration with Melbourne Fashion Festival in Geelong," MumRed designer Samala Cronin told Style Up, a National Indigenous Times publication.
"Working alongside Murran Hub, MumRed is curating a capsule display with Westfield that will bring together signature pieces from the label alongside works that will be showcased on major runways in 2026."
Greater Geelong mayor, Stretch Kontelj OAM, expressed his excitement surrounding PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival's first expansion into regional Victoria
"As Australia's first UNESCO City of Design, we're thrilled to partner with the PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival on its first expansion into regional Victoria. This collaboration felt like a natural fit and a meaningful way to recognise the strength of Geelong's creative and design community," he said.
"From our rich textile history, celebrated through the National Wool Museum, to the many contemporary fashion brands that have emerged from the region, Geelong has a strong and authentic fashion story to tell."
PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival is Australia's largest major fashion event, with the purpose of developing, supporting and showcasing local and emerging fashion talent and delivering growth to the entire Australian fashion industry.
PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival's Geelong Fashion Fortnight takes place from the 14th - 28th of February 2026 at various venues across the City of Greater Geelong.
