Concrete Playground

Australian Fashion Week is, like probably more than a few of the models who'll be a part of it, turning 16 this year — and it's being thrown a monster birthday party that's also kind of a parent-teacher night. In typically immersive style, the Powerhouse Museum's Frock Stars: Inside Australian Fashion Week project is designed so visitors get to see the people and the work spaces on as hands-on a basis as can happen without fabric scissors.

Such a setup is particularly interesting in terms of something so contemporary — there's a 'backstage pass' concept to the show that is similar to media coverage of the event it investigates. It makes for a sort of aspiring-insidery vibe to acquiring the sort of history that has formerly served gossip and glossy pages and serves up the sort of practical understanding that could be useful to someone talking their way into an internship.

Divided into Backstage, Catwalk, Front Row and Studio sections, Frock Stars can come across a little bit case study. There are interviews and anecdotes and outfits, curated as social history in terms of business as well as design and celebrity, and visitors are up close with the industry as much as the fashion.

Image by Ian Waldie.