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"The much anticipated 2013 edition of the Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF) has officially begun but it isn\u2019t until tomorrow night\u2019s opening gala runway show that the real fun starts. On Tuesday night Melbourne\u2019s Docklands are set to play host to Australia\u2019s most fashionable party featuring the latest offerings from top Australian designers including Collette Dinnigan, Lisa Ho, Dion Lee, and Josh Goot.&amp;nbsp;Presented by David Jones and supported by Vogue Australia, the party will be opened by London-based, award winning designer Mary Katrantzou who has been flown in from London as a special guest of the festival. Katrantzou will also speak at the fashion business seminar and her collection will be a feature of the opening runway show.Beginning on Wednesday 20 March and continuing through until Sunday 24 March, the Loreal Paris Runway shows bring together the most sought after collections from Australia\u2019s top fashion designers. Featuring the latest designs from Australia\u2019s fashion elite including Akira, Carla Zampatti, Collette Dinnigan, Josh Goot, Maticevski, Scanlan &amp;amp; Theodore, and Willow, the series of seven shows is brought to life by state of the art production and world class runway producers.For those who can\u2019t wait to get their hands on the latest frocks and fashion accessories, the &amp;nbsp;festival\u2019s Shop the Runway \u201CPips\u201D technology allows instant access to runway must-haves through interactive online images within the festival website. Shop the Runway allows fashion fanatics to instantly discover information about their favourite designs, share looks with their friends, locate their nearest stockist, or buy online right away. Shop the Runway will be activated during the festival after each runway show and will be live on lmff.com.au from 19 March 2013.Catering to fashion conscious brides-to-be and the most discerning fashion connoisseurs, the festival\u2019s 23 March Red Carpet Runway sets the benchmark for Australian runway presentations. Presented by Harper\u2019s BAZAAR Brides, the Red Carpet Runway features a premium, sophisticated collection of breathtaking gowns and formal attire. This opulent, one-off show features&amp;nbsp;creations from a hand-selected ensemble of&amp;nbsp;prestigious Australian fashion houses including Akira Isogawa, Aurelio Costarella, Collette Dinnigan, Gwendolynne, Rachel Gilbert, and Toni Maticevski. Ella Hooper, former lead singer for Killing Heidi, will perform live for the event.Think you could pick Australia\u2019s next fashion star? Head to the Sportsgirl National Graduate Showcase on Saturday March 23 for a chance to find out. Featuring &amp;nbsp;12 fashion graduates handpicked from renowned design&amp;nbsp;institutions and universities across&amp;nbsp;the country, the Graduate Showcase gives Australia\u2019s most gifted fashion design graduates the chance to present their&amp;nbsp;original collections in this&amp;nbsp;prestigious annual showcase.Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival wouldn\u2019t be complete without a nod to Australia\u2019s avant-garde independent fashion labels. Featuring music by World\u2019s End Press and fashion by emerging and established designers including ksubi, From Britten, One Fell Swoop, and Zhivago, the Independent Runway promises to be anything but boring.As well as the fantastic runway events, the Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival also features a range of exciting cultural events. From exhibitions to workshops to offsite runway shows, the range of cultural events is as diverse as the runway collections. Running throughout the month, the cultural events program adds another dimension to the festival and contextualizes the runway collections.Highlights of the Cultural program include the Fashion Film Series, a&amp;nbsp;national initiative that showcases Australian&amp;nbsp;short fashion films across Melbourne and&amp;nbsp;Victoria; \u201CLaqueus,\u201D an exhibiton of Cherelyn Brearley\u2019s wearable crochet objects; \u201CFresh,\u201D an exhibition showcasing the talent and innovation of staff and emerging jewellers recently graduated from the Jewellery studio, MADA, Monash Art; \u201CFlesh and Bone,\u201D a dance-theatre performance by KAGE exploring the construction of attraction and rendering the most complicated pattern effortless; and \u201CLicence to Print,\u201D an exhibition and online platform featuring Tees created by some of Melbourne\u2019s great emerging and established designers that with the help of the Textile &amp;amp; Fashion Hub and Digital Printing will have been turned into high fashion.For the full LMFF 2013 program visit the Festival website here."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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