Melbourne Fashion Festival
The Melbourne Fashion Festival, officially PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival for sponsorship reasons, is a not-for-profit fashion festival founded in 1996. The organisation showcases the profiles of Australian designers with a variety of runway and fashion events. PayPal is its principal partner, and currently owns the naming rights. It was previously known as the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival. According to their event policies, the festival enforces a no animal fur rule. The festival possesses a consumer-focused operational model and a 'see now, buy now' approach, with clothing worn on the runway available for immediate purchase at the festival. The festival provides fashion runway shows, business-related seminars and workshops, entertainment, and music performance across Melbourne. It is part of the Victorian Major Events calendar, seeking to drive tourism in Melbourne as well as promote Melbourne's existing reputation for fashion. Over 15% of its public ticketing comes from outside of Melbourne's state of Victoria. The Festival is held annually in mid-to-late March. Controversy 
In 2023, the festival caused controversy after models wore material printed in Arabic spelling out "Allah walk with me." The Australian National Imams Council condemned the inclusion of the phrase as it featured on "transparent" garments, viewed by some as provocative and disrespectful. The garments were designed by the label "Not A Man's Dream", which was subsequently removed by festival organizers. An apology was also released for allowing the garments to be displayed and for any offense caused by it. References

External links
 

Fashion events in Australia
Fashion festivals