All the must-see moments from Australian Fashion Week 2026

Australian Fashion Week presented by Shark Beauty is back for 2026! As the event marks its 30th anniversary, organisers have taken designers, international buyers, key media and models back to the harbour, with the Museum of Contemporary Art as the central hub for a week of runway shows, presentations, talks and activations set against one of Sydney’s most iconic backdrops. Now in its second year under the Australian Fashion Council — which took over from IMG in early 2025 — the return to the MCA’s harbourside setting is being described as something of a homecoming, after 12 years at the industrial creative precinct, Carriageworks.

Monday morning opened with a traditional Welcome to Country and accompanying performance on the MCA Lawn before welcome addresses from Lord Mayor Clover Moore. The first two shows of the morning were presentations by Colleen Tight Johnson at Buluuy Mirri and Van ErVan Ermel Scherer, presented by Create NSW on the MCA Canvas.

The AFW schedule runs from 11–15 May 2026, with collections from beloved Australian brands who are fixtures on the schedule like Aje and Carla Zampatti, alongside a strong cohort of talents including Alix Higgins, Courtney Zheng, Ngali, Nagnata, Iordanes Spyridon Gogos, Nicol & Ford and Beare Park, all presenting Resort 27 collections. First Nations designers Buluuy Mirri and Van Ermel Scherer opened Australian Fashion Week on a sun-drenched rooftop at the MCA, the harbour spread out below them. Meanwhile, Toni Maticevski, a beloved Australian designer who has dressed everyone from Taylor Swift to Teyana Taylor, is presenting for the first time since 2019.

For those attending, the week will be characterised by some hectic commuting. For the last few years, shows have largely been hosted at Carriageworks, but this year, guests will be able to take in many of Sydney’s most picturesque locations, with a large portion of runways appearing at special off-site locations.

Stay across all the action from AFW 2026 below.

Maticevski

A highlight of any fashion week calendar, Toni Maticevski’s return to the runway, his first show since 2019, was one of the most anticipated moments of AFW 2026. Held at The Collider on Pitt Street, where guests lined the block, the Winter 26 collection had a haunting feel. Gemma Ward opened the presentation wearing a wintery construction that against the white walls and floors of Collider made her look like she was walking on a moonscape in luxurious armour. Single coil of luminous organza wound around her throat enhancing a sense of otherworldliness. Sculptural gowns drew on the idea of a magnetic woman enshrined in precisely tailored fabrics from opalescent silks to leathers. Whether they were cages or armour was open to interpretation.

Maticevski

Fringing was a recurring motif, skirts and trousers dissolving into delicate wisps that moved almost like feathers. Models accessorised with molten metal earrings and steel coils worn beneath shimmering organza ruffs. Several looks featured ornamental flower sculptures by florist, artist and philosopher Dr Lisa Cooper, lending the collection a quality of lush, otherworldly nature.

The collection closed on two sculptural gothic gowns with exaggerated pannier cages that transformed the models’ silhouettes with a sense of gothic drama at once ethereal and imposing.

Van Ermel Scherer

Models emerged looking fresh from the ocean at Van Ermel Scherer, where proud Larrakia woman Verity van Ermel Scherer showcased her luxury swim and resort wear for the first time. The brand was born from memory and grief: Scherer was inspired by her late grandmother Valerie, a Larrakia woman and Stolen Generation survivor who was herself a designer, and by her own mother’s mourning for the family history and identity that was taken.

Van Ermel Scherer

This was the brand’s debut at Australian Fashion Week, and it arrived as a collaboration with contemporary Wiradjuri, Ngiyampaa and Barkindji artist Lizzy Stageman. Swimwear, including precision-constructed, double-lined pieces from bikinis and one-pieces to wetsuit styles, was accompanied by floating 100% silk crêpe de chine kaftans that floated weightlessly down the runway. Models were glossy limbed with slicked hair and sun-kissed cheeks. But while the looks were easy, breezy and spoke to Australian beach culture the history the brand is grounded in was very present. Scherer’s mother, Jennifer, opened the show, and the voice of Scherer’s late grandmother — sharing her life’s testimony — played across the start of the presentation

Buluuy Murrii

Colleen Tighe Johnson — the designer behind Buluuy Mirri, who has previously shown at Paris Fashion Week — presented Love from Gamilaraay. The collection was inspired by Gamilaraay culture: it’s language, country and animals. Johnson commissions Gomeroi artworks and transforms them into fabric prints, transferring them onto luxury textiles; each collection is an act of cultural reclamation, reviving Gomeroi heritage stitch by stitch.

Buluuy Murrii

Drawn from the Mehi River and the skies of Gamilaroi Country, the palette spanned deep umber and burnt ochre to brilliant sunshine yellow, with statement gowns punctuating the resort separates. Billie-Jean Hamlet opened in a strapless gown the colour of a scorched sky, its embroidered train alive with sequin emus and kangaroos. Blouson tops and cigarette trousers had an effortlessly louche quality, while crisper suiting retained that essential resort ease. The evening looks that followed — including a striking black-and-white feathered column gown and a dramatic look with a sweeping feathered train — grounded the collection in darker glamour.