Melbourne is the new black in fashion manufacturing

Key points

• Research for the Australian Fashion Council found 88 per cent of local fashion businesses designed their products in Australia but only 29 per cent sourced some of their materials from local suppliers.
• Consumers increasingly want to buy Melbourne made clothes while fashion businesses are keen to manufacture locally. 
• However local manufacturing is expensive and there is a skills shortage. 

After years of offshore manufacturing, an increasing number of fashion designers and brands are looking to get their clothes made locally in a return to Melbourne’s rag trade past.

The pandemic reignited a passion among consumers for supporting local businesses and Melbourne-made clothes while brands also looked to manufacture locally to overcome international supply chain delays.

Margie Woods, co-founder of Viktoria and Woods, in her Chadstone store. Credit:Jason South

However, designers and manufacturers warn that skills and equipment shortages mean it is hard for Melbourne manufacturers to keep up with the increased demand.

Fashion designer Margie Woods of Viktoria and Woods has manufactured in Melbourne since starting her business 18 years ago and said that, for many years, she was in the minority.

“We design from a sketch, which we then move to our sample machinists, and pattern makers will interpret the sketch, and then we’ll fit on a model in-house… it’s very tactile and every piece of it is developed in-house,” she said. “I don’t know any other way to work, to be honest with you.”

Woods said that after many years of most fashion brands manufacturing offshore, there was a growing demand for local production.

A model showcases designs by Kuwaii during the Urban Garden Runway for Melbourne Fashion Week on Monday. Kuwaii is manufactured in Melbourne. Credit:Penny Stephens

“It’s definitely happening and it’s a new version of the Flinders Lane days,” she said. “It’s a movement that’s been happening for a while, I just think it’s been sped up through COVID.”

However, Woods warned local manufacturing was expensive and could be difficult to undertake without the partnerships her business has built up over years.

“There are some really big high street brands that are trying to dabble in it but I think it’s a very hard thing to do,” she said. “There are not many brands our size who are able to continue making here, to be honest with you, there’s such a shortage of skills here.”

The EY Australian fashion and textile industry survey for 2021 found that 88 per cent of local fashion businesses designed their products in Australia but only 29 per cent sourced some of their materials from local suppliers.

The Australian Fashion Council found a “major opportunity” for greater domestic sourcing and production.

Vicki Nicola, lead educator in fashion and millinery at the Kangan Institute, said fashion manufacturing had played a big part in Melbourne’s history.

“Post-COVID, we can see there has been a return, with more and more brands looking at making onshore,” she said.

Nicola said that in Melbourne’s rag trade heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, Flinders Lane was the hub of manufacturing, with Collingwood and Richmond also important areas for the fashion industry.

Thriving business: Flinders Lane’s rag trade district in 1965.Credit:Fairfax archives

“I have watched the industry go from everything being made in Melbourne to the early 2000s with everything going offshore and very little being made in Melbourne,” she said. “I don’t think it will ever be what it used to be, but I can definitely feel there is a bit of a vibe coming back.”

Nicola said the new wave of fashion manufacturers was disbursed across Melbourne and key areas were Collingwood, Sunshine, Abbotsford and Richmond.

“There is a rise to more companies making locally but we have an acute shortage of workers and materials and an increase in demand for locally made product that is outstripping the supply,” she said.

Woods and Nicola are both speaking at a Melbourne Fashion Week event called “Make it Melbourne” this week, which will include the premiere of a three-part documentary of the same name that focuses on Melbourne’s emerging garment manufacturing hubs.

Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the fashion industry was big business for Melbourne and that manufacturing was an important part of the whole process.

“It’s a cycle of connection, from the creativity of a designer through to the making, through to the showcasing of a runway, through to the retail experience,” she said.

“I am the granddaughter of a milliner from Flinders Lane and I feel a lovely sense of personal connection to that and how important it is. We don’t want to lose it; we want to keep showcasing it so that it can flourish.”

Make it Melbourne is happening at ACMI in Federation Square at 11am on Thursday, October 13. Melbourne Fashion Week runs from October 10 to 16.

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