Australian Fashion Week Founder Simon Lock Publishes Memoir

AUSTRALIAN FASHION WEEK FOUNDER PENS MEMOIR: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia will commemorate its 20th anniversary from April 12 to 16 at Sydney’s Carriageworks and to fete the occasion Melbourne University Press is publishing a memoir by event founder Simon Lock on April 1. Written as a series of flashbacks as Lock traverses the globe in his new role as chief executive officer of the Ordre.com digital wholesale platform startup, “In The Front Row: How Australian Fashion Made The World Stage” charts the evolution of Australia’s most high profile fashion showcase from its May 1996 launch, initially in two tents destined for the Sydney 2000 Olympics – and whose Australian Fashion Innovators parent went on to manage fashion events across Asia Pacific and make a $7 million bid for 7th on Sixth in 2001. “We were the mouse that roared 20 years ago,” writes Lock, whose anecdotes include an eleventh hour switch to the event’s first naming rights sponsor Mercedes-Benz after BMW allegedly demanded the first year of a five-year deal free of charge. Then there was the (declined) 300,000 Australian dollars, or $154,290 at average exchange, cash offer in 2001 to turn a blind eye to stealth tobacco marketing; the Westfield

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Read More...