Local designers hope to custom-make their mark at Australian Fashion Week.


Dhini Pararajasingham is one of eight Melbourne designers featuring in Australian Fashion Week.


MELBOURNE designer Dhini Pararajasingham recruited Premier Ted Baillieu's daughter, Eleanor, 17, to open and close her Australian Fashion Week show in Sydney next Wednesday.

''She's a beautiful person,'' Pararajasingham says. ''A well-brought-up girl, a good girl to represent me.'' Even more compelling than the young model's pedigree however, Baillieu stands a lissom six feet three inches (190.5 centimetres) tall in her stockinged feet and will unfurl a further six spectacular inches in Pararajasingham's brick-high heels. She is, in other words, a dream opportunity for the diminutive (five feet, two inches, 157 centimetres) designer, a gob-smacking catwalk stunt poised to make headlines.

Only picture their end-of-show bow. Classic Australian Fashion Week schtick or, another sparkling marketing moment for one of the country's best small-fry fashion brands? This is the nature of AFW now.

Models with Carla Zampatti (middle right) with her Spring Summer "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection unveiled in Sydney.

Simply beautiful new looks from Carla Zampatti



Carla Zampatti with models backstage before her Spring Summer "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection unveiled in Sydney.

Models backstage wearing Carla Zampatti designs for her Spring Summer "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection.


Models on the catwalk for Carla Zampatti with her Spring Summer "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection.


Models on the catwalk for Carla Zampatti with her Spring Summer "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection.


Carla Zampatti's "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection


Models backstage before wearing designs by Carla Zampatti during the Spring Summer "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection.


Models on the catwalk for Carla Zampatti with her Spring Summer "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection unveiled in Sydney.



The designs of Carla Zampatti during the Spring Summer "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection unveiled in Sydney.


The front row look on during a showing of the Carla Zampatti Spring Summer collection in Sydney.


The designs of Carla Zampatti during the Spring Summer "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection unveiled in Sydney.


The designs of Carla Zampatti during the Spring Summer "The Strength of Simplicity" Collection unveiled in Sydney.

The 16-year-old event, which was founded as a trade-only forum, has evolved into a glorious fashion circus closely monitored by an incalculable global audience through its website, YouTube channel and legions of blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking followers.

Daniel Hill of IMG, which owns AFW, says ''the social universe'' has stepped up the event's value, not only to buyers and media who can't - or won't - get here (''It's a numb-bum-'n'-crooked-spine day and night away from home,'' whinged one New York buyer), but to consumers more ravenous every year for future frock news. ''We create a legacy online, right across the digital universe,'' Hill says of the frock-by-frock coverage.

This year's list of 110 international delegates is a few less than last year, but he's not worried.

There are more than usual online web store buyers among them to reflect our changing retail environment, he says, and thousands of local delegates who come regardless of the economic weather or strong Australian dollar.

For Pararajasingham, one of eight Melbourne-based brands including Toni Maticevski, Limedrop, Yeojin Bae, Arnsdorf, Amber and Thomas, Friend of Mine and White Suede in next week's show schedule, sales are becoming less relevant than that ''legacy online'' Hill mentioned, plus any chance for one of those splashy headlines.

For Melbourne designer Teale Talbot and business partner Letitia McLean, the so-called ''trade event'' is also vital in their strategy to bring their barely two-year-old brand, Friend of Mine, into the lives of its cool-as-ice girl market.