Meet the Canberra designers making their debut at Australian Fashion Week
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Canberra designer Alice Van Meurs is no stranger to seeing her work walk the runway.
From showing at Canberra’s own FASHFEST in the 2010s to presenting at Country to Couture in 2024 and gracing both Melbourne Fashion Week and PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival in 2025, EDITION has carved out a path of creativity and sustainability.
Now – in a milestone moment – Alice’s sculptural, multifunctional zero waste garments will be seen on the Australian Fashion Week (AFW) runway.
Announced as part of AFW’s emerging designer showcase New Gen, her collection in partnership with Gurindji Waanyi artist Sarrita King will be joining designers Alberta Bucciarelli, Gloria Chol and KingKing Creative.
The pair have enlisting contemporary jeweller and long-time friend Phoebe Porter to design jewellery for the collection – the show a culmination of years of work from three diverse, talented women.
It’s been a decades-long journey for the creatives.
“Sarrita and I started working together to present a collection to Country to Couture in 2024 and this has come off the back of that. The timing just felt right to apply,” explains Alice.
“Phoebe also designed the jewellery for Melbourne Fashion Festival and Melbourne Fashion Week. At least 10 years ago, Phoebe, Sarrita and I did some work for some Living Rooms events for Design Canberra. It’s interesting how all our work has evolved.”
Credit: Melissa Cowan.
The 10-look showcase will blend new EDITION Alice Van Meurs x Sarrita King designs with select pieces from past collections – a nod to their longstanding friendship and creative evolution.
“A few of the pieces are pieces that are really important to what we have done, and I think that it’s worth showing them to show where our ideas have come from,” explains Alice.
“It’s to show that development of ideas.”
To complement the looks, Phoebe will also be creating 10 sets of jewellery. But she admits that throughout her career, she never imagined seeing her work on the AFW runway.
Known for creating jewellery that combines geometric abstraction with bold colour and juxtaposed elements, she says it’s Alice’s clever and individual pattern making that continues to resonate with her across their years of collaboration.
“She’s refined some shapes over the years that are very iconic to her. In that way, our work is quite similar,” explains Phoebe.
“We’re very interested in the material and the structure to create a sculptural form on the body…Since Alice started collaborating with Sarrita, that brought a whole new aspect to the work.”
Phoebe Porter and Alice Van Meurs.
Hand painting original artwork onto each garment, Sarrita’s art draws on the Australian landscape – from how animals and people move through the bush to the flow of water. She uses metallic paint to tell the stories of Country, and the result is a blend of art and fashion that celebrates Australia’s culture.
“Australian Fashion Week is being run by the Australian Fashion Council and they’re having a real emphasis on Australian-made designs and on finding our Australian voice, look, aesthetic and identity,” says Alice.
“With Sarrita being a Gurindji Waanyi woman, I feel like you can’t really have Australian fashion without a First Nations voice as part of it.”
Sarrita King and Alice at work.
Taking place from Monday 11 until Friday 15 May, this year AFW will be set in a striking new venue, moving from the iconic Carriage Works to the Museum of Contemporary Art in the heart of Sydney Harbour.
Phoebe says this move added to the appeal of applying to the 2026 show.
“It’s showing it as an art form and not throwaway fashion. It’s not something to make for one season, it’s work that’s been developed over decades, refined and has a real artistic voice.”
“I think their choice of a venue is interesting and quite deliberate to position the work as an art form,” she adds.
On the designer runway, Aje, COMMAS, Courtney Zheng, Bianca Spender, and Carla Zampatti are some of the brands walking at AFW.
A distinguished event on the global fashion calendar, the event has helped to champion Australian design to international acclaim since it was first launched in 1996. For Phoebe, Alice and Sarrita, it also presents a rare chance to show their unique voices in a competitive fashion landscape.
“There’s something about Australian design where there’s a freedom to mix a lot of different influences, because we are a multicultural country. We have our First Nations people, and we’ve had all this different migration that’s brought different skills,” says Phoebe.
“If you think of fashion, you think of pattern making, different ways of dyeing or screen printing that’s come from different cultures. That’s the same with jewellery. My training was actually through a German and Norwegian silversmith and goldsmith who came to Canberra.”
“Because we don’t have the entrenched history of what we’ve done as a culture, there’s a freedom to mix things in unique ways that might not be done in other places.”
Credit: Elena Caldaci.
The 2026 AFW program unfolds as a city-wide celebration, promising everything from designer talks to immersive experiences and special events aimed at strengthening both the creative and commercial fabric of the industry.
Excited to see how the stylists bring the final looks together, it’s been a long road to the AFW runway – but EDITION Alice Van Meurs x Sarrita King is ready.
“I hope people feel really excited and inspired about the collection,” says Alice.
“To have people interested in the work and to see it as a really valuable art form…I can keep doing what I’m doing.”
EDITION Alice Van Meurs x Sarrita King is showing on Thursday 14 May at 2 pm. Visit australianfashionweek.org and follow @edition.label for more information.
Feature image: Chrissy Dore Photography.
