Fashion week Canberra-style

She's the favoured wedding dress designer of rugby WAGs in her homeland but there was nothing pure and virginal about Sarah Joseph's gothic gowns which made their sultry Australian debut during Canberra’s inaugural Fashion Week event, Fashfest.

Ms Joseph, a UK-born, Tom Ford-trained designer, relocated to the capital with her youth worker husband eight months ago and is looking forward to making an indelible mark on the local evening and ball gown scene.

She has been overwhelmed with the support and creativity of Canberrans. She credited her Fashfest appearance - her first Australian show - to her business partner and to the help she received from local photographers, hair and make-up artists.

"Moving to Australia I knew I had to start from scratch but it's been great. I did some work with Alex Perry when I was out here about two years ago so it's great to be back."
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The racy Fashfest collection, which she completed prior to heading off to Dubai to add the finishing touches to her upcoming ready-to-wear range, packed a colourful punch on the runway and included some looks which she said were "one-off shocking black bits with a few bits of white".

The laser cutting and intricate hand stitching techniques complemented her use of one-off fabrics, which she sourced during her travels to various destinations throughout the Middle East and South East Asia.

Floor-length gowns with thigh high splits and plunging necklines were a highlight, as was a gown featuring a barely there corset that would make even racy pop star Rihanna blush – in a similar way the gents in the front row were.

Next up for Ms Joseph is a return to her roots in bridal couture.

"I'm releasing a bridal collection this year, which is something that happened organically after designing and creating a number of bespoke garments back in the UK," she said.

One of those “bespoke garments” was a $30,000 gown for Welsh rugby star James Hook’s fiancée Kim Tashara in 2011. The gown was the centrepiece of the couple’s four-page wedding album spread inside OK! Magazine which was enough to convince two other WAGs to call on Ms Joseph for their equally high profile wedding days. 

Another big international name causing a stir in her home town is supermodel and new mother Anneliese Seubert who made her return to the catwalk during opening night of the four-day event.

Seubert, who was last on the catwalk in 2010 closing shows for Alex Perry and Aurelio Costarella at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia in Sydney, is the inaugural ambassador for Fashfest.

While she admits she was not overly familiar with the local fashion scene prior to being approached by founding directors Clinton and Andrea Hutchinson, the starring role of a new event is a familiar one for the 39-year-old Canberra raised model who was the "face" of the first IMG Australian Fashion Week in 2005.