Ashley Hart Leads Melbourne Spring Fashion Week Launch As Ambassador

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week 2015 Launch
Melbourne Town Hall
Wednesday, 8 July

 

Right now spring seems far away in shivering Melbourne, but this week Lord Mayor Robert Doyle launched 2015's Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, announcing that model/celebrity/influencer Ashley Hart, younger sister of Jessica, would be 'Ambassador' for a second consecutive year.

 

The mid-morning function took place on the Melbourne Town Hall's wintry grand portico balcony — on which famously The Beatles and ABBA once waved to fans — but made to look suitably la primavera with verdant potted plants. It's not the quietest spot — Doyle's speech was drowned out by passing trams and street sweepers below. Still, while spruiking fashion's cultural significance and economic benefits to Melbourne (never more so than during the spring racing carnival), the Mayor did reveal that on Friday 28 August the city will for the first time experience the international Vogue Fashion's Night Out — already established in Sydney.

 

The gathered media were treated to a mini-fashion parade, male and female models outfitted in alluring tropical colours (yellow, coral, aqua) and resort monochrome prints, to a bossa nova soundtrack. We spotted Melbourne accessories doyenne Christine Barro in a regally-huge embroidered chestnut coat. The vivacious Hart, too, was in attendance, styled as a beachy Marilyn Monroe channelling an edgy young Courtney Love with her nose-stud, wavy peroxide blonde hair (and dark roots), and tanned skin set against a peach-sherbet strapless cocktail dress. The Los Angeles-based yoga boffin, newly married to fellow model Buck Palmer, is also the face of Just Jeans.