Australian slow-fashion house madre natura, marked their debut at Australian Fashion Week 2024, by teaming up with their new creative agency Orphan, to reinvent the runway.

Staggeringly, Australians throw 500 million kg of clothing into landfills every year. As an ethical fashion label that focuses on making garments that do less harm to the planet, Madre Natura refuses to contribute to this problem.

To avoid waste, the brand chose not to launch its new collection to the world until it had sold every single piece of its previous one. ‘The Last Season Collection’ was unveiled at Fashion Week, and for the first time ever, an old collection hit the catwalk globally.

Traditionally, fashion runways have always showcased the designer’s new lines.

‘The Last Season Collection’ did the opposite, and quickly became the talk of Fashion Week.

“Finally, something new for Fashion Week: old clothes on the runway,” commented the SMH.

“Sustainable label just sent an old collection down the runway at AFW,” Refinery29.

“The most daring show at Australian Fashion Week showed absolutely nothing new,” Broadsheet.

In another world-first, ‘The Last Season Collection’ was streamed live on TikTok, where viewers were able to shop the collection in real-time as it was being paraded down the runway. A control room was set up backstage, in which 10-second shoppable ads were created instantly by a team of editors for every individual garment in the collection. These ads were pushed out live while the models were still walking down the catwalk. They also reminded TikTok-ers that once every item from ‘The Last Season Collection’ was sold, madre nature’s new collection could be released. This innovative use of the TikTok platform helped ensure that the show went viral.

“At Orphan, we always try to focus on creating work that is both arresting and persuasive. Our hope is that ‘The Last Season Collection’ will persuade consumers to purchase more sustainably and persuade other fashion labels to stop producing more and more garments before they have sold the ones they have already made,” said Ant Hatton, Orphan founder.

“Our aim was to defy conventions within the fashion industry and spark a global conversation on sustainability. ‘The Last Season Collection’ was inspired by the desire to create an optimistic future for the planet, the industry and everyone who walks and will walk the earth in generations to come,” said Hans Berents, Orphan founder.

“Like most designers, it had always been a dream of mine to showcase a new collection on a major runway. But the idea Orphan presented was so on brand I knew that we needed to do it. At Australian Fashion Week, the nation’s top designers have their work on the show, but ‘The Last Season Collection’ made us stand out amongst them. It made people talk about us. And it let the industry know that we are here. But most importantly, it means we are not just talking about sustainability and wastage, we are actually doing something about it,” said Jackie Galleghan, madre natura founder.

Madre Natura debuted at Australian Fashion Week, teaming up with Australia’s #1 clean-tech startup, Greener, which sponsored the runway. Together, they sent a clear and profound message: glamour need not come at the world’s expense.

Credits:

Client: madre natura

Agency: Orphan agency

Show caller/producer: The Event Group

Talent partner: Chadwick Models

Broadcast partner: Tribal Apes

AV, BTS, content partner: Welcome Content

Music partner: Rumble Studios

Production partner: Louis&Co.

Look book, BTS, runway photographer: Steve Baccon

Retouching/design partner: CAK Studio

Design partner: Marcus Key

PR partner: Adhesive

Media partner: Zenith

With special thanks to:

TikTok

Greener

Redken

Bresic Whitney

Deliverables Agency

Little Flowers

Indigital

Production Tech