CANBERRA will join the style ranks of Sydney and Melbourne when it gets its very own version of fashion week in May.

Fashfest, the brainchild of Zoo Advertising managing director Clinton Hutchinson and his wife Andrea, will be held from May 1-4 and will showcase 22 of the city’s established and up-and-coming designers through four distinct shows.

Clinton says the festival “has been a long time coming.”

“Andrea and I both love fashion, but at the end of the day the idea was to put Canberra fashion on the map,” Clinton says.

“We are in the middle of two major cities and we tend to miss out on these things. Canberra has such an amazing talent, I think it’s very clear that Canberrans want something like this.”

So far, more than 80 individuals and 25 organisations are on board, including fashion designers, stage production, lighting, models, makeup artists, musicians and industrial designers.

So too is an army of dedicated volunteers, sponsors and contributors, says Clinton.

“It’s more about the complete combination of the premises itself, stage design, lighting, DJs, interior and industrial design, and so on,” he says.

“We want to keep doing this annually and get bigger and bigger. We’ve all really invested a lot of time in this, and it’s a way to celebrate the centenary year in style.”

International supermodel and Canberra girl Anneliese Seubert has been secured as the “face” of the festival. Just three months after giving birth to her first child, she showed off her statuesque figure in a fitted black dress at the festival’s launch today.

Anneliese says it’s important to give young designers an opportunity to showcase their talent.

“What I love most about young designers is watching them grow,” she says.

“They need to have a platform to show their work and Fashfest is perfect for this.”

And while the venue is under wraps for the moment, Clinton says it won’t be long before more details are revealed – tickets are scheduled to go on sale at the beginning of March.

For more information on Fashfest, visit fashfest.com.au

Top photo by Silas Brown