The Great Pivot: Why Australian Fashion Brands Are Turning to Asia and Europe
A Strategic Reckoning
The Australian fashion industry has historically viewed the United States as its natural first step into international markets. Similar aesthetics, shared language, and established wholesale relationships made America the logical destination for brands seeking scale beyond Australia’s relatively small domestic market. That playbook is now being rewritten.
The Catalyst: When the US Market Became a Liability
The January 2026 collapse of Saks Global—the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman—sent shockwaves through the Australian fashion sector. The bankruptcy filing revealed that 44 Australian brands were embedded in Saks’ wholesale system, with millions of dollars in outstanding invoices now sitting behind secured lenders in the repayment queue.
For brands like Camilla, which was owed US$2.8 million, and Aje, which also faced significant exposure, the event underscored a fundamental vulnerability: wholesale concentration in a single market is a structural risk.
Hong Kong: The New Gateway to Asia
The Australian Fashion Council’s response was swift and strategic. Through its Global Gateways program, the AFC sent ten designers to CENTRESTAGE Hong Kong 2026, Asia’s largest fashion trade event, which attracted over 12,000 trade buyers from 93 countries.
The results exceeded expectations. AFC General Manager Sam Delgos reported over 180 buyer appointments—triple the 2025 figure—with particularly strong interest from Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese, and even UK buyers. Notably, the success wasn’t limited to traditional wholesale deals: Sydney label Monika Branagan secured a pop-up space at a major Japanese department store, while Viceta Wang drew intense interest from a Hong Kong department store that hosted the designer in-store and returned the following day for further discussions.
Why Asia Makes Strategic Sense
The Asia-Pacific fashion market is valued at over $700 billion, with a projected compound annual growth rate of just over 3 per cent through to 2029. For Australian brands, geographic proximity, growing luxury demand, and cultural familiarity make Asia a compelling alternative to the increasingly volatile US wholesale landscape.
Paris: Accessing the World’s Most Concentrated Buyer Market
The AFC’s Global Gateways strategy extends beyond Asia. In September 2026, the Council will launch a dedicated showroom at Paris Fashion Week’s SS27 edition, spotlighting 15 emerging, established, and First Nations designers.
AFC Executive Chair Marianne Perkovic described Paris as providing access to “the single most concentrated buyer market in the world,” while Austrade’s Trade Diversification Taskforce General Manager Jay Meek called the showroom concept “structured, commercially focused, and built on a clear understanding of where global buyers are and what they need to see”.
The initiative is backed by the NSW Fashion Sector Strategy 2025-2028, Australia’s first government-led fashion sector strategy, which has allocated $250,000 specifically for emerging designers to support their international growth.
The EU Trade Deal Advantage
A new trade agreement between the EU and Australia has eliminated tariffs on Australian fashion exports to the EU, opening access to 27 countries and removing a significant cost barrier that had previously made European expansion economically challenging for smaller Australian brands.
What This Means for the Sector
The strategic pivot toward Asia and Europe is not merely a reaction to US market instability—it represents a maturation of the Australian fashion sector’s global ambitions. By building diversified export portfolios across multiple regions, Australian brands are insulating themselves against the concentration risks that the Saks collapse so dramatically exposed. The AFC’s Global Gateways program, with its structured export readiness education, buyer matchmaking, and post-event follow-up, provides a repeatable framework for international expansion that prioritises sustainable, long-term commercial relationships over transactional wholesale deals.
