Melbourne Fashion Festival 2009

Amid the economic doom and gloom it is reassuring to know that the fashion industry still knows how to party.

"We always put on a good show," said Melbourne Fashion Festival director Karen Webster, before the event's traditionally lavish launch-bash night. "It's our job to get people excited about fashion; that's what we're going to do."

A thousand noisy, air-kissing, champagne-sipping, canape-nibbling VIPs kicked off the week-long festival in the ballroom of Government House last night. Fifteen models dressed in specially commissioned outfits, by as many designers, provided last night's "fashion moment", meant to whet the collective appetite for frocks to come.