Intersecting Style and Technology: OPPO Australia Announces 2023 PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival Sponsorship

Leading smartphone brand, OPPO Australia, has come on board as a sponsor of Australia’s largest consumer fashion event, the 2023 PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival. The Festival, which runs from 3 - 11 March, has revealed its exciting and fresh 2023 program, marking the return of the Premium Runway Series to the Royal Exhibition Building, as well as over 100 unique events across 60 Melbourne venues.

This year’s Festival will feature a nine-day, action-packed program of signature world-class runways with Australia’s favourite designers, as well as shopping events and experiences, styling and beauty workshops, industry seminars, networking events, exhibitions, inclusive social hubs, and live entertainment, ensuring fashion-lovers will be spoilt for choice.

The OPPO sponsorship will see naming rights of the much-anticipated National Graduate Showcase, on the 9 of March at 8.30pm AEDT, where true creativity is unleashed. Featuring the top 10 designers hand-picked from Australia’s leading fashion design institutions, as a result of a nationwide selection process, all featured designers have been selected by a highly esteemed judging panel consisting of some of Australia’s most well-regarded fashion industry icons, including Giulia Brugliera (Fashion Journal), Mary Poulakis (Harrolds), Joseph Leone (Stylist), Kacy Heywood (KAHE and Error404store), and Mario-Luca Carlucci and Peter Strateas (Strateas Carlucci).

"We are beyond excited to be a sponsor of this year’s PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival and to support Australia’s flourishing and thriving fashion scene,”, said Michael Tran, OPPO Australia's Managing Director. "OPPO's advanced camera technology and cutting-edge product designs make us the perfect partner for a festival that is all about celebrating creativity and innovation."

PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival CEO, Caroline Ralphsmith, said; “I am pleased to welcome OPPO as a major partner to our Festival family. The Festival celebrates the partnership marriage of a global leader in smart device technology and The National Graduate Showcase, a flagship event in our official program, which serves to nurture the future talent bank of design creativity in Australia.

“There is a reason why Melbourne holds Australia's fashion capital mantle. The glorious surrounds of the Royal Exhibition Building will again see over 2,500 attendees each evening at the Premium runways, and the opportunity to mingle in the all-new Fashion Forecourt with its myriad of food and beverage options, music and entertainment, and of course the exciting OPPO activation, allowing our wonderful guests to craft an experience to remember. Our Festival will include over 100 events, so there truly is something for everyone.”

Other highlights of this year’s program include a reinvented Fashion Forecourt, the Festival epicentre that will welcome consumers to experience pre and post-runway hospitality, entertainment and activations. Here festival-goers can also gain access to an exclusive OPPO pop-up exhibition where the brand’s innovative technology will be on show.

This year’s Festival officially kicks off on Friday 3 March with a Welcome to Country to be performed by the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, which will be held at the Royal Exhibition Building and is free for all to attend.