Move over Melbourne and Sydney, the nation's capital is moving up in the style stakes with the inaugural Canberra fashion week festival selling out.
Thirty designers with local connections will launch new collections at Fashfest which runs from May 1-4.
Fashfest organisers say the shows have sold out - more than 1200 tickets - and they will be releasing standing room only tickets online for Friday and Saturday shows.
British designer Vicky Kidd-Gallichan who calls Canberra home, creates bridal gowns, fascinators, corsets and jewellery from her one-woman 'sweat shop' home studio.
Her label Rockstars and Royalty's latest collection will hit the runway at Canberra's airport on opening night on Wednesday.
When she moved to Canberra in 2007 and flagged plans to start up a fashion label, Kidd-Gallichan was told 'Canberra's really boring, you're better off going to Melbourne or Sydney'.
'I saw that there was a gap in the market here,' she told AAP.
She was booked up for months after launching her label at a Canberra wedding fair.
'So many girls came up to me and said finally this is what I want, I thought I had to go to Sydney or Melbourne for it'.'
It takes Kidd-Gallichan between 100 and 120 hours to create one dress.
'There's a lot of hand sewing and beading,' she said.
She said the tragedy of 400 people dying following the collapse of a Bangladeshi textile factory highlights the importance of people supporting ethical Australian made fashion labels.
'People hopefully after that will think twice about where their clothes come from and under what conditions they're made,' she said.
She described her gown design style as girly, glamorous, incorporating feminine shapes and drawing on inspiration from Victorian corsetry.
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