General News
15 June, 2023
Mareeba designers ready for runway
Inspired by the reef, the rainforest and the unique landscape they call home, Sonlia sisters Sonya Alba-Miller and Liana Hastie will be taking their designs to the runway of the inaugural Cairns Fashion Week.
Inspired by the reef, the rainforest and the unique landscape they call home, Sonlia sisters Sonya Alba-Miller and Liana Hastie will be taking their designs to the runway of the inaugural Cairns Fashion Week.
The inaugural event is set to take off on 20 June, showcasing fashion on a local, national and international scale at the Tanks Art Centre and the Crystalbook Collection hotels.
Sonlia is one of the lucky local boutiques set to showcase their fashion, an honour to designer Liana who was keen to get her work back on the catwalk.
“When we heard about and got invited to showcase, we were very excited just to get creative,” she said.
“We haven’t had this opportunity for many years and to do a fashion catwalk with this sort of calibre and at this high level is amazing.”
For a while now, Sonia has taken a step back when it comes to designing but will be back in the boutique preparing dresses for their models on the big day.
She says she is proud to have her small country-town label being showcased on a large scale and hopes it will open the door for many more opportunities in the future.
“It’s good to get the labels out there a bit more because it is so hard to get your fashion out there in this day and age,” she said.
“It is great for local designers to get together and showcase what they have and showcase their talent.”
Organiser for the event Jade Turnbull said getting local, national and international fashion on the Cairns runway has put Cairns on the map in the fashion world.
Where designers would usually have to travel significant distances to capital cities for runways at this level, Jade is excited to have Cairns designers showcasing in their own region.
“It’s great to be bringing garments and designs that people may have not seen in Far North Queensland to the stage and there is a good mixture of local and international fashion,” she said.
“I am feeling absolutely fantastic and on cloud nine. We weren’t expecting it to get this big and it is thrilling to have the community backing us as well.”
Sonlia will be showcased at the Tanks Art Centre on 24 June from 6pm. Tickets for this runway are sold out, but there is more available throughout the week at www.cairnsfashionweek.com
