Guardians of Canberra

The Canberra Centre opted for an innovative approach to showcase their 2014 Autumn/Winter collections over the past two weeks, causing quite a stir among the city’s fashion culture.

Ditching their usual runway shows, live mannequins startled onlookers at local events around the Nation’s Capital, culminating with installations throughout the Canberra Centre.

The impassive human mannequins,  “Guardians of Style”, appeared at Enlighten, the Comedy Festival, Skyfire and Black Opal Stakes. These models kept tight-lipped on who was behind the campaign for weeks, even creating their own twitter account (@StyleGuardians) to create a public following. Rumours quickly emerged after the appearance at Enlighten, suggesting that this was potentially a protest within the local fashion industry.

The Canberra Centre revealed they were behind it all over the final weekend of the campaign, with three days of shows for the centre’s invited guests and media.

Model and Style Guardian Ashley Rumble said the campaign was a new and exciting experience for Canberra’s fashion scene.

“It was a breath of fresh air, it was something different and I think it definitely attracted the attention the campaign was designed to do,” she said.

Behind the campaign was Sydney-based production company Cuneo Productions.  Though the ACT is the first state to run a campaign like this over multiple weeks, the “pop up” models and mannequins have trended heavily around NSW over the past two seasons.

The Age, The Brisbane Times and the Sydney Morning Herald also caught onto the campaign, making their way to Canberra to photograph the shows throughout the centre.

Easily the most innovative and creative campaign the centre has produced yet, it will be a tough one to top next season.

Text by Lauren Hollands