Sydney’s inaugural Forces of Fashion event was a disappointing day at the office.
By Murray Bevan, FNZ Publisher
As the late, great Martin Luther King once said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” This is my new mantra after attending Vogue’s Forces of Fashion event in Sydney and leaving feeling completely underwhelmed.
What could have been and should have been a watershed moment for me and the rest of the 2,500-strong crowd at the Sydney Opera House on Friday morning was instead a bland and expensive exercise in celebrating a small bunch of people who, contrary to my lofty expectations, didn’t have a lot to share.
Now I’m never one to be negative for the sake of being negative, but as one TikTok commentator said in a review post I read over the weekend, “Vogue missed a huge opportunity.” From the build up in late 2025 to the event in February 2026 I had been led to believe that the event would be a turning point for fashion creators in Australasia who would come almost face-to-face with a clutch of contemporary culture’s most inspiring voices. Instead, it seemed to be an all-too-nice, all-too-safe environment where most of the speakers seemed either too nervous or maybe just too lazy to put their best ideas out into the world and invigorate those who had paid to hear them talk.
For those who are new to the concept, Vogue’s Forces of Fashion is a global event series that aims to bring together the most powerful and provocative voices shaping fashion, culture and creativity. It’s crafted as an immersive summit of on-stage conversations, panel discussions and keynote talks that explore the creative processes, cultural forces and future-looking ideas driving the global fashion industry. The series promotes itself on “mixing industry heavyweights, breakthrough talent and Vogue editors to offer insider perspectives on design, branding, storytelling and innovation.”
The main theme of the inaugural Sydney event seemed to revolve strongly around film, and the collaboration that necessitates such huge productions and ideas. This made complete sense with the event coming just one night after the Sydney premiere of Wuthering Heights which stars Australian actress and the film’s producer Margot Robbie alongside modern heart throb Jacob Elordi. Joining these two modern superstars on the Forces of Fashion stage (albeit in a different part of the panel) was Sarah Snook, another Australian actress made famous for her role as Shiv in the hit TV show Succession, and Joel Edgerton, one of my favourite Australian actors and husband to Ms. Centenera (although he seemed to have the least knowledge about fashion on the day and seemed indifferent to it). The panel started with a candid but relatively vanilla discussion between Christine Centenera and Baz Lurhmann, pre-recorded in his Gold Coast studio, and to round out the film theme, Taika Waititi and his wife Rita Ora graced the stage for the event’s most interesting and light-hearted section where they interviewed each other based on questions submitted by Vogue readers. Taika’s irreverent style and carefree nature was actually a breath of fresh air within the three hours, purely because he said what he felt and told us nothing’s as serious as we think it is.
No matter how strong the film theme was, and how the talent spoke to it, I struggled to grasp any real insights about fashion trends, influence, media, market shifts, hero brands, designers or where the industry is headed. I heard a lot about how actors use costume to further define their character and how it’s important to walk the lighting test in the shoes you’ll be wearing for the actual shot, but as for sage wisdom and unique insights from a powerful group of people who have connections and experience I could only dream of… I got a whole lotta nothing.
The biggest ‘miss’ for me at this event was a decent MC. Some of the best events I’ve been to and watched online always include a host who’s done their research and can cut through the junk to get out the real gold. What was missing at Vogue FoF was a professional host who drove the hard conversations and dug deep – it all seemed way too surface-level and we never got to hear about the true genius of some of the event’s many talents.
While I was in Sydney for the event it was impossible to escape the hype that surrounded Forces of Fashion’s final guest speaker, Hailey Beiber’s presence in the city and of course the Australian launch of her billion-dollar beauty brand Rhode. As the single most famous talent on the Forces of Fashion stage from a fashion and beauty point of view, Hailey was a calm, articulate and sophisticated presence who rounded out the event with aplomb. Even though we only got to hear from her for 20 minutes, her discussion with Vogue Australia’s Editor-in-Chief Christine Centenera was a very personal and intimate insight into the mind of one of the beauty industry’s most powerful figures right now. Hailey spoke openly about her journey through the beauty industry and how she tries to balance her work alongside spending time with her family and traveling the world. One of the points she drove home (after telling us that she likes contrast therapy and takes lots of vitamins and BPC-157 before bed) was balance, a theme that came up time and time again. Despite the fact that this is a nice reminder, I didn’t pay to be told to be mindful of over-working, nor do I need to hear how being nice to people on set is a good character trait.
It’s not lost on me that I’m lucky to have had over two decades of experience in this industry, meeting with and hearing from some of the experts who shape our world, so perhaps my expectations are unreasonably high. However in my experience, the fashion industry can be, for many people, an incredibly daunting and brutal industry to inhabit. For this reason I think events like Forces of Fashion should do more than just quickly skim over people’s successes but rather they should inspire audiences with real examples and advice about how people can break into the industry as well as outlining trends and themes and ideas that are shaping our industry now. Unfortunately for me, I think Vogue missed a big opportunity last week to connect with the 2,500 attendees who had made their way to the Opera House in the hope of being truly inspired and motivated.
P.S. For me, the gold standard of this type of event has to be Business of Fashion’s annual Voices conference, which is attended by the fashion industry’s undisputed heavyweights, with all talks shared online for the world to see. Happy viewing!