GH Commercial, alongside Godfrey Hirst, was proud to be an Official Partner of PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival 2025 for the third consecutive year.
From 22 February to 8 March, Australia’s largest major fashion event took over Melbourne, shining a spotlight on the cutting-edge, artistic, and enduringly gritty fabric of the city’s fashion industry. The festival created a world-class destination for Australians to celebrate everything that makes the local fashion community so unique.
The festival’s vision was to joyously and consistently deliver an unrivalled, world-class event that celebrated and elevated every aspect of fashion and creativity. It proudly reinforced its leadership in the Australian fashion scene. The Premium Runways showcased Australia’s leading and most-loved designers, alongside exciting local and emerging talent, championing the ‘see now, buy now’ model. These iconic events were hosted at the historic Melbourne Royal Exhibition Building and its surrounds.
This year, the Premium Runway featured our Corsica Oak engineered timber flooring as a stunning centrepiece. The flooring, which had been reused over the past few years, reflected the festival’s commitment to sustainable practices by minimising waste through the reuse of materials. It was inspiring to see the festival’s dedication to incorporating sustainability into such a high-profile event.
The festival is committed to reducing waste as much as possible and has a strong focus on recycling. This philosophy was evident at 2024 PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival, where the carpet was donated through Bright Sparqe, a not-for-profit organisation that connects businesses with surplus goods to charities in need.
We were especially proud to collaborate with the festival and Mob in Fashion to create a one-of-a-kind carpet for the Back in Blak Runway. This powerful showcase fused contemporary design with the deep, rich traditions of First Nations culture. Curated by Mob in Fashion, the Back in Blak Runway drew inspiration from Australian pop culture rebellion, redefining it through the eyes of First Nations designers and artisans.
The Mob In Fashion runway carpet was designed by ENOKi (they/them), a proud Dja Dja Wurrung and Yorta Yorta Multi-Media artist based on Wurundjeri Country (Melbourne). Their design presented an abstract depiction of space, featuring patterns in the background representing faraway galaxies and organic shapes in the foreground symbolizing stars. The artwork captured the energy emitted by stars and how it travelled through space, connecting to us and country, much like how the sun sustains life. This piece not only reflected First Peoples' connection to country but also explored a broader connection beyond country and the cosmos.
ENOKi’s artistic practice explored Blakness and Queerness through bright, vibrant colours inspired by Pop-Art and Native Flora. Their previous work included the First People's RISING art tram "My Aunty Once Told Me" (Routes 58 & 59), Apple’s 2023 World Pride Campaign, and Red Bull’s 2024 Cliff Dive Tower. They also contributed to Solid Lines, a report sponsored by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (2022) on fostering First Nations involvement in the design and commercial art industries.
Additionally, our Designer Jet® technology brought the festival’s ethos to life with a custom-designed media wall carpet that welcomed guests as they arrived.
We were honoured to be part of PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival 2025, where anything and everyone went!