The new designers rocking the runway are young, business-savvy fashion femmes who have made Rosemount Australian Fashion Week their commence pad.

The unmissable trend at this year’s RAFW is a new generation of female designers focusing the lion’s share of buyer and media attention led by Bianca Spender, Alice McCall, Kym Ellery, Theresa Rawsthorne and Ruby Smallbone.

Veteran designer Carla Zampatti attributes this very important shift to the fashion industry finally offering sustainable career opportunities.

The industry is rising and it’s fashionable to be a fashion designer, and a lot of kids go through college. A lot of them might have gone into other areas in the past, but fashion has become a potential career today, said Zampatti who launched her luxury label in 1965.

She agrees this year’s Fashion Week has being mainly strong on female designers because their business sense has grown along with their creativity.

Two of the most influential women in entertainment and fashion teamed up to throw a party in New York City.

TV talk show crowd Oprah Winfrey and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, and Gap creative director Patrick Robinson co-chaired the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala Benefit on Monday night (local time) in New York.

Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Lopez were there. Many were escorted by the designer who dressed them.

Winfrey walked the influx line with Oscar de la Renta, wearing a navy couture gown by the fashion designer.

She said she looked onward to going into the party and having a few shots of tequila.

When asked what goes on inside the Met Gala, Anna Wintour reacted with a laugh, Oh; we’re very, very well behaved.

Lady Gaga was slated to do at the ball but didn’t walk the red carpet. Instead, the well-known face with the most unusual dress was singer Katy Perry. She wore a dress that factually lit up with LED lights.

Fashion designer Isabel Toledo was privileged as Marymount University’s 2010 Designer of the Year at the university’s annual “Portfolio in Motion” student fashion show, held April 22.

Toledo has been designing for more than 25 years; she has received approval for her creative vision and attention to detail, cut, and nuance, and gained even greater recognition when First Lady Michelle Obama selected her lemongrass yellow wool lace dress and overcoat to wear to the inauguration.

Marymount students from across the university modeled the jury-selected creations of the fashion design students as they walked the runway intended by fashion merchandising students. Set design, lighting, music, and choreography bring the grown-up dolls’ world to life.

Upon accepting the award, Toledo congratulated the students on their spirit of modernism, saying, “You did a beautiful job and beautiful staging, too.”

Toledo told them, keep your enthusiasm; that gets you through extremely everything.