Stitched Up: Young designers and activists take garment worker rights to the runway at Melbourne Fashion Week

Melbourne Fashion Week 2026 will feature emerging Australian designers in a runway showcase exploring garment worker rights and ethical fashion, in collaboration with Amnesty International's National Youth Collective ACRUX.

The event, inspired by Amnesty International's Stitched Up research into the exploitation of garment workers across South Asia, will feature a high-fashion runway, immersive exhibition and workshops.

Produced by the almost 50 young creatives, designers and models who make up Amnesty's ACRUX team, the event challenges audiences to look beyond what they wear, and consider who made their clothes, and the conditions they work under.

Stitched Up will take place at The Motley Wherehaus in Melbourne on Wednesday 21 October from 6.30pm as part of Melbourne Fashion Week 2026.

The event brings ACRUX's ethos to life at Melbourne Fashion Week, combining fashion and human rights to confront the industry behind the clothes we wear.

"Our high-fashion runway and immersive exhibitions are designed to hold two realities at once: the extraordinary creative possibilities of fashion, and the human cost too often hidden behind it,"

"Our high-fashion runway and immersive exhibitions are designed to hold two realities at once: the extraordinary creative possibilities of fashion, and the human cost too often hidden behind it," said Thurkka Jeyakumar, Amnesty Australia's National Youth Representative.

"In factories across South Asia, young women our age sit on assembly lines, making clothes they may never be able to afford. The poverty wages, unsafe conditions and harassment they face don't make it onto the label."

Across three floors, the event unfolds like a play in three acts. A runway celebrates fashion's creative possibilities, featuring experimental sustainable young designers and work by refugee designers in Naarm in partnership with The Social Studio.

An immersive exhibition then centres garment workers' lives and experiences, bringing audiences closer to the people and realities too often hidden behind their clothes.

The final act turns that understanding into practical possibilities, with hands-on workshops in upcycling and weaving with algae that invite people to rethink how clothing is made, used and valued.

The event reflects ACRUX's belief that human rights movements must make room for the many ways young people care, create and contribute.

"Human rights work too often speaks to the same people, in the same spaces, in the same language. Millions of young people who care deeply don't see themselves in this one-dimensional picture of activism we have painted," said Thurkka.

"ACRUX was designed to meet [young people] where they are. To turn complex language into stories they connect with, and remind us all that the only qualification we need to be part of these conversations is to be human."

"ACRUX was designed to meet them where they are. To turn complex language into stories they connect with, and remind us all that the only qualification we need to be part of these conversations is to be human."

"We want to lower the barrier of entry to the conversation. To help young people understand the problem, and also exactly what they can do about it," said Thurkka.

Background

ACRUX is Amnesty International Australia's National Youth Collective, bringing together young leaders across fashion, film, art, music and journalism in Australia to find new ways of engaging people in human rights.

Event details

What: Amnesty ACRUX: Stitched Up
When: Wednesday 21 October 2026, 6.30pm
Where: The Motley Wherehaus, Melbourne
Tickets: From $20 via Moshtix
Age: 18+

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