As Ambassador of the 2008 Perth Fashion Festival, presented by the City of Perth, I am extremely proud to be part of the Festival's tenth year of celebrating Western Australian fashion.

The Festival continues to be a showcase for both our established and emerging Western Australian fashion designers and I am honoured and privileged to promote their designs to ensure that they gain the recognition they deserve, both nationally and internationally.

An exciting new initiative to this year's Festival is the WA Designer Collection shows, I would encourage you to attend and show your support of our amazing local industry.

Once again, the professional and dedicated team at the Festival have worked extremely hard, it is their passion and determination that makes this event a huge success and a highlight on the City of Perth calendar. To all the generous sponsors of the Perth Fashion Festival, I thank you and I know that you will be as delighted as I am to be a part of celebrating this great event.

So be part of this fabulous and outstanding special 10th anniversary fashion event and enjoy what our wonderful city has to offer.

It is fitting that the 10th Anniversary of the Perth Fashion Festival, presented by the City of Perth, is to be our largest and most spectacular.

The Board has worked hard in fostering strategic alliances and securing much needed sponsorship funding to enable the Festival to make a quantum leap to the next level.

In particular, I make mention of two new sponsorships with Eventscorp and the Department of Culture and the Arts, both of which have provided financial and strategic synergies commensurate with our vision of promoting the Perth Fashion Festival as one of the State's premier community events. Similarly, our ongoing loyal sponsors have maintained their dedication and commitment to Perth Fashion Festival and we again thank them for their support.

I implore you to take advantage of the local community events and witness Perth come alive!

Welcome to a new edition of the Perth Fashion Festival.

The State Government created the Designer Fashion Grants Program in 2004 to partner our fashion industry in increasing it's skills base, marketing and business development. This investment is paying significant dividends in increased national and international profile, sales, and business capacity across the sector. To build on that success, as part of the Ignite package launched in December 2007, the State Government committed to a further four years of the Designer Fashion Grants Program. At the same time, we also wanted to celebrate and promote the work of our fashion designers within Western Australia. So we are very pleased to be able to support key events created to take place within the Perth Fashion Festival to showcase the spring collections of our talented Western Australian fashion designers in the central City and Northbridge.

Across the year events such as Perth Fashion Festival add new life and style to our city. The State Government's tourism partnership with the Perth Fashion Festival is about building the profile of Perth's annual celebration of local, national and international fashion So while you are enjoying the style, please take the opportunity to enjoy the life that Western Australia has to offer. With our spectacular beaches, cultural life, untouched natural attractions, warm sunny climate, award-winning wines and gourmet produce, there is something for everyone in Western Australia.

The Perth Fashion Festival always brings a sense of anticipation and great excitement. Perth Fashion Festival means parties, celebrations and 'frocking-up' to be a part of seeing the spectacular new looks, colours, models and designer predictions that abound in our city.

This air of confidence is so apparent in Perth this year, with a number of high-end retailers opening up, many of them catering to a new sense of sophistication and style.

Perth is the place where fashion comes together and the Perth Fashion Festival is The Event where we can see the very latest and the most creative from the fashion industry.

Along with the growth of our city, the Festival has grown significantly and through its increased sponsorship the City of Perth acknowledges and further supports that growth.

This year there will be more activities than ever with Forrest Place becoming Fashion Central, parades in King Street and Northbridge, the WA Fashion Design Awards and the search for our next top models, to name just a few.

I look forward to seeing you at this year's Perth Fashion Festival where we can all see tomorrow's fashions today.