Chaos at Australian Fashion Week: Mass evacuations, paramedics rush to the scene – and Thorpey looks unimpressed at bizarre antics

Australian Fashion Week saw chaos unfold on Thursday at the two Iordanes Spyridon Gogos shows held at the UNSW Galleries in Sydney. 

The first runway hosted by the avant-garde fashion house was held at 11am and ended in disaster when attendees were evacuated after a fire alarm went off.

Guests could be seen crowded outside the UNSW Galleries in Sydney after they were asked to leave the premises while the siren sounded. 

‘The show before us at 11am was stopped early on because the fire alarm went off,’ a Daily Mail reporter on the scene said.

‘Apparently, some kind of cleaning product that had a chemical in it set the alarm off. So, there were fire trucks and a mass exodus when we arrived.

‘And the timing was right as we – the midday show people – were arriving.’

Australian influencer Suzan Mutesi also shared footage from inside of the disastrous moment, which showed people crowding around the exits just as the show ended.

‘I can’t believe this… It’s a fire alarm, guys. The show just ended,’ she said as she followed the direction of a security guard and began evacuating. 

Photos soon emerged of a packed crowd standing around on the sidewalk outside the cleared building. 

The second showing, held at 12pm, faced a similar fate when paramedics arrived and were spotted carrying someone out of the gallery on a stretcher.  

‘When we were finally in, about three quarters of the way in, a girl in the audience fainted,’ the Daily Mail reporter explained. 

‘They stopped the music, the models literally posed and stood still. People were just waiting for them to finally get help, and then the paramedics arrived. 

‘She was taken out in a wheelchair. The paramedics brought a heat pack as well. 

‘Because they stopped, and the fact that a lot of the show had already run, a lot of people took the medical emergency as a chance to dip out.’

It would seem all the drama – on and off the runway – left some of the A-list guests unimpressed. 

One telling image saw Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe sitting front row as he watched the chaotic fashion runway unfold. 

At one point, a male model with a scrap of green material wrapped around his hips could be seen carrying a woman garbed in a matching dress. 

He entered the spotlight by dragging the woman along the floor onto the runway while she caressed the ground. 

The model then slung her over his shoulders as they posed in front of the crowd, with Ian looking unimpressed by the wild display. 

Other models stepped out in bizarre, conceptual outfits not likely to make it off the runway. 

And someone could be seen dressed as a BBQ sauce bottle as they sat in the frow among the guests. 

Daily Mail has reached out to Iordanes Spyridon Gogos for comment.  

This year’s AFW appears to have left the fashion industry divided.   

Since 2013, the annual event called Carriageworks home as it hosted designers, editors and celebrities beneath its soaring iron framework.

However, AFW’s tenure at the iconic location came to an abrupt end this year, and insiders have said the once-exclusive event is now facing a growing identity crisis.  

Dwindling buzz, fewer A-list names, the overwhelming rise of influencers and an increasingly fractured fashion landscape forced organisers to make one of the boldest decisions in the event’s history.

In what many insiders have called a desperate but necessary bid to preserve the future of AFW, the Australian Fashion Council made the controversial call to relocate the event from its gritty inner-city home back to Sydney Harbour.

AFW is now staged across the Museum of Contemporary Art precinct in Circular Quay, with the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge providing a globally recognisable backdrop.