a parade featuring the festival designer award finalists

The L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival is all about glamour, but unlike most red- carpet fashion events, this one isn't just for the style police.

The festival, now in its 15th year, may be for the people, but it's still taken seriously. The celebrities are in attendance, wearing their sponsored frocks and smiling for the cameras, and the shows are extremely polished.

The only real difference between something like this festival and the preview shows of most major fashion weeks is that what you see at the festival is what has just been delivered to stores. If you see something you like, you can go out and buy it.

The only exceptions at last week's extravaganza were the opening event, Fashion Full Stop, and a parade featuring the festival designer award finalists.

This year, the prize went to new menswear label Song for the Mute, whose mostly black, mostly wool collection beat off competition from well-known Australian designers Arnsdorf, Bassike and Ellery.

Fashion Full Stop, which celebrated decades of Australian fashion and music, was slick, fast, colourful and noisy. Former Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian and Mark Seymour (of 80s rock band Hunters & Collectors) were among performers who shared the stage with models in the infamous mini dress worn by Jean Shrimpton to the 1965 Melbourne Cup, whimsical designs by Akira Isogawa, Michelle Jank and Willow, and evening gowns by red- carpet designers Alex Perry and Toni Maticevski.

Perry's own show, a glitzy affair showcasing his trademark glamour gowns, was an exclusive preview to his spring-summer collection, Cuban Princess.

Menswear label Jack London also held its first stand-alone show, presenting its winter collection, Urban Warriors and Dandy Lions, at the Prahran Town Hall. Jack London designer Karl Bartl was influenced by the "hard Mods and punk style of the Skins/Lemonheads" and stayed true to the label's signature classic tailoring with a rock 'n' roll edge.

Spontaneous applause erupted when a model walked out wearing a sequinned camo blazer and leading a bulldog named Chops.

Sequins aside, it was mostly an incredibly saleable collection, with camel trench coats, straight pants that sat above the ankle, skinny ties and khaki duffle coats.