IT WAS a political hiccup at last year's swank cocktail bash launching the 2010 Melbourne Fashion Festival that crystallised some of the more delicate sensibilities that incoming creative director Grant Pearce would have to navigate to keep the locals happy in 2011 and beyond.

It happened during the Government House party's ''fashion moment'', a theatrical comma of a frock show staged after the evening's speeches and formal drama. For this important festival ''moment'', a dozen gobsmacking gorgeous gowns were trotted out. Nothing unusual about that. But, not a single one was by a Melbourne designer. Naturally, there were gasps and ''quelle horreurs''! Anyone knowledgeable enough to notice was aghast. ''Is this not the MELBOURNE Fashion Festival?!''

Only a lone rose brooch by milliner Richard Nylon, pinned to one of the predominantly Sydney-based originals, flew the flag for Melbourne fashion. Edwina McCann, then editor of the sponsoring magazine, Harper's Bazaar, was mystified, too. ''Certainly, nothing was meant by it.''

Of course it turned out the mistake was innocent: an error of accidental omission. But what an error! Pearce could add ''diplomacy'' to his checklist of job prerequisites for the 2011 event. If the Melbourne Fashion Festival is to continue be spruiked as ''largest consumer fashion event in the world'' - which it is - Pearce must also coax local designers to develop a tougher hide when the catwalks appear loaded against them. In fact, attendances at the festival's fashion events and cultural program have nudged 400,000 in the past couple of years, and 2009 figures attributed a $69.9 million direct economic benefit with $88 million flow-on. An event this big can't belong to just one city or state any more. ''Melbourne has got some great designers and I celebrate that in every way that I can,'' Pearce says.

But. There is also an even larger number of excellent fashion brands in Sydney, as well as notable standouts in Perth, Brisbane and elsewhere.