Fashion festivals used to be all about the runway shows, but these days there’s a lot more going on. L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF) again offers plenty of opportunities to go beyond next season’s trends – find out more about the NGV’s fashion collections at a behind-the-scenes talk by the fashion and textile curators at the NGV International on March 14, or get some local industry insight on a walking tour of Brunswick textile and fashion creatives and manufacturers. For the more visually inclined, ethically-accredited and Melbourne-made label The Ark’s runway show is at Eleven40 Studio, Malvern on March 14, while garments by Susan Demasi of Materialbyproduct feature in And All Things Return to Nature Tomorrow, a surround sound dance performance by Phillip Adams BalletLab at Southbank Theatre from March 15-23. And if you’ve got “nothing to wear” to all those events, head to the Wardrobe Weekender, a clothing swap over two days March 15-16 at Captains of Industry, Melbourne CBD.