This may be the author’s version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source: Craik, Jennifer (2017) Fashioning Australian: Recent reflections on the Australian style in con- temporary fashion. Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture, 2(1), pp. 30-52. This file was downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/112173/ c Consult author(s) regarding copyright matters This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the docu- ment is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recog- nise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to [email protected] Notice: Please note that this document may not be the Version of Record (i.e. published version) of the work. Author manuscript versions (as Sub- mitted for peer review or as Accepted for publication after peer review) can be identified by an absence of publisher branding and/or typeset appear- ance. If there is any doubt, please refer to the published source. https://doi.org/10.5325/jasiapacipopcult.2.1.0030 Manuscript (in Word format) Fashioning Australian: Recent Reflections on the Australian style in Contemporary Fashion1 1 Abstract The concept of Australian fashion as a distinctive style and cultural preoccupation has been long contested. Yet, historical records and contemporary consumer behaviour show that fashion has been integral to the formation of national identity and sense of self. Since European settlement, there have been periods when Australians have embraced and promoted Australian style as unique and not merely derivative of overseas (mostly European and American) trends. This article traces the development of a discourse about Australian fashion to contextualize a number of recent publications and exhibitions about Australian fashion that explore various aspects of its history, development, distinctiveness and future. The argument is that they are building collectively the framework for a revitalized perception of the significance and potential of Australian fashion in the global fashion context. Keywords Australian fashion; fashion theory; fashion industry; fashion retailers; fashion exhibitions 2 Introduction: Australian fashion under the spotlight The theme of this article is that Australian fashion is increasingly being recognized as a significant cultural institution and practice in contemporary Australia. Signs of this include the growth in exhibitions and .diverse publications about Australian fashion hotting up since the 1990s but escalating in the 2000s. The year, 2016, has been no exception with a number of events suggesting that fashion was in the air of Australian culture in a particularly assertive way. The National Gallery of Victoria staged the 200 Years of Australian Fashion Exhibition as well as the Henry Talbot: Fashion Photographer exhibition; Vogue (Australia) published a bumper issue edited by internationally renowned fashion photographer, Mario Testino; the Powerhouse staged Collette Dinnigan Unlaced featuring the works of the first Australian fashion designer to show at Paris Fashion Week; while the Bendigo Art Gallery held the Toni Maticevski: Dark Wonderland exhibition, and the Bendigo Post Office Gallery staged Flamingo Park and Beyond celebrating a retrospective of the iconic fashion collaborations of Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson. Coinciding with these landmark events has been an explosion of academic, critical, social and tourist publications about Australian fashion. This attention to fashion – previously a much maligned and neglected sphere of Australian culture – is in many respects an unlikely development given that the contemporary Australian fashion industry has been in a growing state of crisis since the 1980s. A perfect storm of factors has contributed to the shrinking local industry: the abolition of tariffs on imported apparel; decline of the Australian Textile, Clothing and Footwear manufacturing industry and textile production and development; the collapse of innumerable established designers, labels and retailers; growing competition with imported brands and retailers; increasing online fashion consumption; and erosion of already contentious employment rights and conditions in the fashion industry. Amid a series of government and industry reports charting this unfolding scenario, public and academic 3 attention to the cultural, if not economic, significance of Australian fashion has risen even as its survival is under threat – at least in its current structure. Publications about Australian fashion have addressed these and other issues in a range of publishing venues: articles and features in Australian fashion magazines; a number of “state of the industry” reports; histories of Australian fashion retailers; biographies and overviews of Australian fashion designers; the staging of fashion exhibitions with the publication of accompanying catalogues; and diverse media, public and critical fashion commentary and scholarship. The conundrum as to why there has been so much attention to the industry when it is arguably on its last legs has prompted speculation that perhaps, rather than constituting an obituary, these publications herald a new phase of Australian fashion awareness that is accompanying significant re-alignments as to the potential of Australian fashion to survive and prosper in the global fashion context.2 Arguably, a proliferation of fashion design, innovation, experimentation, styling, and new mix of retailing approaches has reached a new state of maturity. To explore these themes, this article seeks to place a set of diverse writings into an analytic context that charts their contributions to understanding the state of Australian fashion and its likely futures. Perspectives on Australian fashion The publications under consideration here include a diverse range of perspectives about the industry in the recent past that address the current state of Australian fashion and explore likely futures. Australian fashion magazines Although usually regarded as marginal and recent, there is a history of intense interest in fashion from the earliest days of settlement.3 For example, fashion was the subject of the 4 social pages of newspapers and magazines from the earliest days with detailed descriptions of the outfits of the social elite and extensive coverage of new fashions available in stores. Drawings and later photographs were also an important source of fashion inspiration throughout colonial days. The letters and diaries of women – especially those in regional areas – also attest to the obsession with matters of dress.4 There was a palpable hunger for news of the latest overseas trends that were influencing the fashions of the colonies. Business boomed for dressmakers, milliners and tailors. Fabrics were imported from the first days first from Britain and later from India and East Asia including lighter fabrics such as muslin for warm climate apparel. Business was brisk for tailors and dressmakers. For example, Brisbane’s Miss Scott “made almost all the elaborate gowns for a local Government House ball in 1870. Not one was imported.”5 This was an extraordinary achievement and demonstrated the resilience of the local dressmaking industry. The purported first fashion magazine published in Australia was Weigel’s Journal of Fashion 1880-1915 followed by Madame Weigel’s Journal of Fashion 1915-1950 which complemented the Australia’s first dress-pattern service that started in 1877.6 Other fashion focused magazines included the Australian Home Journal (1894-1983) and The Home (1920- 1942)7 which, in its first edition, it proclaimed that: An interesting and considerable section of The Home will be dedicated to the cult of dress, and the best illustrations which art can compass will keep readers in touch with the trend of fashion and the last requirements of feminine adornment.8 In many ways, The Home set the tone for fashion journalism in Australia with its high quality production values and promotion of modernism. It had lively feature complemented by impressive ”art” photography s on a range of areas concerned with fashion, design, decoration and lifestyle targeted at the aspirational middle class. This was in stark contrast to 5 other magazines of the time, such as the Australian Women’s Weekly which was first published in 1939. Although it rapidly became a bible for Australian women about all aspects of feminine, homemaker, wifely and maternal matters, as well as covering social and political events and a generous dose of fashion, the Women’s Weekly was conservative in tone, prescribing appropriate behavioural codes for women in their roles as subservient wives and mothers. The postwar period saw a blossoming of fashion publications with the youth- oriented Flair beginning in 1956 (-1970s) which was aimed at a fashion-forward 16-25 year old audience, followed by the publication of Vogue Australia in 1959, only the fourth national edition after the French, American and British editions: This, in itself, was extraordinary. Australia was on the other side of the world, and at that time had a population of only ten million people. It was hardly a fashion capital