Aussie fashion at a glance

I was recently flipping through the pages of a magazine and saw an article called ”Three ways to wear the skater skirt”. I have to mention that the magazine that featured this article was from the supermarket Coles and has lots of recipes and good advice on how to clean and organise your house as well as some beauty and fashion articles every now and then. The magazine is aimed at grown up people who do weekly shopping, run a household with children and want to get tips on cooking, cleaning and get a more organised life. The first way was with a knitted jumper – looked ok, nothing out of the ordinary. The second was with something that looked like a jeans shirt. Who wears jeans shirts today unless you are a cowboy? The third way got me smiling: it said to wear the skater skirt together with sweat pants for a ”really trendy look”. I remember when I used to combine a skater skirt with sweat pants. My hair was big and curly and my fringe had blond highlights. I had big, plastic hoop earrings and plastic bracelets in neon colors. That was 25 years ago and I thought I looked really fashionable. If anyone ever wondered what happened to the 80’s fashion with neon colored clothes, tights and spandex pants and blow waved hair à la Cindy Crawford I can tell you: by the end of the 80’s it was all packed away and forgotten, only to surface again 25 years later in Australia. Fashion for girls and women under 30 often includes neon colors and printed spandex pants. It didn’t look good in the 80’s and it doesn’t look good 25 years later.

 But there are of course plenty of shops with Australian brands targeting the women over 30. One of these shops is the award winning brand Cue that has elegance and high quality as their lodestar. Their designers must often get their inspiration from Julie Andrews in ”Sound of Music” when she tears down the old curtains and make play clothes for the von Trapp children. The fabric in many of their clothes look like it was hanging in some old mansion about a hundred years ago: thick, heavy, patterned fabric. Luckily not all their pieces are tailored from ancient drapery, there are some very nice designs in light and fresh fabric from Cue as well. I have several tops from them and they are very well made and I do indeed feel elegant and stylish when I wear them.

                                        Fraulein Maria - Fashion icon?

After 18 months of observation I have come to the conclusion that the preferred Australian style never seems to go out of fashion: track pants, shorts, t-shirts and flip flops. This is how most Australians, men and women, like to dress; no matter age or season. Ah well, it certainly makes it a lot easier getting dressed in the morning....