SYMPOSIUM
What is Australian Fashion?
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
Review by Maria Dunne
What is Australian Fashion? What does it mean to be an Australian Designer and work for an Australian audience? What is the future of Australian fashion looking like?
A talented group of curators moderated and organised What is Australian Fashion? to answer a number of these questions and produce an in-depth discussion into the opportunities offered by making in Australia, and where Australian Fashion is going.
We started with Paola Di Trocchio, Fashion and Textiles Curator at the NGV, addressing the fabulous display that the National Gallery of Victoria has obtained for the 200 Years of Australian Fashion exhibition.
She spoke on the exhibit being the largest collection of Australian Fashion currently on display. From the Colonial Evening Dress of Anna Josepha King (NSW Governor’s wife) that dates back to c.1805, to the kitsch and contemporary style of designers such as Jenny Kee (Flamingo Park), and Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov (Di$count Universe). It was fascinating discussing the fact that Australian Fashion in the 19th century had been so involved in copying the latest trends in Europe that modern Australian designers continue to push away from.
Next we moved into the first panel on ‘Making and Designing’ that followed into what Di Trocchio said about the history of Australian Fashion.
Margaret Maynard, an Honorary Research Associate Professor at The University of Queensland, spoke a lot about herself as an academic in the 1970s not being taken seriously for her work and the “fascinating” extension of fashion in colonial society. Designer Kara Baker looked at her experiences in Melbourne during this “post punk ethos” where “anyone can make anything”. The 70s influenced her to create things that were expressive and individual to her. The girls at Di$count Universe came from a very different time compared to Maynard and Baker. Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov used social media to access their audience and due to this their brand became a global enterprise. Globalisation was an issue brought up that had both positives and negatives. The biggest negative that everyone seemed to agree on was the influx of multinational corporations making mass produced products. Fashion becoming so connected to big commercial enterprises has challenged not just Australia but the selling of clothes globally.
Our second session entitled ‘Presenting and Picturing’ involved leading editors Sophie Tedmanson, Deputy Editor of Vogue; and Wendy Syfret, Editor of i-D Australia. We also heard from John Flower, Director of Hothouse Media & Events, who spoke on his involvement in producing Australian Fashion Week. This panel was especially interesting because it incorporated the views of the newer generation like Wendy, who see Australian Fashion as anti-British and unique celebrating the new Australia, whereas Sophie Tedmanson and John Flower’s approach to Australian Fashion was still paying homage to the styles of the past.
Lastly, we got a treat hearing from Australian fashion icon Jenny Kee along with Graeme Lewsey, CEO at VAMFF; Kate Rooney, Center Manager at Emporium Melbourne and Annette Cooper, author of the acclaimed book Remembering Georges: Stories from Melbourne’s Most Elegant Store. This panel was entitled ‘Selling and Looking to the future’. Although this seminar went into the nitty gritty of money and the cost of putting things on like VAMFF, panellists like Graeme Lewsey also spoke about “fashion-tainment” and how for Australian fashion to thrive like it did in the 1980s we need to go back to our roots of fashion being fun and breaking barriers.
This event was an excellent discussion on Australian fashion that reflected on the exhibit 200 Years of Australian Fashion, an exhibit that will continue at the NGV until 31 July 2016. The exhibit was a must for anyone wanting to delve into what makes Australian fashion tick. Be sure to buy tickets here.
