[lucy92]

ive never been to australia, but i really admire alice mccall, lover and willow.

i wish these brands were more available in the states.

[pandapoo]

i really miss having australian brands at my fingertips. my favorites were/are kirrily johnston and lover. two VERY different brands but i feel like i dont have a distinct, straightforward style and these are the ones i admire the most.
romance was born is always very interesting and i have one of their pieces, i would love to have more, but even in sydney it was never as accessible as many other brands.
gary bigeni is a recent addition to my list of loves.

[misspistol]

I adore Akira and Easton Pearson.
A lot of Aussie designers seem to rip off popular designs for our slightly delayed market and street style is generally pretty tragic although whoever mentioned well dressed people in Melbourne on the previous page was right. Melbourne has some amazingly dressed people!

[Sea Of Love]

I used to hate Australian brands, i found them unncessarily(sp?) pretentious or as I like to say "big hat, no cattle". Brands like sass and Bide, Wayne Cooper, Alex Perry and worst of all Alana Hill make me want to vomit in my mouth - all this hype for basically fugly mediocre clothes. However, in the past probably 2 years I have found a few Australian designers that I really like being Easton Pearson, Akira Isogawa and Lover so I have come round to a certain extent and will stick with the ones I like and have nothing to do with the ones I hate.

I think the problem with Australian fashion is that
1. we as a culture diss anything that is 'home-made' sort of like a warped version of tall poppy syndrome. Where we might see a photo of a french womans steet style we are enamoured with the details whereas we see a photo of an Australian woman and instantly pic apart the bad bits.
2. It is very trend and 'scene' based which only really caters for a small amount of Australian's that are into this style. We love the classic style but then opens the wardrobe and throws on their hipster-clone uniform.
3. we are 6 months behind because of the different seasons and there is no way the europeans will follow australian designers making us the ones that are behind in the season.
4. The population is so small that it doesn't really warrant the bigger stores opening in Australian so there is only so much choice.
5. It is similar to sports, you may play tennis at the local Sydney tennis club and be a superstar but then you go to Wimbledon and come a dire last because you can't compare against the 'big-guns'. Basically you are only as good as your competition (in dressing) and Australia is not on a world fashion scale so even our best fashionistas don't compare.

And now I am rambling to much and not making sense.

[siene]

I guess Australian fashion still has a long way to go. I hate how our clothes are too set on following trends, they pass so quickly and its difficult to find beautiful classic pieces. Our street style isn't fantastic, we're miles behind Europe and the States in that sense, i guess its due to following trends, so we're all wearing similar things and it makes us predictable and bland. I agree that we are behind in seasons, but in a sense it should make us more advanced to know what to expect in upcoming seasons.

[misspistol]

I can't handle the street style, if I see another teen in denim cutoffs, a cropped tshirt and a cotton tote bag I will have to keep my eyes closed for the next few months,

[rox_yr_sox]

^The whole denim cutoffs thing is really starting to annoy me. Last week, a girl walked past me in cutoffs that were so small that they were riding up and her a*s cheeks were hanging out.

I can sympathise to a certain extent. The hot weather in late summer is so unpleasant, so you really want to wear as little clothing as possible. My answer to this to avoid direct sunlight as much as possible and spend much of my time indoors, but hey, I'm a pale-skinned redhead, so I have more to fear than most.

[Mocha_Love]

I really like Sass and Bide; but it looks good only on the runway ~ not on me haha
Collette Dinnigan is another great designer; don't have any of her pieces but I certainly enjoy looking at them everytime I visit the shops.

One designer that I dislike is Alannah Hill....for many, many reasons.

[chanelslungbags]

Sass and bide is amazing. But you need an X body to suit the clothes. Street wear is bad, 1 in 2 woman on the Gold Coast wear short shorts, anyone else noticed that? Also Sydney and Melbourne are really the only places with the "High end" fashion stores, Brisbane and most of the other c.c miss out unless you're lucky or are willing to pay much more. I really dislike the fact you should live in Syd or Melb to get a great start in the fashion industry.

[therawpower]

Alannah Hill ahhhhh
it kills me......i cant even walk into the store....
you people really have great opinions on australia fashion....
im going to melbourne in 10 days time....so...lets see what they wear....im excited, although its not my first time visiting melb.

[1999]

I think Australia is getting a lot better. There is a more relaxed style to European cities that means we layer a bit less. I see many great outfits on the street on a day to day basis.

The bad trends at the moment include el cheapo printed maxi dresses that make everyone look like pregnant pilgrims. These dresses run rampant on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney.

We don't have as many choices here but I think that means a lot of fashion lovers have to think out of the box a little more.

[dior_me_not]

If you think Australian fashion is bad, try living in New Zealand.

I actually really like a lot of the Australian designers. Sass & Bide is great, but too many people wear their clothes these days and they're so recognisable. Alice McCall is nice too.

Plus, you guys have way better street style than us. I guess it depends where you live, but people in Melbourne and Sydney tend to dress a lot better than the people in Auckland.

[Cicciolina]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chanelslungbags I really dislike the fact you should live in Syd or Melb to get a great start in the fashion industry.

It's like that in lots of other countries though. For the USA, it's really New York - the other 'big' cities in the US like San Fran and LA are hardly considered the places to go for fashion.

[Cicciolina]

I used to love Russh, but their current issues are so too-cool-for-school. I have a whole heap of their old issues which I still love to flick through.

The fact is that Australia does not rate in terms of fashion. You've got the big fashion week cities - Sydney is probably on par with like, LA fashion week.

Even the majority of Australian designers all do kind of the same thing because they're influenced by international trends.

I think the reason why magazines like Russh do well is that the Australian lifestyle and approach to dressing is a selling point. The whole undone, effortless look is quite nice here.

I still remember a thread about an issue of Harper's Bazaar Australia - I think it was for the December issue with Bambi, where some people was lamenting that she was all dolled up in Chanel for a summer issue, and how seasonally inappropriate it was, when the year before Jennifer Hawkins - former Miss Universe beauty queen, was in a bikini and a Balmain jacket on a beach for a summer issue and it was being derided for being cliched. In the end, they were both striking images, but people are too quick to point out the flaws.

[misspistol]

Russh has turned into such a hipster magazine, it used to be quite endearing but now it's as though they're talking down to the reader.