Here’s a phrase that strikes terror into my heart: boyfriend jeans. I came of age in the era of the skinny jean, which started out like a low-slung pair of denim stovepipes and ended up, in recent years…
A Twitterstorm about Barack Obama’s tan suit can hardly have been what the president was expecting as he spoke at a press conference about foreign policy issues ranging from the IS insurgency in Iraq…
The veil serves to entice and intrigue and not necessarily to hide.
Faizal Riza MOHD RAF
Islamic veiling is a global political issue and the debate tends to move in two different directions: it’s framed as either a matter of the freedom of female self-expression or as emblematic of gender…
Augustus, who died 2000 years ago, was the first emperor of Rome. He brought peace after the turmoil in the republic after the assassination of Julius Caesar when he defeated the forces of Antony and Cleopatra…
Bundling socks, ‘War Chest’ Sock Appeal, Sydney, May 1917, photographer G. A. Hills.
State Library of NSW
During the first world war in Australia there was a restriction of styles of clothing available to both men and women because of shortages in fabrics. Everyday dress became more sombre due to a lack of…
World War I uniform supplier Burberry’s more recent incarnation.
EPA/Matteo Bazzi
The words “trench coat” might make you think of a stylish, clean, unisex jacket. That feeling of exchanging your heavy winter coat for smart belted beige, striding down the street in springtime. Or perhaps…
While sometimes I teem with opinions jostling to be exercised over the page, at other times I’m drawn into meditation, where my engagement with the happenings, and the actual materiality, of fashion loosens…
A utilitarian, no-waste ethos was at the heart of Stepanova’s fashion and design ideas.
Designs by Stepanova in LEF magazine, 1923.
A peculiar thing happened in Russia in the early 1920s. Abstract art, often considered the pinnacle of elitism and high art, was instead employed by artists as a testing ground for ideas that promised…
Wearable technologies currently exist in two spaces – as conceptual pieces by artists and designers, and as engineering-driven wearable products that are taken to market. But, as Danielle Wilde explains…
With 3,000 employees, 2,473 points of sale, seven different fashion and furniture labels (to say nothing of his makeup, skincare, chocolate and flower lines), 16 cafés and restaurants, two hotels, a basketball…
This year’s summer resort wear collections have received lukewarm press, and have seen the whole idea of resort collections thrown into question. Writing in the New York Times, Vanessa Friedman described…
The Vivienne Westwood air hostess.
Virgin Atlantic
Vivienne Westwood has launched new uniform designs for Virgin Atlantic. It’s sure to test whether the airline can remain competitive whilst crafting a progressive image: there’s a fine line between style…
‘We don’t wake up for less than $10,000 a day.’
AAP Image/David Crosling
Women, fashion, and glamour are synonymous in the modern era – but in the mid to late 1980s this association intensified into one distinct cultural icon: the supermodel. While highly professional models…
22ct Gold Jewel Beetle Brooch by Shaun Leane.
Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio
While jewellery and fashion have long been entwined, in the mid-1990s, both costume and fine jewellery lacked innovation. They were caught in a no man’s land of mass-produced chain-store brands, and failed…
Whether fashionable or functional, the handbag – and what it contains – is intensely personal.
The Chanel 2.55, Wikimedia Commons
Under attack from a flock of killer crows, Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller The Birds, pauses to collect her handbag. It’s an instinctive gesture that many women would recognise. For a…
I recently had the opportunity to join the academic processional at my friend’s graduation. What was funny about this was that although I’m a member of staff, my own PhD is still under examination, so…
It’s unanimous: we think that the uniforms designed for the Australian Commonwealth Games team are ugly. More than 15,000 people polled by the Daily Telegraph said so, The Australian likened the official…
The Beatles’ bright costumes can be seen as cheeky nostalgia for an empire in decline.
Jeremy Chan
Fashion and war don’t seem an obvious pairing, but the military jacket is a fashion staple. It may take the form of a double-breasted dress uniform with brass buttons and epaulettes, trimmed in rock star…
Wearing tweed evokes a complex history spanning fashion, class and gender politics.
JoePhilipson
Tweed is a mainstay of traditional tailoring; it is the cloth of royalty and aristocracy, fly-fishers and deerstalkers, bespectacled academics, Doctor Whos, fictional detectives, politicians and leaders…
A row of ripe orange pineapples with green stalks, blossoms of fresh white orchids amid verdant foliage. A tranquil sunset of turquoise green, fuchsia pink and deep purple, a flock of yellow-beaked toucans…