During Winter 2014, I thought I would venture out into the retail world of Sydney to see what gorgeous fashions needed to be taken home.
Every season, I love to go and see what ranges of colours, shapes, fabrics, patterns, lengths, and accessories adorn the shelves of my favourite designers, and I have to say this season, I was nothing but extremely disappointed.
This year I had an important event that I needed to be beautifully dressed for and so I admit that I was looking for something special. Like a beautiful skirt for example?
But. Then. Whoa!
When did the length of the skirt suddenly race up to meet the highest part of the thigh on the leg? If you don’t have the greatest legs on earth, or if you did have the greatest legs on earth but they are not as young as they used to be, where should we all buy our skirts?
Recently I heard a gen y (god love em), refer to these skirts as the “Gosford” skirt. When I politely enquired, “what does that mean”, it was explained to me that Gosford is just south of The Entrance.
Oh I see. Lol.
Is there currently nothing out there to purchase that is not a Gosford skirt? Yes, I know that expression is a little gross but believe me I was as shocked as you when I heard it and I promise you I did not make it up.
If one doesn’t wish to purchase one of those, there are a few maxi skirts around. If you’re really desperate, a very boring, to the knee pencil skirt, not particularly well cut or shaped was on offer. I was uninspired to purchase any of them however as they have been done to death. To make matters worse, the fabrics used are horrible polyesters, nasty colours, and most are not even lined. To top it all, the prices were exorbitant.
If I was to purchase one of these horrible skirts, which were way too short anyhow, my thoughts then wandered to what awful thing I might wear on top to make it look better. More polyester, more dreadful colours, more ridiculous pricing?
May I mention here that even though the Gosford skirts adorn our city streets in great abundance, I have to say that I rarely see anyone that looks amazing in one.
Have we lost the idea of “a suggestion of sexy”? Does everything need to be on display, all the time? Can we not just be elegant or sophisticated anymore?
Back to my story.
I turned my attention to maybe purchasing a very beautiful, well cut, pant suit.
Oh, and for the record, no I don’t mean a Onesie. With or without ears. Remember the gorgeous pant suit? Beautifully tailored jackets with darts. Allowing the garment to fit like a glove front and back? Yep. All a distant memory. Forget it. None to be found. Not even a relative to be seen.
Ok. How about a different tac? I don’t have to have a beautiful skirt or a beautiful pant suit. I’m flexible – I’ll just find something else. It’s just a re-adjustment in my thinking. Yep.
I would be happy with a beautifully cut “Jackie O” dress and matching jacket!!
Yes. Found one. International label. Gorgeous. $1500.00? Uhhh. Deflated. Anything local? No. What a crying shame.
Ok. Well maybe a lovely jacket and matching skirt. The old fashioned suit. Gotta be able to find one of those, right? Nope. No. I’m afraid not.
Well the story of the day did not improve. I’m sure you get my gist.
What on earth has happened to the magnificent flowing, feminine, interesting, and most importantly, wearable garments of a few seasons ago?
Are there no suitable garments anymore for functions?
Do we all have to wear tanks, short and thongs? Or, perhaps tanks, maxi skirts and thongs? Or how about this? Long maxi dresses with bra straps showing and so see through that we can enjoy everyone’s choice of undies or g-string for the day?
Seriously. And don’t even start me on the shoes. If you want something beautiful and nice quality be prepared to fork out $500 minimum. That’s if you can walk on stilts though. If you want something lower, there is no limit to the number of wedges and block heels. The only downside there is, they are heavy like bricks, look like they are remedial, and feel like you’re wearing a bucket on your feet, but the good news is they are a lot cheaper.
I am now dangerously entering the territory of my opinion on how “badly” people dress, and I am not going there today because “that” is a whole blog on its own.
Not everyone wants to buy cheap “one season” wonders, and then replace it next year with something else.
Have we forgotten how to support our “own”?. I think so.
Maybe if we did support our own designers, all over Australia, we would realise what a hot bed of designer talent we have in this country. The industry would flourish once again, and people would once again “have choice”, because the money spent would flow back to the all important designers and create momentum and good economy once again.I wonder how much more apathy our industry can sustain before we actually do something.
It seems to me that we overlook our amazing designers and don’t give them the attention and the patronage they deserve. We need to talk with our money and support them.
Instead of filing into our major department stores in droves and spending our well earned money on poorly made, overpriced pieces that are made in the millions, and may I suggest largely overseas, we should be paying more attention to our local fashion designers and our local industry.
Buying, wearing, talking about, and appreciating their work exposes their name, their vision, their label, their talent, their bank account, and it boosts our economy by pumping local money into a local industry that was once iconic.
On my shopping day, I saw many international labels that were beautiful, but terribly expensive. I had to look harder to find local labels that I wished to support. With effort, I managed as I always do, to find a local designer to wear.I ended up coming home with Wayne Cooper … now that wasn’t hard was it?
Actually, it was. It really was. Too hard. Frustrating. And so unnecessary to have to struggle to support an industry that I love so much.You know, for someone who is a standard size 8 and 5’10”, it shouldn’t be so hard to find an outfit that looks good.
Maybe the reason is because we have bled these designers dry, both creatively and financially. If we do not support them financially, they cannot produce fresh collections every season. If we do not show them our gratitude and appreciation and consciously buy their product, we cannot expect their creative juices to flow.
If we do not even pay attention to their presence within our industry, then they will simply not be there… need I say more.
Until next time xx
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