The way we wore is a new doco that unpacks Australian style
A new Australian documentary says if we understand our fashion, we understand ourselves.
Can you tell the story of Australia through clothes? The Way We Wore, a forthcoming documentary series on the ABC directed by Nel Minchin (Making Muriel, Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra) and hosted by comedian, actor and fashion personality Celeste Barber, examines exactly this.
The documentary is broken into three parts, examining the role the media has played in Australia’s fashion; how politics and fashion have long been entwined; and the big business of fashion.
With commentary from the likes of Nicky and Simone Zimmermann, the eponymous co-founders of what is arguably Australia’s most successful brand, model Charlee Fraser and costume designer Catherine Martin, to name just a few, the series looks at how far Australian fashion has come and what the future holds.
As Martin says of Australian fashion in the first episode, “We were our own unique thing at the edge of the world.”
The first episode recounts some memorable moments, such as French fashion designer Christian Dior showing his New Look outside Paris for the first time, at the David Jones spring parades in 1948; Simon Lock creating Australian Fashion Week in 1996; the notorious “rats on the runway” at the Ksubi (then known as Tsubi) show in 2001; the star power of designers such as Collette Dinnigan in the 1990s; and serious doses of high-voltage glamour thanks to appearances from international supermodels such as Linda Evangelista and Helena Christensen. Then there was the momentous First Nations Fashion and Design all-Indigenous fashion showcase at fashion week in 2021.
Minchin hopes viewers will come away from the series thinking, like many when faced with the absurdity and glamour of fashion, that they may have underestimated fashion’s power.
“It looks at the highs and lows, and it definitely doesn’t shy away from the fun and fabulousness of fashion,” Minchin says.
“But it also shows the deeper messages that kind of lie within us. Probably stuff we just don’t really consider but we see every day.”
For Barber, working on the show was eye-opening. “I’m excited for Australia to get a glimpse into the fashion industry and the role it has played over the course of history,” Barber says.
A hugely important thing for filmmaker Minchin and the series’ creators was to stress that Australian fashion and design began 60,000 years ago with our First Nations people.
“There’s a lot to be said for art being a leader in terms of identity and ensuring that the First Nations stories become the Australian story … (it) was very important to us to acknowledge that design has been part of the Australian story for 60,000 years plus,” Minchin says.
“And a lot of those clothes that have those beautiful works and print works are thousands of years of heritage, of design. So I think being able to combine that heritage and, if we are talking about a unique fashion identity, for us to be able to lean into that, and for First Nations designers to be allowing us those beautiful clothes that they’re creating now, I think that is definitely a next stage for us.”
Using archival footage – from vintage Berlei advertisements to rarely seen video from the 1988 Bicentennial fashion show at the Sydney Opera House that hosted international designers alongside local ones and was attended by Princess Diana as special guest, and designer Carla Zampatti reimagining what success looked like for women – the series shows how fashion tracks evolutions in culture and society. This includes everything from the advent of the miniskirt in the Swinging ’60s to the invention of the burkini.
“What comes first, is fashion reflecting society or is it leading society?” Minchin says.
“That was one of the questions we posed throughout all of the episodes. The second episode is about the politics of fashion. And I think there were moments where the world changed around us because of what people were wearing.
“Obviously swimsuits and swimwear and what women wear often is a contested space. By cutting hemlines up in the ’60s, then suddenly there was a whole bunch of stuff going on, and that kind of changed. Obviously they’re responding to the sexual revolution, but it’s also actually spearheading it as well. (Fashion) is an interesting form of art, a very everyday form of art that everyone engages with, whether they mean to or like it or not. It’s actually telling us our identity story.”
For Minchin this includes things such as South Australia premier Don Dunstan wearing short pink shorts into parliament in the ’70s as a sign of being anti-conformist; competitive swimmer Annette Kellerman (known as “the Australian Mermaid”) challenging social mores around modesty with her shocking new take on a swimming costume in the early 1900s; and Aheda Zanetti, who created the burkini in the 2000s.
“These are huge moments,” Minchin says. “And they’re not necessarily fashion stories. They’re actually clothing changing the experience of the world for people. I think women’s experiences in particular have been very much changed by how clothes have been designed over the years.”
Edwina McCann, editorial director and publisher of News Prestige and Conde Nast titles in Australia, who is interviewed in the series, says the documentary captures the promise of Australian fashion – both here and on a world stage.
“I think the documentary is very well researched and gives the viewer a comprehensive view of the industry,” McCann says.
“Looking back, as it does, I am reminded of how far the industry has come. There has always been a lot of talent but today there is a confidence, which I think is the result of designers graduating from excellent design schools, years of Australian fashion week and a move to a resort showing season in line with the rest of the world, and actually the internet.
“The potential customer base for an Australian designer is now global and they can have a B2C (business to consumer) relationship directly with that customer.
“Australians are early adopters, and with influential creators and a beautiful place to make content our designers have had a natural advantage. So much so that ‘Aussie girl style’ is now a Googleable thing.”
The series also captures something else essential about fashion – that what we wear can tell us a lot about who we are.
“I think the passing down of fashion was something that was really interesting and how people keep clothing from the past and from the people of the past,” Minchin says.
“I think identity is a really big factor. And I think for a lot of the designers, someone like (fashion designer) Akira Isogawa has a really beautiful story in the second episode where he talks about his fashion story, and then he just talks more about what actually the power of dress was for him as a person and his experience of coming to Australia and the freedom that created after growing up very traditional way in Japan.
“And what that freedom looked like was fancy dress of the underground clubs and all of that in the ’90s. I think once you dig into people’s clothes you get really close to who they truly are.”
The Way We Wore starts Tuesday, November 21, at 8pm on ABC television and ABC iview.
