1990's
The 1990s were the age of individuality in fashion; consumers were less influenced by the dictates of fashion designers and trends and more confident to style themselves to suit individual personality and lifestyle. Fashion designers responded by offering an eclectic range of styles, drawing ideas from the dress of different cultures and time tripping through fashions recent history with trends inspired by 1960s, 70s and 80s. The ultimate expression of individuality was the increasing popularity of vintage and retro dressing delivering affordable and often one-of-a kind pieces.
The early 1990s introduced a dressed down mood as fashion and society sought to distance itself from the conspicuous consumption and ostentatious ‘look-at-me’ drama of 1980s fashion. In a period marked by economic and political instability a strong note of restraint was felt in all aspects of life. Searching for a well-grounded authenticity, surfing, skating, sportswear, workwear and subcultural styles became important sources of fashion and inspiration for street and high fashion.
Responding to this sober mood were fashion purists like Giorgio Armani whose stylish, immaculately tailored understated clothes crafted a new look for professional women marking a trend to investment dressing.
There were dramatic changes in international fashion with the takeover of several international luxury brands by fashion conglomerates and the introduction of young designers from America and Great Britain to revitalise these brands. Tom Ford worked his magic at both Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, John Galliano had great success at Givenchy and Christian Dior and American Marc Jacobs placed Louis Vuitton back at the forefront of fashion.
Australian fashion designers Collette Dinnigan and Akira Isogawa began to make their mark on the global market and the establishment of Australian Fashion Week helped promote and professionalize the Australian fashion industry.
Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld
Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel established her couture house in Paris in 1913, developing a modernist fashion aesthetic that offered women comfort and practicality through the elegant streamlined silhouette of her iconic cardigan suit.
Seventy years after the label’s debut, the signature Chanel style remained a major influence on contemporary fashion. Its continued success due largely to the genius of artistic director Karl Lagerfeld who joined Chanel in 1983 and reworked the classic Chanel suit in a myriad of stylish and often witty looks.
Lagerfeld’s tailored miniskirted Chanel suit was the most featured look of 1991, its styling redolent of the snappy little Chanel suits Jackie Onassis wore in the 1960s. Such was its success that many local and overseas designers emulated it in their collections. It also appeared in an episode of the cult TV show The Simpsons in which Marge buys the suit at a marked down price and finds it nets her and the family an invitation to the swish Springfield Country Club.
Collette Dinnigan
Collette Dinnigan is one of Australia’s most influential and successful fashion designers. Since establishing her label in 1990, she has maintained a signature style that receives recognition and sales in the Middle East, the United States, Europe and Asia. Dinnigan’s success comes not only from her creative vision and energy but also her business acumen. She has received numerous fashion and business awards including the Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World Award in Paris in 2002. Dinnigan is the only Australian based designer to have been invited to present a full fashion show at the prestigious Paris prêt-a-porter (ready-to-wear) parades.
She presented her spring/summer1998 collection in the elegant surrounds of Government House, Sydney. Sitar players set the mood for a collection featuring her signature opulent fabrics worked into Raj-inspired jackets, pants and mules. Delicate silks were embroidered and beaded to create a look that was exotic and romantic, yet also modern.
Mambo
Established in Sydney in 1984 by Dare Jennings Mambo became a major Australian surf and streetwear brand, it’s bold, off-beat, artist designed images setting it apart from other hardcore surfwear brands like Quicksilver and Billabong.
The company produces graphics, screen printed fabrics and ranges of casual clothing and accessories for men, women and children. Mambo’s band of freelance local and international artists included Reg Mombassa, Gerry Wedd and Matthew Martin. Drawing on the Australian experience for inspiration they created images ranging from scenes of suburban backyards and home appliances to hot rod racing Koala’s, forming an ongoing commentary on contemporary Australian lifestyles and aspirations.
Unafraid to take a stand Mambo has produced product with a political edge including. criticising Australia’s close political and economic association with the USA through their ‘United States of Australia’ belt buckle. Mambo created the Australian Olympic team uniform for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Moschino
The conservative world of Italian fashion was turned upside down in 1983 with the arrival of Franco Moschino. With his motto ‘Fashion is full of chic’, Moschino poked fun at the earnestness and expense of high fashion, even sending impeccably tailored suits down the runway embroidered with the text ‘waist of money’.
While fashion usually responds more subtly to the undercurrent of social and economic concerns in the 1990s Moschino turned his wit to raising consciousness about a broader range of issues facing the planet including fashions impact on the environment. In his last collection in 1994 Moschino featured the text ‘Ecology Wow, Ecology Now’ on a clear plastic jacket, highlighting the global environmental crisis and cheekily responding with a message parodying the disposability and faddishness of fashion.
Philip Treacy
Hats were long out of fashion when Philip Treacy graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 1990 but on showing his work to influential fashion editor Isabella Blow he found a creative soul mate and muse who nurtured and encouraged his unique and fantastical vision for millinery.
Treacy challenged the rules and formulas of traditional millinery, describing his work as part architecture, part craft and part magic.
Zimmermann
Australian fashion and swimwear label Zimmermann was launched by sisters Nicole and Simone Zimmermann in Sydney in 1991. Nicole is the designer while Simone looks after production and sales. Together they have quietly built one of Australia’s most successful and well respected fashion labels.
Their feminine and sexy styles are eminently suited to the mild climate, café and beach culture of their Sydney base but they have found a broader market selling nationally and through boutiques in New York and London.
A classic from the Zimmermann range from this decade was a swimsuit with shirt, reflecting the retro referencing of 1990s fashion. Its style harks back to two piece swimwear of the 60s while the addition of the shirt takes us back to Speedo's classic cabana beach ensembles for men.
Tea Rose by Rosemary Armstrong
When Lady Diana Spencer married the Prince of Wales at St Paul’s Cathedral in 1981 her romantic fairytale dress with its fitted bodice, puff sleeves and full skirt set the bridal silhouette for the 1980s and early 90s. However by the late 1990s a simpler more sophisticated silhouette had come into favour. This wedding dress by Rosemary Armstrong typifies this new look which combines 1930s Hollywood glamour with the sexual frisson of a thigh-high split skirt. By cutting the fabric on the bias the dress clings and enhances the natural curves of the body.
Rosemary Armstrong established her sophisticated high fashion label, Tea Rose in 1981. Her signature glamorous feminine styles feature exquisite fabrics she sources from European mills and embellished in her studio with handpainted details and finely embroidered, beaded and appliquéd finishes.
Christian Dior
The House of Dior was established in 1947 by Christian Dior, one of the most significant couturiers of the 20th century. In the 10 years before his untimely death in 1957 Dior virtually dictated the shape of women’s fashion with his ultra-feminine, sculpted silhouettes. Since his death the house has employed a string of talented designers to maintain its prestigious reputation including Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan and Gianfranco Ferre. In 1997 avant-garde British designer John Galliano was appointed creative director creating collections that reference Dior’s legacy while also taking the house in a new direction with his innovative, theatrical and visually rich collections.
The exoticism of the ‘Orient’ has been a recurring theme in fashionable dress and east meets west conflations continually inspire contemporary designers. For his first collection for Dior, Galliano immersed himself in the famous Dior archive before designing a collection of wildly eclectic looks, including cheungsams inspired by his vision of women working in Chinese opium dens in the 1920s.
Akira Isogawa
Akira Isogawa is one of Australia's most innovative and successful fashion designers. In the mid 1990s he began to develop his distinctive east-west fusion designs mixing traditional Japanese and Asian textiles, forms and cultural references with influences from historical and contemporary European fashion. Experimental in his approach to fashion design, his work is distinguished by layered forms, transparency over print, unusual combinations of textures and fabrics and folded construction techniques. In 1999 he was named Australian Designer of the Year at the Australian Fashion Industries Awards.
Fashion editor Marion Hume dubbed this ‘The dress that saved Sydney’ in her pithy report on the 1999 Australian Fashion Week shows. Overseas buyers and media representatives attend these collection shows and while Hume was disappointed with many of the collections she felt Isogawa’s richly individual designs had saved Australia’s reputation and made the international delegates long journey here worthwhile.
Gianni Versace
Gianni Versace was one of Italy's leading fashion designers until his brutal murder in 1997. The Versace label has always attracted celebrities, eager to present a sexy, memorable image for the media. In 1994 Elizabeth Hurley was catapulted to fame on the back of a photograph of her wearing a daring Gianni Versace dress held together with giant safety pins to the London premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral. In contrast Diana, the Princess of Wales preferred the relative modesty of his glittering embellished sheath dresses and chic suits.
A trend that probably had its roots on the street with a youth movement dubbed Grunge saw underwear appear as outerwear. The slip became the slip dress, one of the most ubiquitous of the underwear-to-outerwear styles. Gianni Versace rendered it with his signature sexiness, glamour and excitement. His reference point was 1950s slips and this dress resonates with the sexual tension of the 1958 movie Cat on a hot tin roof, in which the actress Elizabeth Taylor gave a sultry performance wearing a white slip.
Fendi Baguette bag
The dressed down mood of the 1990s was countered by consumer’s passion for luxury brand accessories, with bags, shoes and sunglasses featuring the well known international language of designer logos. To the despair of many major international brands, and the glee of those who couldn’t afford an original, there was also a flourishing trade in copies of cult bags. Even the popular TV show Sex in the City reflected on the handbag fetish with a plot line featuring Samantha trying to get on the exclusive waiting list for a Hermes Birkin bag and Carrie searching for a copy of the latest Fendi bag.
Established in 1918, the Italian luxury goods firm of Fendi is best known for its high quality furs and leather goods. The Fendi Baguette was 1999s most coveted bag. A modern update of a vintage bag shape, the Baguette came in a variety of materials including lizard skin, zebra-style beading and mirror embroidery. Its name was inspired by the comfortable way it could be carried under the arm, like a loaf of French bread.
Westfield Group