Art and fashion

Abstract

Abstract Straddling the boundaries between art and fashion, a group of young avant guard Australian fashion designers burst onto the scene in the 1970s – 1980s with a blur and blaze of spectacular colours, reflecting the spirit and vibrancy of Australia. Their dazzling brightly coloured one-of-a-kind art clothes captured Australia’s exuberance, its vitality and its pioneering spirit; a larrikin kind of quality that is so often inherent in the Australian character. The notion of fashion as art can be attributed to this group of visionaries who explored the broader aesthetics and expressive qualities associated with the visual arts and created a new language of fashion. Rather than following fashion trends, they consciously rejected mainstream norms, and created distinctive Australian art clothes and raised craft to the status of the fine arts. The paper examines the creative work of Australian designers Jenny Kee, Linda Jackson, Katie Pye and Jenny Bannister who created a unique vision of Australian dress that become part of Australian fashion history.