In Vogue Australia 50 Years
April 22nd 2010 15:27
Original Creative Writing:
Kirstie Clements and Lee Tulloch
In Vogue Australia
- 50 years of Australian Style
Once it would have been an oxymoron - Australian Style - but as you'd expect after fifty years, if there's no style development it would be a very sad place - and Australia is not a sad place, it's quite bright and impeccably stylish in parts. In the parts where there is no style, well, they just don't exist, but then if they did exist I'm sure they'd have a stack of old Vogue Magazines stashed around somewhere, to check out some style in there if they've got none.
I love the Helmut Newton Kangaroo cover. But my all time favourite is the December 1985 Barcelona issue. The cover appeals to me for some crazy reason.
I am most familiar with Vogue Magazine between the mid1980's through to the mid 1990's I think. That is the period when I was living the Voguest I ever had in my own life, and even appearing in the mag from time to time, so I saw more copies of it in that period that I do these days.
There are an awful lot of knockers out there who have a problem with Vogue magazine because of the nature of style, elitism and class - and the complexities of the arguments surrounding any form of glossy publication selling at a booth generally have some value. I am not a Vogue convert as such, nor am I against the self proclaimed trend setter. I wouldn't argue with Marion Hume the one time editor who said It is a delicious monthly promise of gilded, glorious, privileged indulgence, combined with informative writing on any topic, whether silly or serious.
What I like is the historic insight provided by the overview of a good slab of time. How things change and how they stay the same eh?
That's what I like, as well as the consistency. Good quality is relaxing. Crap quality is irritating. The amount of young beautiful up and coming individuals in the glossy pages, photographed by a slick photographer and dressed by some astonishing designer seems never ending. It has similar characteristics to any other magazine, except the design standards are very high, and consistently so over a long time.
That's what I find in the book. The beautiful photographs of the beautiful people in entertainment, fashion and design - all surrounded with some chic elaborate set up, or simply being beautiful because they're so natural in front of the lens.
Rachel Griffiths with a python, Geoffrey Rush looking elegant, keeping his cute butt out of sight. Vladimir Sichon's photograph of actor Mark Lee shows the true physical beauty some possess but it's the words he is quoted as saying that show a true blue Aussie spirit just as happy to busk in the street as he is to star in Gallipoli.
From the very late 1950's through to 2008's colourful Troyt Coburn shot of Jess Hart wearing a Collette Dinnigan silk dress the book is not only full of fantastic, clear, well executed photographs featuring (if not fully focussed on) fashion of the time, and snippets of articles that provide a postcard snap of someone, some place or something. Sarah O'Hare, Anita Keating, Russell Crowe, Elle MacPhearson - all the Aussie greats captured in a time and place. C'mon, Vogue.
In Vogue: 50 years of Australian Style (Harper Collins) by Kirstie Clements and Lee Tulloch, $59.95.
David Jobling
- 50 years of Australian Style
Once it would have been an oxymoron - Australian Style - but as you'd expect after fifty years, if there's no style development it would be a very sad place - and Australia is not a sad place, it's quite bright and impeccably stylish in parts. In the parts where there is no style, well, they just don't exist, but then if they did exist I'm sure they'd have a stack of old Vogue Magazines stashed around somewhere, to check out some style in there if they've got none.
I am most familiar with Vogue Magazine between the mid1980's through to the mid 1990's I think. That is the period when I was living the Voguest I ever had in my own life, and even appearing in the mag from time to time, so I saw more copies of it in that period that I do these days.
There are an awful lot of knockers out there who have a problem with Vogue magazine because of the nature of style, elitism and class - and the complexities of the arguments surrounding any form of glossy publication selling at a booth generally have some value. I am not a Vogue convert as such, nor am I against the self proclaimed trend setter. I wouldn't argue with Marion Hume the one time editor who said It is a delicious monthly promise of gilded, glorious, privileged indulgence, combined with informative writing on any topic, whether silly or serious.
What I like is the historic insight provided by the overview of a good slab of time. How things change and how they stay the same eh?
That's what I like, as well as the consistency. Good quality is relaxing. Crap quality is irritating. The amount of young beautiful up and coming individuals in the glossy pages, photographed by a slick photographer and dressed by some astonishing designer seems never ending. It has similar characteristics to any other magazine, except the design standards are very high, and consistently so over a long time.
That's what I find in the book. The beautiful photographs of the beautiful people in entertainment, fashion and design - all surrounded with some chic elaborate set up, or simply being beautiful because they're so natural in front of the lens.
From the very late 1950's through to 2008's colourful Troyt Coburn shot of Jess Hart wearing a Collette Dinnigan silk dress the book is not only full of fantastic, clear, well executed photographs featuring (if not fully focussed on) fashion of the time, and snippets of articles that provide a postcard snap of someone, some place or something. Sarah O'Hare, Anita Keating, Russell Crowe, Elle MacPhearson - all the Aussie greats captured in a time and place. C'mon, Vogue.
In Vogue: 50 years of Australian Style (Harper Collins) by Kirstie Clements and Lee Tulloch, $59.95.
David Jobling
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David Jobling
