‘Sequins to lunch’: Decoding Brisbane’s signature style

Melburnians shrouded in top-to-toe black consider themselves European. Sydney is crumpled Californian casual, with outbreaks of sleek Hollywood glamour. Finding Brisbane’s style sister city on the map is more challenging.

Just don’t call it Miami – according to those who know, that’s 100 kilometres south of the Story Bridge.

“The Gold Coast has its own glam style,” says Laura Churchill, founder of Fashion Queensland and Brisbane Fashion Month in October. “There was once a misconception that Brisbane was a bit behind the rest of the world, like Australia in general, but that’s no longer the case.”

“It’s not that Brisbane is a second-rate or third-rate city,” says lecturer Kathleen Horton from Queensland University of Technology’s fashion department, which has produced design talent such as Gail Sorronda, Alemais founder Lesleigh Jermanus and Bethany Cordwell. “It’s just not on everyone’s radar like Melbourne or Sydney. In a way, we are starting with a blank slate.”

If the slate is blank, its background is fuchsia instead of white. Brisbane has a reputation in rival cities for embracing all the colours of a Camilla kaftan with complete confidence.

“It’s definitely evolved over the past 20 years,” says Harriet Sutherland, creative director at Camargue boutique on fashionable James Street, which specialises in international luxury labels. “People could easily focus on the floaty, coloured fabric cliche, but it’s more nuanced than that.

“Brisbane has a pocket of people who are really design-focused and willing to think outside the box.”

Witchery wins

When it comes to the labels Brisbane women are buying, on the surface it’s the same as shoppers in Melbourne and Sydney. Scanlan Theodore, Zimmermann and Country Road are in the top five for department store David Jones in each city.

While Carla Zampatti makes the top five in Melbourne and Sydney, Brisbane customers prefer Witchery.

Choosing Witchery over Carla Zampatti doesn’t mean that Brisbane shoppers are more casual. Sportswear giant Nike is in the top three for online store The Iconic nationally, but in Brisbane, home brands Aere, Dazie, and Atmos & Here dominate sales charts.

There is nothing casual about the diners at Same Same restaurant Fortitude Valley, where women pick at their prawn and pomelo salads in high-waisted jeans and black Camilla and Marc blazers, worn over bralettes.

Even the glistening crowd on the dance floor at Prohibition nightclub, in barely-there tops from Glassons, would look equally at home queuing at Home nightclub in Sydney or Club Retro in Melbourne, with coats the only difference.

“We would love to wear coats but what’s the point with the climate,” says Churchill. “If we do have one, it’s in a colour.”

“There is a recognisable, distinctive Brisbane style,” she says. “It can be seen at a certain type of going out, whether it’s an opening at the Gallery of Modern Art or Powerhouse. There are plenty of opportunities to dress here.”

The ladies who lunch

Differences come into view at the charity dinners and galas that stud the social calendar, at the Brisbane Fashion Festival in August and a rising alternative scene that straddles the performing arts.

“I just got back from Melbourne and, let’s not mince words, the way people dressed was depressing,” says Brisbane’s Lady Mayoress Nina Schrinner, wife of Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner. “With all the dark colours it was as though they were in mourning.

“In Brisbane we definitely have dopamine dressing. There’s a celebration of life through colour. We will wear sequins to lunch.”

For the third year, Schrinner is the ambassador for the Brisbane Fashion Festival, which opens on August 21. The event is sponsored by the City of Brisbane, Star casinos and billionaire Gina Rinehart’s mining giant Hancock Prospecting. Schrinner credits her involvement with a link between fashion and the city’s charity events.

“I definitely know that I’m not a model, but there’s important work I can do in supporting Brisbane designers who are doing it tough, along with important charities.”

“The charity lunch and dinner scene is important in our community. There’s always the races and other calendar fixtures but the melding of fashion and charity is important.”

The BFF program features labels that tick the needs of ladies who lunch and reinforce Brisbane’s reputation for bright and breezy colour, along with emerging talent.

“Many of the local designers have something that’s quite distinctive,” says the festival’s founder and director Lindsay Bennett, who singles out White Label Nova, Love Bonfire, and new soft tailoring label Joaen.

“We are a subtropical climate, so people embrace the bold prints and block colours. Even the diehards like Sacha Drake are doing a lot more prints and colour.

“When I first moved here 20 years ago it was interesting to see how little style there was in the city, but its restaurant scene has grown up, and the fashion scene has grown alongside it.”

Rebel spirit

The presence of goth-inspired designer Gail Sorronda and philanthropist Deborah Quinn, generally found in voluminous layers of black and white beneath a Stephen Jones hat, are exceptions to the colour cliche.

Unconventional international labels, such as Molly Goddard and Simone Rochas, along with Belgian stalwart Dries Van Noten, are popular with Camargue’s customers.

“There’s always been that appreciation for unusual and different,” says Sutherland.

“People in major cities tend to look inwards. In Brisbane, we look to the rest of the world.”

For lecturer Horton, Brisbane’s freedom from the tussle between Sydney and Melbourne for bragging rights as the country’s fashion capital will help shape its fashion future.

“When you’re talking about the indie or creative sector, people are dismantling a broken system,” Horton says.

Issues relating to offshore production and sustainability are driving a new wave of labels embracing upcycling old garments and repurposing dead stock.

“More than ever, people are making things because they want to avoid being part of the global fashion system.”

For others, looking cool in a tartan bustier from Bulley Bulley or printed shirt from Indigenous-owned social enterprise Magpie Goose is never going to be a priority.

“There’s something to be said for the Brisbane slacker,” Horton says. “No one wears tracksuit pants or thongs like Brisbane people. We do know how to relax, and that’s something to be proud of.”

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