Another extravaganza! Part of our spring ritual is to visit the Royal Adelaide Show. When we went yesterday, it was a beautiful clear day, very crowded and full of things to see.
We always visit the floral displays, the crafts, the baking, the birds and the Grand Parade. We always buy a freshly squeezed orange juice, buy daffodils from Hancock's and have tea at the CWA cafe. I look forward to these simple pleasures every year.
This year, it was the 175th anniversary of the Royal Adelaide Show, something I had to think twice about - 175 years?! The bonus this year was a stage show put on in the Goyder Pavilion. "175 Years of Fashion" promised to be an interesting display of costumes from those years, a fashion parade, or so we thought. It proved to be a dazzlingly camp dance extravaganza of dubious historical accuracy. The routines, gymnastics and glitter more than made up for the lapses in detail and the show was well received by the audience of city and country folk who crowded around the stage. I highly recommend a visit. The show has a rare connection with the past and is a wonderful opportunity to indulge in nostalgia and to eat lots of sugary food. I even love the promotional campaign for the show this year. It has collage, old photographs and flowers - of course I love it! Here it is;
Hurrah for Hoarding! This may come as a shock to you, but the internet hasn't always been around. I know, imagine! Magazines used to be my number one path to inspiration, though they often fell short of my expectation, or alternatively, exceeded my ability to be 'cool'. I kept most of my magazines, not being one to throw away ANYTHING, so I am pleased to be able to present a few images of the covers of an early 1980s magazine called Stiletto. It was large format, had coloured covers but newsprint within, and it covered off on a wide variety of fashion, music and popular culture, with an inevitable focus on the Melbourne and Sydney scenes. I remember reading through them (and this was one of the magazines I thought I couldn't quite live up to) and marveling at these strange types who dressed however they wanted and lived their entire lives in glittering nightclubs and bars. I'm sure the reality was quite different, but they had an impact on me nonetheless. Now I look at these magazines with nostalgia, but also, I can look at the covers afresh and note how imaginative they are. I love the collage, the photocopied graininess, the hand-coloured detailing, strident patterns and limited colour palette. There's no shoulder-padded corporate power-walking here, just good fresh design working within the restraints of budget and technology.
Leaving all that aside, I MUST do a spread on the fashions within - everyone needs to know how to wear a sack well!
