The Australiana Phenomenon in Australia

Gray, S 2010, ‘The Australiana Phenomenon in Australia’, Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Volume 7 – Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands, viewed 16 May 2014, Berg Fashion Library, <http://www.bergfashionlibrary.com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/viewencyclopedia/bewdf/BEWDF-v7/EDch7024.xml>.

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Sally Grey, who has researched the extensively about the Australiana movement, discusses in this article how even fashion has not been exempt from Australia's search for a national identity. She expresses her view of Australiana as an ironic statement, saying that the "camp reappropriation of tourist and urban kitsch, characteristic of this trend, was part of a rebellious insistence on low-brow taste, thumbing the nose at Eurocentric notions of good taste". The article follows the peak of Australiana's popularity in the 1970s, issues surrounding the appropriation of Aboriginal cultural motifs, and its decline in the 1980s as consumers and designers became less concerned about local identity and sought inspiration elsewhere. Grey misses an opportunity to discuss the how the political climate of the time affected these designers.