Happy Autumn and Unhappy Polar Fleece

It’s the first day of Autumn and things are getting slightly crispy in Hobart.  After our heat wave weekend where we were the hottest state in Australia I am dying to pull on wintery layers. This in turn has made me think about how ugly and dull winter fashions can be in Hobart.

The shops that abound in our sweet city are camping shops. There are so many scattered through town and Salamanca Place and they all seem to thrive.  That says a lot of good things about Tasmanians – we’re healthy outdoorsy nature lovers (that’s the fantasy anyway).  It also points to a big ugly problem: excessive use of POLAR FLEECE.  A typical Salamanca market Saturday will display a vast array of polar fleece vests, tops and hats.  For some reason all the polar fleece colours seem to melt into one disgusting maroon. 

Part of me (the mum part) understands polar fleece because it washes well and dries almost instantly. Cheap polar fleece seems to attract lint and piling straight away.  But I ask you, what is the point of an unzipped sleeveless polar fleece vest?  In the words of Katy Perry, "You're hot and you're cold, you're yes then you're no..." In other words, that sleeveless polar fleece vest is doing NOTHING.

Humans have done a much better job of staying warm before fleecies existed. Why are we regressing??  Wool, fur and layers of cotton have done us proud for a very long time.  I’m not suggesting we need to buy a mink this season (that’s Anna Wintor’s job). The thought of cruelly farmed animals providing no meat, just fur, seems senseless and vulgar.  I’m all for the fakes in that regard.  And vintage furs can be justified in my mind – those horses have well and truly bolted (well, probably the kangaroos or possums, not horses).

Last year I cut up one of my little Nan’s stoles to trim a khaki cape from Sportsgirl.  Some of the old lining fell away from the back, revealing that the stole had been constructed from cutting room floor scraps.  Hundreds of tiny 1cm pieces of fur were perfectly stitched together to produce what looks like a seamless fur.  Bless my little Nan and her low budget glamour.  I wish I’d kept all of her plastic beads…

Now, we don’t have a European winter in Tassie.  It’s miserable, but it’s not frozen solid.  Miss Watts was down here for her whistle-stop visit before going back to Paris, packing up house and moving to London, so she really needed a decent coat. She found one here - brown, knee length for $50 at my favourite antiques warehouse in Warwick Street. The coat is little shabby and sheds a bit, but the shabbiness is nice because it makes one aware that Miss Watts did not sanction the kill.  Maybe it was road kill anyway. We call it Kanga.

With her Sartorialist eye, Miss Watts has put two coats together - the fur and a raincoat shell - keeping out the bad weather and bad styles that tend to crop up in winter.  No polar fleece required.

Matt Coyle Clothes update: Fed Ex parcel from Spoonflower is on its way with new fabric and prints. More details to come.

GOOD RAGS, BAD RAGS AND RAGS IN BAGS

It’s rag time.  No, not like that.  It’s time to talk about rags – glad rags and sad rags.

Firstly the glad rags: one of the joys in my life at the moment is working from home. This meant that today the tv stayed on all day (ahem no it does not always stay on all day) – firstly the Krudd leadership shitstorm, which turned out not to be so shitty, then the Oscars LIVE.  So really it was all about the frocks as it is every year. God there were some bad decisions. Gwyneth got it wrong with the cape, JLo – no.  Meryl: unflattering oven bag.  Emma Stone and Michelle Williams, both in red, were gorgeous and looked so happy and under-tanned - yay! 

I’m convinced that the most beautifully dressed women there were dressed by Johanna Johnson.  I do know Johanna a little through my sister-in-law Zoe.  Although I’ve only actually met Johanna a few times, I feel as though I know her better than that.  Maybe it is by knowing her clothes? They are so exquisitely done and balanced and historical and quietly elegant.  And deeply sexy.  See more pictures of JJ's Oscar and post-Oscar party frocks: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Johanna-Johnson/103352579737095

BAD RAGS IN A BAG:

I tend not to throw away old worn bits of fabric or off cuts.  They either go into the laundry to be used for cleaning or into the giant fabric basket for the ‘one day’ quilt. If they’re felt scraps it doesn’t matter how tiny they are, they can and will be used for some kind of toy.  As a result there are bags within bags within bags of scraps.  It’s a pathology but I’ve always got the future in mind – the environment, the time in the future to sew more… But as a result the present storage is bursting at the seams.

 A few months ago Matt’s punching bag needed some attention. Yes we have a punching bag. It is surprisingly brilliant for exercise but it’d been left out in the rain and had become really heavy.  Clearly the stuffing had become waterlogged.  It’s a proper punching bag, bought from a sports store. It has a brand, but the stuffing wasn’t foam or padded wool.  It was made up of sodden wet rags.  Not just rags actually, but old jumpers, tops, trousers.  They’d been curled up and stuffed whole into the punching bag.  No-one even bothered to disguise them by ripping them into scraps.

The rags stank not just of damp but of dirty old clothes (which of course is what they were).  When they were spilled out on the courtyard they looked sad and disgusting. Who chose that cotton jumper for an eight year old girl? Could they ever have envisaged that they’d end up in a punching bag?

 Then again, all clothes become dust anyway.  What a downer.

 I'm working on a top for Matt's Sydney show at the moment.

A scarf has sold at Space Bar (quick, three left), giving me some $ to do something new with the scarves.