Pouffes, Puffs and Toffs

Ah, Dolly! Such sweet teenage memories the magazine conjures up. It’s lovely to know this Australian icon of magazineland is still going strong. Then I wouldn’t feel too sad at chucking out a large stack of them whilst clearing out my storage room yesterday.

November 1985 cover. Click on image for larger version. I did keep three of them however: November 1985, January 1986 and a special issue called ‘Making It’ – from which year it does not say. Each had something I particularly liked about it, and in the November issue it was this shoot for formal (or prom) fashion called ‘Toffs’. (Toffs: British slang for someone with an aristocratic background – few and far between as they are in Australia.) The models in fact look a refreshing mix of ethnicities.

…they all appear entirely overcome by ennui at the supposed event…

The quartet look so sultry and brooding – and for all the excitement the fictional writer professes for her formal dance, they all appear entirely overcome by ennui at the supposed event, which is exquisitely amusing! It’s also rather sophisticated for a magazine aimed at 12–17yo, and as for the dubious ethics of portraying these high-schoolers smoking…

Nevertheless, I did enjoy looking at the pages. Do take time to read the story – to find out how the narrator comes to accept an invitation from a boy she does not know; how teens tan in the mid-eighties; and which hairstyles were popular – among other fascinating tidbits.

Photographs by Martin Brading. Click on images for larger versions.