Nostalgia Day
Australian Vogue's first stand alone cover, shot by Helmut NewtonToday on Australia Day I’m looking back on Aussie history with a fashion perspective. Australian Vogue was first sold as a supplement to the British title, and its first stand along issue was published as Spring/Summer 1959. In the editor’s letter of this issue Rosemary Cooper refers to it as a ‘double number tied to the British issue’. The magazine features Helmut Newton’s photography and there are also plenty of fashion illustrations still being utilised, many of them in advertisements.
Editor’s letter from Australian Vogue’s first issue
Contents page in the first Australian Vogue magazine
In the late 90s, Australian Vogue ran a story featuring photographic spreads from its archives (focusing on white fashion). Nothing beats a Little White Dress for summer in Australia after all.
Erm, except for today. Today’s weather on this day of all days was about as unAustralian as you could get: chilly, windy and overcast with a pathetic day high of 21.7°C. And I did in fact have a little 50s style white sundress to wear, with the cutest little print of tiny strawberries and black polka-dots and wide bow-tied straps. I guess it’ll have to wait til Melbourne gets more into the spirit of things.
Happy Australia Day!
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