There are two words that can curdle even the most joyful invitation: black tie. Look at the social shots of any local formal event – the opening night of the opera, the Logies, the Brownlows – and you’ll see hemlines that go from upper-thigh to trailing-two-feet-behind-you-in-a-train.
For men, there’ll be a sea of office suits punctuated by the occasional tuxedo on one end of the scale, with a few blazers and black skinny jeans at the other.
Collectively, Australians don’t get formal wear. But then we don’t get many opportunities to dress up. In adolescence you get one, or maybe two, school formals.
In early adulthood there’s skimpy evening kit to wear to nightclubs, formal daywear to go to the races (often indistinguishable from the nightclub outfits, much to the Victorian Racing Club’s chagrin), then for most people, nothing until your friends start getting married.
Certainly, there are exceptions – for example, for the rich people who attend all the philanthropic galas on the social calendar.
But that is not the usual experience. “Australia has no real aristocratic class, which has to do with the age of the country,” says Dr Sean Ryan, a senior lecturer in fashion and textiles at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. “What we have is a middle class that’s suspicious of displays of superiority, and that’s what formal wear is. It’s a display of status.”
Carl Kapp, who runs a bespoke tailoring and formal wear business in Sydney, says people find black tie “a bit confusing”.
“Very often clients aren’t sure what they should wear,” he says. “They wonder if things have to be black, or have to be full length … We tend to find out more about the event, then give advice based on that.”
Then there’s fact that the price of elegant formalwear is prohibitive. Julie Bishop might be able to own the room in a fully sequinned floor-length Johanna Johnson gown, but for most shoppers, even at the high-priced end, “Can I wear it again?” is a key question.
“I find our customer, because of our price point [between $1,000 to $2,000 for an evening dress], prefers to buy midi-length because they get more wear out of it,” Capp says. “Full length gowns are limiting, you can’t get a lot of wear out of it. Australia’s not such a formal country ... even if it’s a black-tie code they don’t wear full-length dresses.”
There’s less differentiation with suits too. Dr Ryan suspects most men “wear the same to the office, the races and a wedding”.
There’s also an issue of access. “The importation of formal wear is quite expensive,” says Dr Ryan. Meanwhile, getting something made custom is not common practice here. “We have suburban tailors and dressmakers, but we don’t have any serious craft tradition.”
These limitations will be apparent to anyone who has tried to buy a nice formal dress for under $400.
You’re faced with racks of plastic satin and questionable embellishment on the high street. If you want to buy something vintage, you’re also out of luck. Limited formal wear options are a historical problem, so unless you’re prepared to find a vintage wedding dress and dye it in the bathtub, the chances are in Vinnies you’ll be confronted with the same high street garbage, but 20 years older.
If you are prepared to pay for good formal wear, there are a handful of Australian designers that can deliver. Alongside Carl Kapp, Toni Maticevski, Alex Perry and Carla Zampatti all do significant trade in custom-fitted gowns, which cost from around $800 to almost five figures.
Maticevski’s are elaborate and femme with nipped waists and full skirts; Perry is flashier with bright blocks of colour, corsetry and high slits while Zampatti mixes classic gowns in duchess satin with more daring formal options like jumpsuits.
Online is the best bet for more affordable options. Stocked on Asos and Net-A-Porter, Needle & Thread work with craftspeople in India to create beautiful embellished gowns which are reasonably priced (especially when they’re on sale) at between $200 and $600, while vintage and handmade purveyor Etsy has a huge number of vintage options, as long as you remember to ask for measurements before buying.
For men, Strateas.Carlucci create more daring than average tuxedos, MJ Bale has a small range of classics, and a trip to a tailor can make a significant difference to a second-hand or high street buy.
But still, acquiring a formal outfit requires forward planning and considerable time spent searching.
It’s nice to go to a party where everyone is clad in beautiful formal clothes that harmonise aesthetically. But given the limitations on dressing up fancy in Australia, perhaps when we see “black tie” we should collectively decide that what the host really meant was “cocktail”. It’s the Australian way.
