Australian Fashion Labels Are Taking Over

Junior year of college, my four best friends and I all went abroad the same semester. This was a strategic move in order to minimize the amount of fun we would have to have without each other, and it worked quite well. Only two of us even wound up on the same continent, so it was great to hear about the wide array of experiences, cultural and otherwise, that everyone was having. Moral of the story: yay for Facebook threads. It was also quite interesting to see the clothing treasures that everyone came back with. Yay for shared closets.

One of my friends went to Sydney, Australia and I fell in love with the selection of slinky crop-tops and beachy dresses she returned with. Australian fashion had never really crossed my mind before as being a thing, but as soon as she told me how crazy stylish the women there were, I began noticing a lot of really sick little Australian brands popping up (and/or I found out brands I had liked for a while, like MinkPink, were in fact from the land down under). 

You've probably seen a lot of these brands cropping up on your favorite e-tailers, or possibly even in your closet, and not even realized that they all share Aussie roots. The aforementioned MinkPink has been around for a minute and I love them because their designs are high-fashion and high-quality without the high price tag. They recently did a collab with Urban Outfitters, so I guess you know they're mainstream, but I for one am not complaining. They mostly specialize in funky, printed bodycon dresses and wear-them-with-everything chiffon tops. 

These MinkPink-clad mamas know how to party.

The next brand, Shakuhachi, is really fucking hard to spell, but I'll forgive them because of this dress:

I thought tie-died leather was a fantasy that only existed in dreams.

I briefly entertained the notion of ordering this dress for New Year's Eve after I saw that it was on sale at Urban. But then my boyfriend said something awful that I don't even want to repeat about how leather looks awful on all women, blah blah blah. Moral of the story: never EVER ask boys to help you pick out a NYE outfit. Trust me. Interestingly, this same tie-died leather was also used to make wedges, a bag, etc. so if dresses aren't your whole deal you've got options. Personally I think this dress would make my boobs look fantastic and that is obviously half the reason I'm interested.

Bless'ed Are The Meek has been featured all over Nasty Gal recently (if you don't know what Nasty Gal is please stop reading this post immediately and go there NOW) and even though they also have kind of a weird name, I'm into their shit. I don't know about you, but I can see a theme here with these Australian brands: reasonable prices, edgy details, and a fair amount of skin being shown.

Yowza. Love me some open back action (open back-tion?)

See? Clothing CAN be beautiful and kinda slutty at the same time! I've been saying this for years, people.

And now for brands you've heard of but did not know where Australian....drum roll please! Sass and Bide. Remember back when Mischa Barton actually looked like Mischa Barton and she was always seen wearing Sass and Bide skinnies with some fabulous flowy tank? Well they still exist, they're still fabulous and it turns out they are Australian. Their current offerings on Shopbop are very geometric and kinda tribal.

Oh hay Misch circa 2007.

Pants like this are cool as shit, but they always look like, well, shit on me.