Fashion is an industry where everything old can be new again, so when exactly did we start looking back instead of forward?
QUT's head of fashion Kathleen Horton said the one consistency in contemporary fashion was its ability to reference past styles in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.
"It's mainly been since the 1970s that we've seen the constant 'sampling' of past styles," she said.
"The hippie movement saw a trend toward wearing second-hand clothes. It was all of a sudden chic to be mashing together past styles."
Ms Horton said though we had constantly 'referenced' fashion from past eras it was only in contemporary fashion that we had started using these references in an ironic way.
"It's a lot like sampling in music. Rather than copying a style we take a part of it and mash it with something else - we give it a different meaning to what was originally intended," she said.
"The 1950s was a very conservative time for fashion. Everyone wore the same style and you would have looked very out of place if you deviated from it.
"Contemporary fashion is referencing the 50s a lot at the moment but it is done in a very tongue-in-cheek way. Young women are dressing up in in 1950s cocktail dresses but they are doing it with a whole new attitude."
Sydney fashion duo Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales from design label Romance was Born will join QUT Fashion academics and students for a panel discussion on the revolving cycles of the industry during QUT's Fashion Week in November.
The panel, headed by QUT Fashion's Carla Van Lunn - one half of design label Maison Briz Vegas - will also include QUT academics, lecturer and fashion theorist Dr Tiziana Ferrero-Regis, Designer and former Project Runway Australia contestant Mark Neighbour and graduating fine arts students Tess Gard and Michael McAtomney.
There are three ways to view this free event held at QUT's Creative Industries Faculty in Kelvin Grove on Friday November 22, at 6:30 pm. Firstly, the event will be livestreamed via Creative Cluster and also projected to QUT's Parade Grounds, which will be transformed into a pop-up bar by Capulet with live music performances and postgraduate fashion displays.
There are also limited tickets are available to view the free panel discussion in the TV Studio.
The action can also be followed via the Creative Cluster blog or through the hashtag #QUTfasionchats on Twitter. Send in questions to @CreativeIndust.
To register for the audience, live streaming or online discussion here.
More information on other QUT Fashion Week events can be found here.
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Media contact: Alita Pashley, QUT media officer, 07 3138 1841 or alita.pashley@qut.edu.au
