Is Kmart fashion? This front row doesn’t care

In fact, most people I speak to either work for Kmart, or are attending with people who work there. The mood is more like a lavish private staff Christmas party than a runway show.

“This show is for everyone,” says the chief executive of Kmart Australia, John Gualtieri. “Over 90 per cent of Australian households shop with us at Kmart, so we want everyone to feel included. We also believe that fashion is something to be enjoyed by the whole family.”

Standing out among staff, wearing a check suit in the bleacher seats at the Royal Exhibition Building, is store employee Guy Cooper from Woy Woy in NSW, who paid for his own travel to Melbourne to see the show.

“I love the company I work for and believe in what they’re doing,” Cooper says. “I buy loads of clothes from Kmart. I’ve undergone a massive weight loss journey, so affordable clothing that’s stylish was an asset for me.”

Once the runway show starts it’s like entering a Kmart television commercial.

Compared to the festival’s ‘Glam Up’ show where models hobbled in pain and struggled to manoeuvre dresses and capes that adhered to dated notions of glamour, the store’s models are upbeat and energetic.

All customer groups are represented by models of varying size, abilities, race and age, but there’s still something missing behind the backflipping dancers and brass section of the band.

On the runway, the top-to-toe looks of denim, business and stretch basics look like a crisp catalogue but the only signs of creativity and flair are the children’s dinosaur jackets.

It makes the appearance of television personalities Julia Morris and dry-clean cut Robert Irwin on the runway earlier in the week seem edgy.

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Fashion doesn’t always need be aspirational, but the festival runway should also be a place to dream not just assemble a shopping list. Those dreams crackled at the festival’s Mob in Fashion show with emerging First Nations talent and the National Graduate Showcase.

Affordable pants that pucker at the seams and baggy chinos will always be an ordinary part of our waking hours.

There’s rapturous applause from the Kmart converted as the show comes to an end, but I’ll wait until next year before inspecting the ‘Ahnkoo’ range. By then, those dinosaur jackets might come in adult sizing.

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