Ms Nanette Carter (with Denise Whitehouse & Kaye Ashton)
Design History & Critical Theory, National School of Design
Swinburne University of Technology
ncarter@swin.edu.au
Nanette lectures in Design History and Critical Theory. In 2001 she was awarded an MA by the University of Melbourne for a thesis on Modernism in Interior and Furniture Design in Melbourne in the 1930s. Her research interests include contemporary furniture, interior design, fashion, textiles and their marketing. Nanette is currently curating an exhibition for the Museum of Modern Art at Heide based on her MA research.
Boutiques, Brands and Youth : Sportsgirl and Prue Acton and the Pioneering of Youth Culture and Brand Marketing in Australia
This paper will present the findings of a joint research project into the archives of two youth fashion leaders in 1960s and 1970s Australia, 'Sportsgirl' and 'Prue Acton'. Following overseas trends, Sportsgirl and Acton led the fashion industry's move away from the department store to the development of designer boutiques and lifestyle marketing for an emerging youth sector. As with Mary Quant and the Carnaby Street phenomenon, Sportsgirl and Acton's success rested on the development of distinctive brand identities; of total design 'looks' that linked their clothing lines into a supporting set of lifestyle values and accessories that included the boutique as a site of leisure and entertainment. This paper will focus on the development of Sportsgirl and Acton's brand identities through the astute use of a young and expanding design industry that included commercial architecture, graphic design, advertising, new media, visual merchandising as well as clothing and textile design. While the focus is the role of these design industries in the creation of fashion brands, the manner in which the Sportsgirl and Prue Acton brands promoted a myth of youth culture and gender politics will also be considered.
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