Bush Doof and Festival girls dress joyfully just because they can. No rules, no judgements, just pure joy and unbridled creativity. Meet four of Melbourne’s many in this, the fifth instalment of our series: Fashion Tribes, first published in Spectrum/The Saturday Age/The Sydney Morning Herald .
Click back later to meet Sneaker Heads, the last in this multiple feature on five of the myriad modern tribes of Melbourne.
Words: Janice Breen Burns Photographs: Simon Schluter
Cheyenne Scott and Emmanuela Hourdas dress with joy and innocence, like Woodstock hippies; boho frocklets, flyaway layers and loose loops of ropey ethnic jewels. It’s a vibe that chimes with the mood of peace, art, love and music on their festival tribe’s favorite stomping grounds; Falls, Strawberry Fields, Stereosonic, Splendour in the Grass and mother of them all, Coachella in Palm Springs, U.S.A. “There’s no rules,” says Scott, who’s been to them all. “I just pull pieces randomly together until it’s right, like the vision in my head.” Scott’s shopped, stitched, thrifted and cobbled festival outfits together like an artist since she was 17 and though there are no rules, there is a connective aethetic. “The whole (bohemian) vibe derived from the 70s is kind of traditional.”
Laura White and Georgia Fairlie on the other hand, dress with joy and innocence too, but Bush Doof style. Their aesthetic is often more Vegas showgirl than neo-hippy; heavy on the flashes of flesh, rainbow sparkles and coloured wigs. “It’s really playful and creative,” says White, “And it’s crazy, fun, outrageous.”
It’s also, often risque but Bush Doof‘s unspoken rule is; “No rules” and, adds White; “No judgements either.” Even the skimpiest sparklers are embraced as self-expressive more than intentionally erotic.
“No one judges you,” says White. “You’re not there for that kind of (leering) attention. You’re wearing what YOU want to wear for YOU, no-one else.” (Of course, creeps surface and spoil the fun, but that’s a sad tale for another time.)
White first twigged her Bush Doof tribe was metamorphosing – with rainbow colours and whale-loads of glitter – just four years ago. “It started with people putting on little touches of sparkle,” she recalls, ” Then it just exploded.”
Now, she says, those crazy-joyful costumes; crystal briefs and sequinned bra-lettes, cowgirl hats and dominatrix-derived leather costumes inspired by the “Mad Max-esque” trends at the Nevada Desert’s legendary Burning Man festival, are popping up in young independant designers’ collections and stores and websites such as Dolls Kill, Tibbs & Bones and Cocoon.
White herself has regularly disappeared into the peace, love, art and music of Rainbow Serpent, Earth Core and countless other Bush Doofs since her teens. And recently, she picked the prettiest sparklers from her extensive wardrobe of custom-made costumes and flew to Nevada for Burning Man.
“It’s chaos,” she says, “Mad, silly, sooo creative. There are no limits, no judgements, just freedom and when you get back to normal life, it’s like; “Did I just dream that?”
The Age, Spectrum. FAshion Tribes series , Music Festival girls. story by Jan Breen Burns. Pic Simon Schluter 18 October 2018.
