Let's hear it for poly

Every now and again somebody comes up with a business that goes against accumulated schmutta wisdom and still appears to succeed.

Mail order clothing, 100 per cent polyester and no brand cred all present marketing difficulties in Australia. It ain't necessarily so, says 'Satiny Caftan Loungers' which conducts its business either on the phone or through a mailbox in Bangalow, NSW.

The company's expensive press advertising campaign offers flowing caftans at $29.95 in you-can't-miss-her prints on 'lush pure polyester . .  you'll feel the luxurious cool comfort that lasts hour after hour . .  so elegant you can wear them while entertaining or even for a candlelit dinner for two'. But you can also wear your Loungers gardening, on holidays and on the beach. One size fits all - as long as you are between eight and 24; a remarkable engineering achievement in itself. One could imagine a less skilful garment overwhelming a size eight person with enough spare fabric for a set of curtains.

Much maligned polyester has not had such praise heaped upon it since it was invented and made its debut in the famous Gloweave shirt - which I must admit to wearing before I learned to love ironing.

Evidently gone is static electricity leg clinging and reeking armpits. You can attend a holiday candle-lit dinner on the beach after a day in the garden and then fall into bed without changing your Lounger, although your partner may wish you had.  

Recruitment officer shortage
A mass mailing by Ragtradejobs.com, which claims to be number one in fashion recruitment, turned out to be somewhat misdirected, since it was sent to 'the recruitment officer' of each company.

It told this officer that he/she was known as a 'shoe fetishist' but was really 'perfect'; a subtlety lost on most people, including me. Then it went on to say that Ragtradejobs.com 'has the right job for you'. For whom? If you read this literally, it suggests that the recruitment officer could do better and, presumably, all recruitment officers ought to be looking at the website for their right job - rather than the one they've got as a recruitment officer.

Now, if all these people pick up on the suggestion, there will be a shortage of recruitment officers and nobody left in fashion companies to handle the recruitment of new recruitment officers. 

Knot the thing to do
"Did you hear that John Kaldor got married the other day?" I asked a young colleague.
"Who's he?" she replied.

Oh weep for the cruelty of time eroding the fame and memory of our finest textile sons! In the case of John Kaldor, the older he gets and better he was. No Australian fabric stylist ever reached his level, especially in prints. He was king. He also ran a parallel fame producing occupation as a high profile art patron and entrepreneur, bringing with it honorary board positions in several art galleries.

Getting back to the marriage, 72-year-old John married 55-year-old Naomi Milgrom in January. Naomi is still current in the fashion industry, being the driving force behind Sussans and Noni B in Melbourne and one of the best Australian fashion retailers ever.

The marriage took place at John's Woolwich home where Naomi took charge of the decor and ceremony. The helicopter pilot I hired to fly over the wedding scene thinks there were nearly 300 people to see John and Naomi take their vows in a specially constructed see-through chuppa at the bottom of the garden. Another Marquee (plus floor) was built over the swimming pool to house the diners.

As the guests arrived they walked down John's long driveway strewn with white gardenias. My pilot thinks Naomi wore a black dress, fitted to the waist and then flaring. And he couldn't tell whether she'd had it specially made or had she whipped it off a Noni B rack as she scurried by. This aviator is no fashion expert, because for John, he only managed to report a dark suit and probably no tie.

Over the noise of the rotors he heard that John had been tracking square with Naomi for six years, she cemented into Melbourne and he rusted on to Sydney. As Mr and Mrs K, where would they live? Albury? No, they're going to stay where they are, keeping rediscovery alive with the regular intervention of distance. That did not apply, of course, to their honeymoon in Venice.

Among the many celebrity guests were famous husband and wife artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, first brought to Australia by John in 1969 to wrap Sydney's Little Bay in a million square feet of while plastic.

There was some talk that they would wrap John's gracious house or at least the bride and groom, but Christo, now John's age, preferred to rap rather than wrap.

By Fraser McEwing