BERNARD SALT: Columnist
February 9, 2017
The Australian
In March 1981, the 19-year-old fiancee of Prince Charles, Lady Diana Spencer, stepped out of a limousine in London in a black strapless evening dress. The media impact of this was global. The dress was designed by English couturiers David and Elizabeth Emanuel; they wanted to showcase Diana’s classic feminine beauty.
In that single moment the fashion industry pivoted. Out went the earthy tones, the shapeless form and the tie-dye decor of the hippie movement; in came the curves, the allure and the sophistication of a far more aspirational consumer. In the decade that followed women the world over copied Diana’s style.
But it was more than this. The world was ready for change.
The 20-something baby boomer generation had had enough of the rebellion that first emerged out of America’s 1967 Summer of Love. Long hair, unstructured clothes, even military jackets worn in mocking parody of the Vietnam War, signalled a powerful shift in intergenerational thinking. In Australia a 1972 Aquarius Festival at Byron Bay morphed into a new back-to-nature communal settlement at nearby Nimbin.
Housing style in the 70s continued the broader theme with newly-discovered inner-city terraces in Sydney’s Paddington and Melbourne’s Carlton being made over in earthy tones. Tasmanian blue gums replaced English plantings in the terrace garden.
Diana’s sensational metamorphosis from demure and cardiganed preschool teacher to global glamour icon spoke to a generation tired of hippiedom.
Housing styles changed in the 80s as a consequence. Out went all things burnt orange and mission brown; in came a new colour story of heritage green and post-box red. Laura Ashley prints and cricket-stripe wallpaper were ascendant forces in every yuppie renovation. Even the garden changed. Out went the natives; in came English cottage gardens reinterpreted in the colonies as the Edna Walling garden. Twee brass “ducks crossing” garden signs placed near the front door completed urban Australia’s unseemly English apery.
Diana’s moment tilted global fashion and Australia’s broader consumer consciousness towards English styling. But during the 90s Australia’s consumer focus yet again shifted, this time to provincial France and Italy. A Year in Provence (1990) and Under the Tuscan Sun (1996) highlighted continental style at a time when Australia’s second-generation Mediterranean migrants were approaching peak spending.
The Australian house changed to incorporate a new style of indoor-outdoor living that was fashionably termed “alfresco”.
Restaurants and cafes finally succumbed to the reality of the Australian climate and spilled onto the pavement, aided I might add by the ban on indoor smoking from the mid-1990s. A great beverage shift ensued; out with tea in with coffee. The centre of the home was no longer the English parlour but the Mediterranean kitchen with an aspirational makeover involving tiles, then marble, then green glass, then stainless-steel splashbacks. No-one quite knows where splashbacks are headed in the future.
A new languidness to Australian living changed both the way we organised our homes and our furniture. Two partners working and meals that were now grazed, transferred the function of eating from the defunct dining-room to the hip kitchen-bench or even to the local Thai restaurant. Lounge suites morphed into daybeds for snoozing and into eating and drinking spaces with the invention of the sofa-arm cup-holder.
The rise of Chinese and Indian and Arabic influences in Australian cities can again change the way we live. Perhaps there will be a swing back to tea. Perhaps trophy housing will become important symbols of success to the new Asian middle class. Perhaps dukkah will be as common as tomato sauce in Aussie pantries by the end of the 2020s.
The having of children and the taking out of a mortgage is increasingly being postponed by the demands of further education and the high cost of housing.
More people are single for longer giving rise to higher levels of discretionary spending in the 20s and early 30s.
The rise of activewear speaks to our rising health-consciousness while the popularity of yoga-wear and of cyclist’s lycra seems to legitimise a measure of narcissism and preening. Is this part of an “all about me” culture or is this a natural outcome of a society that delays permanent commitment to relationships?
In the post global financial crisis world the role of the Australian consumer market is being viewed positively by international retailers. It’s almost as if global retailers have recently discovered the world’s 13th largest consumer market. Retailers like Japan’s Uniqlo, Sweden’s H&M, Germany’s Aldi and even South Africa’s Woolworths have invested heavily in the Australian retail market. French sports giant Decathlon has announced its intention to open stores in Australia. And American online book retailer Amazon has recently established an Australian-based operation. Presumably more global retailers can be expected to enter the Australian in the future.
And then there’s the issue of digital disruption in retailing. In the five years to December 2016 total retail sales in Australia increased by 22 per cent but sales for newsagents and bookstores contracted by 23 per cent. Retail spending has instead clustered around the home and lifestyle areas of hardware (including home improvement), takeaway food and cafes where total sales growth since 2011 has exceeded 35 per cent.
Digital disruption can be a powerfully reshaping force in retailing but it can also create opportunity for the savviest of retailers.
Customers don’t always buy online; many use the internet to research products which means they are more educated when they come into a store. And they are likely to locate stores via an online search engine. The challenge for bricks & mortar retailers is to build a consumer experience that seamlessly integrates and complements the digital and the real world. Australian consumers see (online) and expect access to global retail product: there are no seasonality or delivery time allowances in the digital world.
The lesson is the Australian consumer spending market shifts and shuffles over time and can be shaped by external forces such as “the Diana effect”, by changes to the nation’s ethnic mix and by changes to the model of retailing. Standing still is never a good option in business but especially in the Australian retail industry.
Bernard Salt is a KPMG partner and an adjunct professor at
Curtin University Business School. Research by Simon Kuestenmacher.
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