happy is the main idea I‟ve got... I remember being
16 in Wollongong, walking down the main street of
Wollongong on a rainy day in winter and everybody
was dressed in grey. There was this woman wearing
bright clothing, and she kind of weaved through the
crowd, they were all smiling around her. And it was
this really nice vibe for me. That was one of my
goals – to make people happy by wearing bright
clothing.
Do you always wear colourful outfits, or do you
"dress down" when you're not working?
When I‟m on stage, I wear the colourful clothing and
then whenever I‟m at the university, most of the time
I will wear colourful clothing because I‟m kind of on
stage. The doors open for students, they walk past,
I‟ve got to be in that role. At home, I‟ll just wear
daggy brown stuff when I‟m doing the gutters and
cleaning the roof, doing some housework and
mowing the lawn. I wouldn‟t wear bright clothing
for that, it's too precious because my wife makes the
shirts, it takes three hours (as I mentioned) and the
shirts can be worn for between 5 and 30 wears
before they get too faded. So I try to think about
making them last longer, by not wearing them out
too often. When I‟m onstage with a big audience, I
try to wear something really recent and bright and
snappy.
Wow, that’s quite fast.
Oh, man, it was so impressive! I was amazed by how
good she was.
Do you have a fashion icon that you admire, or
favourite themes for the design of your outfits?
Well, my daughter is in fashion. She‟s working for
Bonds as a junior designer for Zippies, like onesies,
but Zippies for little babies. So I sort of get advice
from my wife and from her. And then they read their
way through all these fashion magazines, so I‟ve
learned all these names like Westlake, but I‟m way
behind the eigh B