haven’t bothered to make it accurate. If they had showed it as faded, I wouldn’t have
bought it. But we do love Doctor Who, although – do you watch Doctor Who?
Yeah, I have watched it.
Are you finding it increasingly incomprehensible?
Yeah I think it’s the common criticism, I think that since Russel T Davies left that
everyone’s complaining about the direction it’s gone.
I love science fiction. I think it’s very mind expanding. Doctor Who had some sort of
science-y-fiction-y element to it but now it’s become incomprehensible, I have no idea
what they’re saying!
Yeah, I feel as though they’re going towards a more pseudo-science-fiction…
Well, it’s something. All I want to do is understand the story, but all they do is talk
amongst themselves, and I’m like “Did you understand that?” – “No, did you?” – “What
was that about?” – “I don’t know... ”
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, and you look through Vogue, but I’m way behind
the eight-ball...
So with your own shirts, is there anything you look for? Like nerdy and colourful? Or is
it more whatever you find that appeals to you?
It doesn’t have to be nerdy, but it helps. I have one shirt that has nothing but equations on
it. Colourful, bright, a sense of humour, smile on the face of the viewer, not agro,
basically whatever will make people 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.
Some of your shirts feature designs from Dr Seuss. Is he an author you particularly
admire?
Oh, he has a wonderful sense of writing, of rhythm and rhyme and I share some of his
prejudices, so therefore I admire him because he has the same prejudices that I have.
Are there any other authors or artists who have influenced your style?
I’d have to say the Hawaiian shirt – at a big, fundamental level. A shirt with bright things
on it, exotic vibes, sunny weather, people doing sporty, outdoors-y things, things that I
love in pictures. It gets a little bit tricky though when you have females on the shirt. I
remember the case of the guy who was in mission control for one of the recent space
launches, and he was wearing a shirt that had women in different stages of exotic clothing