The way we dress is central to how we express our identity. Perhaps more than other settings, the workplace has been a site of radical cultural shifts, played out through changing dress codes. Part of the Paypal Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Independent Programme, Office Wear is a panel discussion that will explore the impact, interpretation and subversion of workplace fashion standards, from power dressing, to the sartorial pragmatism of Silicon Valley and the loose bounds of post-pandemic workwear.

The panel is moderated by Lucianne Tonti, fashion editor of The Saturday Paper and regular contributor to The Guardian. Speakers include Naarm-based fashion designer Erik Yvon, whose work is intended for all bodies and to bring joy to the wearer; Harriette Richards, Lecturer in the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT and founder of the Critical Fashion Studies podcast; and Thomas Riley, founding partner of P. Johnson tailor and clothier.

Collaborators:

Molonglo sees property development as the willing of architecture into being; from an abstraction of drawings and ideas into something to be touched and lived in. Molonglo does this through property development and investment, research and publishing, in Australia and Greece. Office Wear is part of a broader exploration of work culture Molonglo has initiated in relation to Public Office, a new centre for creative work in Collingwood.

Dr Harriette Richards is a Lecturer in the School of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT University, and a co-founder of the Critical Fashion Studies Research Group. She is a cultural studies scholar whose work focuses on ethical and sustainable fashion systems, consumer culture, and fashion in the settler colonial imagination. She is currently working on a book exploring the impacts of settler colonialism on the fashion cultures of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Thomas Riley is Co-Director at P Johnson. Based in Victoria, Tom established the business starting in 2009 with founder and best friend Patrick Johnson. Tom has many roles but focusses largely on staff training and development. He has built business and casual top-to-bottom wardrobes for clients for 14 years. Tom and Patrick met studying winemaking at Adelaide university and bonded over a passion for clothes. Tom was a winemaker for 9 years in South Australia, Victoria and France before working with Patrick.

Erik Yvon is a Victorian based fashion designer, inspired by his queer experience, and Mauritian roots. With a Bachelor of Fashion Design and training under esteemed Australian labels Romance Was Born and Neo Dia he gained recognition for winning both The Wool Awards and the Australian Fashion Awards. With this accreditation and experience his eponymous label launched in 2018, placing a strong emphasis on queer, sustainable, and ethical production—an embodiment of his values.

Lucianne Tonti is a sustainable fashion journalist and an expert in regenerative fashion systems. She is the fashion editor of The Saturday Paper and a regular contributor to The Guardian where she writes the weekly series Closet Clinic. Her first book Sundressed: Natural Fibres and the Future of Fashion was published in Australia in 2022 and released in the US and the UK in 2023.