About

winks-gus.jpgHi, welcome to the Safari suit website. The Safari Suit is designed for fashion and function. Not only is it a joy to wear but very versatile.

This website originated because a group of friends have been getting together every year to celebrate the safari suit and dress up in safari suits and other 1970’s fashion including accessories. We celebrate by visiting various establishments around Adelaide. Our aim has been, and continues to be, to celebrate the safari suit in all its glory – world wide – so if you wear one please let us know by sending a photo and your safari suit story and we’ll post it on this site.

The safari suit can be worn anywhere from the steaming hot jungle of the Congo to the fashionably cool urban jungle. The Go-Anywhere safari suit will allow entry into the grungiest pit or the swishiest nightclub or casino.

Totally fashionable, totally drip dry, with it’s practicability of a multiple choice of pockets that could house the form guide and winning tickets out on the track, or important accessories such as sequined sunnies and frizz comb out on the town. It is a real winner with the ladies also.

The ladies are not left out, however, as you will see in the photos and award winners pages. You can also read all about the Safari suit pub crawl history.

Website stuff

The website changed from a static website, that was a bit of pain to update and didn’t happen that often, to a blog format in October 2006. As this site is mainly based on the annual safari suit pub crawl event the archives reflect this. The plan is now to update more regularly with just about anything safari suit related. For posterity here’s a screengrab of the old website:

Feel free to comment on the blog or contact us.

7 thoughts on “About”

  1. I gather you mean where can you buy a safari suit in Australia? I’d look either on ebay or in op shops. As they’re gaining popularity it’s harder to find them these days but if you’re vigilant enough you will find something.

  2. Dear Safari suit website creator. Any chance you might know the true origin of the safari suit? I would really like to know how it came to be and all that. I live in India and it was an incredibly popular outfit for men in India in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. You can still see men wearing The suit from time to time.

  3. hi there
    looking for good picture of man’s safari suit from front and back for my taylors to make me few.plse asap
    regards,
    marian

  4. SAFARI SUITS ARE ALIVE AND WELL IN THE PHILIPPINES! (Yes, folks. You read that right.)

    It’s nice to know that the dear old safari suit (in the late 70s up until the mid 80s, they were affectionately known in my country as the “bush jacket” or “jungle tops/jungle trousers”) is again gaining popularity, albeit rather slowly.

    In the Philippines, the safari suit was very popular for 2 decades, from 1968 to 1988. A lot of kinds of men wore them, from then President Ferdinand Marcos (he had, other than his “barong tagalogs”, an eclectic line-up of belted safari suits featuring “three-fourth quarters” shirt sleeves) to captains of industry to various TV personalities to security personnel.

    Some of the most memorable designs were those designed by top fashion icon Jeanne Goulburn (it was sold in 6 different designs and most Filipino men bought all 6 designs at the same time! Also, the late Senator Ninoy Aquino was wearing a Beige Goulburn Leisure Suit when he was assasinated at the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983. In fact, he was still wearing that same leisure suit when he was buried – his mother wanted him to be buried in that suit and that she wanted the Filipinos to see “…what they had done to my son.” The bloodstained body and leisure of Senator Aquino was deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness of 2 generations of Filipinos.) and the unforgettable “Tropical Leisure Suit” (a safari suit with the jacket worn over a thick-textured shirt, known as an “executive shirt”) launched sometime in the late 70s (I think it was 1978, though it became popular only in late 1980) by Bejika Garments, Inc. I’m so very fortunate to own one of those “Tropical Leisure Suits”, as the owner of the garment company that launched it is a friend of my mom. Mine is a Dacron Almond Green and Croton Cream safari suit with a beige texturized “executive shirt” with light blue stripes. In the early 80s, the “Tropical Leisure Suit” was the corporate uniform of choice for most top government oficials, such as then Prime Minister Cesar Virata, then Foreign Minister Carlos P. Romulo, then Tourism Minister Jose Aspiras, then Metro Manila Vice Governor Ismael Mathay, Jr., then Manila City Mayor Ramon Bagatsing and then National Assembly Speaker Nicanor Yñiguez. The “Tropical Leisure Suit” was given a stamp of approval by the cabinet (collectively known as the “Technocrats”) and the Batasan (the National Assembly/Parliament), as people always see them in TV wearing those safari suits while being escorted at the Malacañang Palace, the Batasang Pambansa, the Manila Hotel or while being chaffeur-driven in their Opel Rekords, Toyota Cressidas & Crowns, Chrysler Colt Sigmas, Volkswagen Passats and Ford Cortinas & Granadas. The popularity of those 2 safari suit designs gave meaning to the phrase “power dressing”. (Nowadays, alas, the safari suits are the garb of choice for secuity guards and bodyguards…)

    Anyway, enough of the lengthy history lesson… It’s good to know that the safari suit is again becoming popular, and that there is a website entirely dedicated to them. I hope to be able to meet other people in this site who has the same passion for safari suits, leisure suits, 70s clothing or just about anything 70s. It sure would be nice to exchange correspondences with you guys. =)

    Kudos and more power to the people behind safarisuit.com!

    PS – Could anybody among you guys send me snapshots of your safari suits? And also, do you know of anybody who would to put up their safari suits for sale? Please let me know by visiting my website (www.friendster.com/blykirby). Leave a personal message. =)

    Kirby Sarmiento
    Manila, 6 May 2008.

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