safari suit

As told by Winks

Gus and I always feel the weight of Safari lift off our shoulders after the final award is given out and received. A year’s worth of op-shopping, work shopping, clothes shopping, and test running culminated in one huge night of glamour, high disappointment but also many proud winners. One particular year we had pre-arranged for the big final prize (a metre square wooden map of Australia covered in shells with four lovely kangaroos captured photographic splendour in the middle) to be hung on the wall at the last venue.

The bar manager had not followed our instructions to the letter and the prize was locked away in a store room to which he did not have the key – slight disaster to say the least. As you can imagine it is hard to hold an audience at the best of times and at midnight in a noisy nightclub when everyone is drunk, it’s near impossible. Luckily a little over an hour later the key was found and we had our prize, (I think the manager wanted the prize for himself) but most people including the lucky winner of the award had moved on to a big party in the hills.

Gus, Dene and I (Winks) grabbed the award and the first cab to the party. On our arrival to the party I noticed a mass of people spilling out onto the lawn of the front yard but didn’t think much of it. It was a big party and a hot night and I was suitably dressed in my checquered safari suit with shorts and walk socks, blonde TV show host wig, gold chains and desert boots. Gus and Dene had Afro’s and big sunnies, Gus had the powder blue on and Dene had a very flowery colourful jumpsuit on. We made our way with haste to the front gate, discussing what we could remember about the evening and how well it had gone. We were weaving our way through the crowd, who were mainly dressed in black, receiving the odd look here and there. I was leading the way but was looking back mostly to keep in conversation with Dene and Gus.

We maintained a pretty steady pace but came to an abrupt halt when I bounced into the bouncer! Now, I’m not normally one to be on some door list or anything – actually I struggle to get into places even when I am – but there we were confronted with a situation. Not only had we snaked it past probably 100 people, (who would normally be on the guest list) to get to the front of the queue, but now we had a big bald bouncer to contend with. Gus just casually leaned forward and said ‘Charlie invited us’ and the perplexed bouncer stood there for a moment or two and then said ‘OK, you’re in’.

The suit came through again!

The party was pumping, Hollywood style. We caught up with Ben, the winner of the Don Dunstan Young Achiever Award, and handed the prize over. Now, the likes of Kylie Minogue and Molly Ringwald were in town shooting a movie and were at this party – I didn’t see them but I reckon they saw us.

THE KEY IS FUN – FUNKEY!
 

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Geoff, a safari suit website fan and a safari suit wearer sent this photo in. It will speak for itself. I presume it’s Geoff in the photo?

He also pointed out a topic on a bulletin board about whether safari suits are considered formal wear for ship cruises. Everyone gets into the spirit of whether to wear the safari suit and what to wear with it. As we know the accessories are an essential part of safari suit outings.

I love the photo Geoff but I would also love a photo of you wearing your brown and your green safari suits.

Go and have a read for yourself.

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Last week safari suit readers were alerted to the comeback of the safari suit as reported in The Age. That story, and our coverage of it I’m sure, has gained momentum.

On Thursday the safari suit comeback was written about in the Executive Style section of smh.com.au. At least this time they didn’t use a photo of John Howard.

But even better than this was our very own Gus (as pictured here) being interviewed on local Adelaide radio. We were initially contacted last week but got the email too late and apparently they interviewed someone from Sydney who has an enviable collection of safari suits. They didn’t let it go, however, and resurrected the subject yet again. Gus was our spokesperson and you may have heard him just before 5pm on Tuesday 10 July along with the safari suit calendar boy – Jim Whalley – from Nova Defence, Kym Bonython and Nigel Stark. By the way does anyone know how to get hold of this luscious safari suit calendar?

Fortunately we have audio of this momentous occasion (MP3 file, 4Mb, 9 minutes). It’s a bit of a biggy but well worth listening to. If you haven’t got a fast internet connection, here’s a summary. (Note the audio file is missing the first few seconds.)

Jim Whalley – Safari suit calendar

About safari suits, he said, ‘They’re a picture of sartorial elegance’.

He said that anyone in their organisation going to a conference must pack a safari suit and take a photo. There’s one on the front of this year’s calendar of a colleague in front of the Coliseum. Did I mention that we want a copy?

He hopes the new version of safari suit is 100% polyester.

Grant Cameron – ‘Nothing that says man other than lime-green polyester’.

Jim Whalley – ‘And a bit of static electricity’.

Gus Clutterbuck – safari suit pub crawl

Grant Cameron started out by asking if everyone wore safari suits to the pub crawl. Gus explained that, yes a lot of people do but other outfits worn by women are featured also, eg the muumuu and the caftan.

Grant Cameron asked Gus if it brings out the animal in you?

Gus – ‘Don’t know about the animal, but it certainly brings out the style in everyone and I think the great thing about safari suits, apart from the lime-green polyester, is the fact that it breaks the ice and gives everyone something to talk about and something to look at and examine closely.

There’s no end to the ingenuity that people will come up with on the night. People will go to all sorts of extremes including shaving a bald patch on the top of their head.’

Kym Bonython – long time safari suit wearer

Talks about a camel story at the beginning of his interview until Grant ties it in nicely with the safari suit.

Kym Bonython used to ride a motorbike. He rode up the South Eastern Freeway one day while wearing his safari suit and he skidded on a painted white line and skidded off his bike. He got gravel rash and said that the safari suit wasn’t the best garment to wear in this instance. He’s still got it, however, and one of his grandsons will be wearing it to a fancy dress party shortly.

Nigel Stark – writer and triple safari suit owner

He has had three safari suits made in the last 10 years and they’re good for wearing in Malaysia. So they’re not the original 70s safari suit but he is wearing them in the present day, albeit in another country.

Grant Cameron signing off – ‘Looks like we’ve unleashed the beast – the safari suit is with us to stay.’

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