A Cheeky Opening to Melbourne’s City Circle Line, 1981

Fashion in the 1980s was bold and brash with an attitude to match. The anti-materialist youth culture movements of previous decades were replaced by a ‘more is more’ attitude which left its mark on Australian fashion. This image, taken on 6 December 1981, marks the opening of Melbourne’s City Loop railway. To the modern eye it is dated and almost comical. In 2017 young women in string bikinis are unlikely to be seen advertising the opening of a publicly funded railway line; but in the 80s, perhaps as a reaction against the second wave of feminism, women were often used in advertising geared towards the male gaze. The image also shows the evolution of the bikini from high-waisted boy shorts to something much skimpier a trend that would soon be picked up by the fitness craze that would sweep the nation.