‘It seems like magic’: fashion workers’ favourite winter wardrobe finds

We’re so close to the end of this year’s winter it feels as though we can almost reach out and grasp the sunshine. But there are still a few weeks of chilly weather to go and, when the days are grey, cold and wet, fashion can undoubtedly offer a bright spot. Especially since winter dressing offers the opportunity for more clothes, layers and outfit styling.

This week fashion editors, stylists and designers share the best thing they bought this winter, from lucky secondhand finds to a special new style of suit.

A ‘magic’ secondhand jacket

When the designer Alix Higgins found a Balenciaga denim jacket in a secondhand store in Osaka, Japan a few months ago, it felt like fate.

The jacket, a classic mid-blue denim in a heavyweight cotton with a slightly cropped sleeve, was from the fall/winter 2016 collection. A true fashion maven, Higgins knew it was from the creative director Demna Gvasalia’s his first collection for the house.

“It’s a special piece from an historically significant runway collection that fit me perfectly, that I found in one store in one size,” he says. “In moments like these, price permitting, it seems like magic.”

Back in Sydney where his eponymous label is based, Higgins has worn the jacket nonstop, everywhere from the supermarket to parties and dinners. “It’s casual enough that it works for every day but also in more chic settings,” he says. “It’s also warm when layered with a wool sweater underneath but lightweight enough for autumn and spring. Luckily our Australian winter is not too brutal for too long.”

Boots with a ‘bit of theatre’

The designer Ruby Pedder’s most significant purchase this winter has been a pair of black knee-high boots by Valentino. She bought them from the designer resale store Reunion in Sydney’s Enmore. “I was on my way home from work when I saw them in the window and had to try them on,” she says. “I wasn’t planning on shopping, but they fit me so perfectly and were in amazing condition.”

She has been wearing them mostly on nights out and for special events. Pedder says she likes to style them with a denim jacket, stockings and shorts, or a miniskirt from her label Rube Pedder (which won the Ubank Feel-Good Fashion Fund, an annual prize for emerging designers who manufacture locally). Although the shoes are “timeless”, she says, “the buckle detailing really adds such a nice, unexpected bit of theatre”.

A hand-sewn suit

When the local suit company MJ Bale hosted the Japanese tailor Kaneko Kenichi, Benjamen Judd immediately made an appointment. “His made-to-measure offerings are really incredible,” the writer and editor says. “They’re finished by hand in his atelier in Hokkaido.”

He chose a suit in an ale brown tweed that is his most meaningful purchase this season. “Brown has been a huge trend in suits at the moment and I do love the colour, but I wanted it to be a little different to the standard chocolate,” he says. “The construction is next level.”

Together, he and Kenichi decided on an unstructured jacket that could be worn separately with trousers or jeans. Judd wanted to wear the trousers more casually too, so he chose a higher waisted cut with a wide leg. “They are a new style for me – really similar to the style worn by men in the 40s,” he says. “I tested it out in sneakers and loafers and was really happy with the looseness and relaxed break [the fold of fabric that forms where pants meet the shoe].”

A stageworthy second skin

When Brendan de la Hay’s favourite designer rereleased a classic collection, it was irresistible. Now the designer, stylist and performer wears their Jean Paul Gaultier tattoo sailor dress on stage, in the cabaret show A Marvellous Party at Sydney’s Emerald Room.

The French luxury house rereleased its bestselling garments from the spring/summer 1994 collection ‘Les Tatouages’ at the end of 2023. De la Hay says they “were obsessed with the idea of incorporating this into the show”.

“It’s a completely sheer long-sleeve gown, made of flesh mesh to create the illusion of a second skin,” De la Hay says. “It makes me look like I am a tattooed carnival performer … and I love that.”