NSW Premier Mike Baird Writes Emotional Facebook Post About Refugee Crisis, Says Australia “Should Do More”

Graphic images of desperate asylum seekers fleeing the Syrian war have been filling up Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds around the world for around two weeks now, causing an outpouring of powerful responses and even an unexpected shift in public opinion. In Australia, myriad politicians and public figures have come out in support of our country doing more to help, while Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said the federal government has already increased the refugee intake for Iraqi and Syrians by 4400.

But some parliamentarians say that number isn’t enough, with even those inside the Liberal Party urging Abbott for more. Last night, New South Wales Premier Mike Baird wrote a surprisingly impassioned response to photos of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi and the international refugee crisis, in a post that was published on Facebook.

Baird, who was re-elected as Premier back in April, echoes Abbott’s boastful praise for “stopping the boats”, but admits he believes we should be doing more. “But stopping the boats can’t be where this ends,” he says. “It is surely where humanitarianism begins.”

“I have said in the past that not only are we a lucky country, we are a great country – and the thing that makes us great is our willingness to share our luck.

I am deeply encouraged by the Federal Coalition Government’s commitment to increase our humanitarian intake over the coming years.

But I believe we should do even more. And we should do it now.”

Jonathan Green

Mike Baird something of a model of how a politician can convey complex range of thought and emotion. from GST to refugees. Sincerity helps.

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2:55 AM - Sep 6, 2015

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Stephanie Peatling

Labor's president Mark Butler refusing to say whether Labor supports taking more Syrian refugees. Bit of a contrast to Mike Baird.

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4:09 AM - Sep 6, 2015

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Assuring us his state is “ready and willing,” Baird goes on to say he will be in talks with the federal government over the coming days to see what this “more” is all about, and how the NSW and federal government can work together to bring it into action: “I will assure the PM that he can count on NSW to do whatever is needed.”

The Premier hasn’t always gotten public sentiment right. It was just last week that he caved to dodgy claims by The Daily Telegraph — a paper he’s probably already a bit too chummy with — and pulled educational video about same-sex families Gayby Baby from being screened at state high schools; and an announcement of interest in increasing the GST will never go down well.

But if social media and the “Twitterati” is anything to go by (and according to many conservatives, it’s not), the electorate may have his back on this one. Last night’s post, which — for a politician — seemed genuinely sincere and heart-felt, appears to be largely welcomed and supported by the community.

But please, for the love of god, don’t go reading the comment thread — as overwhelming as the positive attitudes are, it just takes one lunatic claiming the refugee photos are staged and that desperate people from war-torn countries fleeing persecution are “scum” to totally ruin your day.

What to Expect as the Fall 2020 Menswear Shows Get the New Decade Rolling

Your Christmas tree is still up, the fireworks have barely cooled, and a new decade has hardly begun. Yet the four-city fall 2020 menswear marathon is starting: Tomorrow, January 4, marks the beginning of the men’s season. So what can we expect?

Fingers crossed that a new decade leads to relentless newness over endless self-reference in menswear. Personally I’d love to see the dull as ditchwater dialectic between tailoring and streetwear recede into the rearview as a no-longer-fit-for-purpose anachronism. It would be great to see some properly seditious fashion—clothes borne of purposeful anger—catch fire. Best of all would be a designer take on technological innovation designed to service sustainability (and look fantastic, of course).

As ever, the four prime menswear capitals (sorry, New York City, and, we wish, Tokyo) are engaged in an ongoing competition which, while fierce, never quite spills over to become a full-blown fight. That’s because while each city jostles to have the sceniest schedule, together they combine to make up an industrially interdependent commercial ecosystem. Let’s see (in chronological order) what each capital has to offer this fall 2020 menswear season.

Martine Rose spring 2020Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com

London (January 4–6)

On the face of it London’s menswear “week” is on a downward ebb. Ever since its tentpole, Burberry, bolted to go coed at London Fashion Week, the schedule has been shrinking. And while this season there are some interesting developments—Daniel W. Fletcher at Fiorucci is well worth watching—the London calendar is apparently even more depleted. But wait! Given that Britain is due to exit the EU on January 31, this is actually a pretty good moment for this soon-to-be offshore fashion hub to flex some soft power. Craig Green is headed to Paris, while A-Cold-Wall is headed to Milan. It’s like Panda diplomacy, but with menswear designers instead of Pandas. These two transfers serve as a reminder that so much of international fashion’s creativity—arguably a disproportionately large amount of it—hails from the U.K. The week’s mastermind Dylan Jones is playing a long game very well. Plus, London has Martine Rose, and she is wonderful.

Jil Sander spring 2020Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com

Florence (January 7–10)

Let’s get this said: If you’re truly into menswear, Pitti is the best. Yes, you can focus on the rotated seasonal garnishes that are its guest designers— this (97th!) installment’s amuse-bouches include Stefano Pilati’s Random Identities, Telfar, Jil Sander, K-Way (a very underappreciated brand in the U.S.), the tentative return to fashionland of British Welly boot brand Hunter (it will be arty), the Karl Lagerfeld white shirt project, and a mysterious new knitwear push from Anrealage. Plus there’s Brioni—which staged the first-ever men’s fashion show at Pitti—returning to flex its muscles. All that said, the real joy in Florence is to wander the thousands of stands and discover brands that do their thing with zero hype but total dedication. To my mind Pitti could go on for as long as Paris, if not longer, and still be way too short.

A-Cold-Wall spring 2020Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com

Milan (January 10–14)

The aforementioned designer diplomacy with London over A-Cold-Wall adds to Milan’s luster this season. Minus points include Versace’s withdrawal to go coed (will we get Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley closing February’s show as a follow-up to the J.Lo spectacular last September?). But the bonanza is the return of Alessandro Michele’s Gucci to the menswear schedule almost five years to the day since his unheralded first show precipitated a total revolution for the luxury industry. (All we knew in 2015, if you’ll remember, was that Frida Giannini had left in a hurry, and some random bearded guy had taken over.) And there’s also Prada, Armani, Dolce, Brunello, Barrett—Milan is way better than you think it is.

Louis Vuitton spring 2020Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com

Paris (January 14–19)

Undercover! Rick Owens! Craig Green! Yohji Yamamoto! Junya Watanabe! Dior Men! Vuitton! Paris is unquestionably the apex installment of the menswear system. Considering that the best products in the fashion system are crafted in Italy (Hermès leather goods aside), Paris’s supremacy is forever surprising. Somehow, however, despite the strikes, and the stress, and the language difference, Paris holds firm. Personally I’m quite excited by the return of Rhude—an L.A. label that could go far (although I’ll be missing the show due to an overlap with Gucci)—as well as Green. Otherwise, it would be great to see Vuitton step up a gear after Abloh’s decade-defining first show, but with only incremental upgrades since.

Harry Styles Puts a Stylish Twist on Self-Love—By Wearing His Own Merch

Today, Harry Styles was seen departing a performance at BBC Radio 1 in London, England. The singer—who just this month released his new album Fine Line, and is embarking on a world tour in the new year—is undeniably music’s biggest heartthrob of the moment. We at Vogue love him; his fans certainly love him; and, guess what? Your mother probably loves him, too! But an unlikely person to show some affection for Styles this morning was, well, Harry Styles himself.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

The piece in question? Styles sported a white band tee with his name written on it inside of a heart (his last name scratched out, however); the T-shirt is from the singer’s new collaboration with Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, which was released earlier this week in tandem with the Fine Line album drop. It’s available exclusively on his website, retails for $75, and a portion of the proceeds benefit the Global Fund for Women. (Style and substance: always a winning combo.)

Styles made sure to wear the top in a very him way, though: he threw on a plaid coat overtop and paired it with his signature trousers, cut high-waisted and with flared legs. (He’s been at the forefront of the bell-bottoms revival, after all.) Meanwhile, he accessorized with a pair of crisp white sneakers and a pearl necklace—the next menswear trend Styles might be championing?—to round off the look in a way that only the fashion risktaker like Styles can. Perhaps it’s time we all took a leaf out of his very stylish take on self-care.

When It Comes to Black Jeans, Are You a Bella or a Kendall?

It seems that every day Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner are setting off some new It bag craze or micro-trend. But, more quietly, these two fashion plates have also been making the case for a tried-and-true pair of black jeans all year long. Yet their shared enthusiasm does not mean they have exactly the same taste in dark denim.

For Bella, it’s all about straight-leg fits in vintage black washes. Think stone-colored hues, the kind that your favorite pair of black skinnies take on after way too many washes. The color and fit give her a cool-girl edge and a dressed-down look, perfect for traveling or a weekend off with friends in New York. A high-waisted, hip-hugging pair with distressed slashes across the thighs are part of Hadid’s signature look, while an ankle-grazing cropped version made the cut earlier this season.

As for Kendall, she prefers her jeans jet black, a color she has worn in a variety of silhouettes from boot cuts to carpenters. With just an inky straight-leg pair of skinny jeans and ankle booties, she manages to make even a collegiate hooded sweatshirt feel chic.

But you don’t have to be a supermodel to add this style staple to your wardrobe. There’s a pair of black jeans at every price point, whether you prefer your pants edgy and distressed like Bella or pitch-black and polished like Kendall.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES, BACKGRID

The Most Popular Vintage Piece of 2019 Was Extremely Rare—And Extremely Unmistakable

There was no shortage of celebrities reviving archival fashion in 2019. We saw glimmering vintage Versace dresses on Kim Kardashian West, rare Jean-Paul Gaultier cyber dot looks on Charli XCX, and Cardi B in a series of showstopping, sculptural Thierry Mugler creations. But there was one item in particular that never stopped infiltrating our feeds: Vivenne Westwood corsets. The amount of women wearing the vintage body-cinching pieces numbered in the dozens, and even marked a new chapter for some celebrities’ style journeys. Just take Kourtney Kardashian: back in February, the eldest Kardashian sister wore a piece from king-of-corsets dealer Johnny Valencia of Pechuga Vintage; namely, a corset featuring a black lace asymmetrical piece from Vivienne Westwood Gold Label. Suddenly, Kardashian looked both “snatched,” and as if she—or rather, her stylist—had accrued a wealth of knowledge about the famed Brit designer’s deep cuts.

Photo: Splash News

Other fans of Westwood’s corsets this past year include Barbie Ferreria, Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, and Alexa Demie, all of whom wore an incarnation from Valencia’s Pechuga Vintage. “I decided to introduce a new generation of collectors to the corset, because that was what Vivienne Westwood was best known for in the late ’80s and for a decade after,” he writes to Vogue. It had an impact: The most unmistakable Westwood corset cameos were the most decorative of the designer’s creations. One style that proved especially popular with this younger generation was the waist-whittling numbers featuring passion-soaked paintings by 18th-century artist Francis Boucher, like the image of Daphnis and Chloe that hails from the Vivienne Westwood Fall 1990 collection, and currently lives in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, or the corset that shows the lip-locking close-up of Hercules and Omphale from the Fall 1993 collection.

The covetable pieces, which sell online for thousands of dollars, have been seen on a slew of women with vastly different personal styles. In her full signature saucy baroque style, FKA Twigs, who has her own collection of Westwood corsets, wore one to the Sundance Film Festival back in February; meanwhile, Bella Hadid strutted out in early September wearing the Hercules and Omphale incarnation with a boyish pair of low-slung pants. Rowan Blanchard even wore one with a cow-print cowboy hat in a sun-drenched Instagram back in September.

Photo: Getty Images

Photo: Getty Images

So, why the corset? The piece, once constrictive with boning in order to cinch the waist, mangling the organs of many Victorian women, can feel out of place in a time when we are taking strides forward for female empowerment. But, of course, Westwood’s corsets aren’t technically made from the same body-crunching materials from days of yore, and given they are the product of Westwood’s offbeat creative vision, they have a welcome jolt of punk to them. Who can forget the regrammed and regrammed photo of two models kissing backstage at a Westwood show, their cleavage spilling out and one with a choker pearl necklace, both wearing the Boucher corsets? Westwood’s corset is not only an unmistakable statement piece—it’s also subversively erotic.

Photo: Shutterstock

Actually sourcing a Westwood corset in 2019 is an altogether trickier affair: finding one is a little like unearthing fashion’s very own Dead Sea Scroll. But their impact proved so strong that the nipped silhouette began showing up everywhere, even if it wasn’t specifically Westwood’s design. Westwood herself sent out two corsets in her Fall 2019 show; one with a floral print and the other with a paint splatter graphic. “What is greater proof of its comeback than a reissue of the piece in 2019 by the Dame herself?” asks Valencia. Truly nothing. Time to zip up, and wriggle in.

Photo: Courtesy of Rowan Blanchard / @rowanblanchard

Vivienne Westwood Fall 2019Photo: Gorunway.com

Photo: Backgrid