The Day Walker Debate

There are three sides to every story – Emm’s, Ele’s, and somewhere in the middle, there’s the truth.

Day Walker. n, a person from the night who walks in the day.

Daywalker (and proud of it)
From the desk of Emma-Kate Dobbin...

It’s 7:30 am, there in the early morning light you become blinded by the glare of the morning sun catching on a silver sequins. There, in the distance, you see me: wearing lilac pumps with jewelled detailing and a vintage sequined dress. Don’t be that girl, you think!  Deal with it people, I’m a Day Walker 

Technically, in fashion terms a Day Walker is the terms we here at Savvy Style affectionately attribute to someone who wears night fashions during the day. A fashion faux pas to some, but hey what can I say except (to me) life is a cabaret! 

How did my fashion end up like this? I’m a morning person by nature, I’m as far away from a lady of the night as I could possibly get, yet I am one of those people who has felt the need to release my inner sequins since the day I was born.

The condition of day walking is not well respected in some fashion circles. The classic police are always touting that we should wear nothing but plain, unassuming clothes and team them with more outlandish accessories. What do I say to this?

NO, NO, NO NO.

I like fabrics to shine! I love silk in bright colours! I love gems! I love jewels! I love glitz, and dammit, I love glam! I love to be able to skip from the day into the night, and I like to look ultra dressed all the time!

In some ways my day walking comes with a reversed nightclub logic. If I was to go out in the ‘all night’ sense (the kind that really only existed in my youth) I always wore a more day outfit so that at night so I did not stand out as a victim of the night who got trapped by daylight.

It should be noted at this point that Day Walker fashion is not the same as ‘Night Club Skank’. We are not the people seen hanging out in front of nightclubs at 10am the next day still donned in tight black Lycra dresses that have past their use-by date (literally), and diamante-encrusted stilettos. They, my friends, are a completely different group altogether.

A true Day Walker is someone who is not tied down by the rules and regulations of some boring etiquette developed by Jackie O. 

Day Walkers are not people who dress in theme. We are not want to be women mimicking the 1950s and 60s by continually dressing from a time gone by. We are also not characters from Strictly Ballroom (although I liked Tina Sparkle); we are not punks, nor rockabilly, nor do we belong to any other random fashion collective. We simply don’t believe there is a fabric that should be saved for the night.

We are from the Obama train of fabrics and thought: “Integration now – segregation never.” 

We also believe in a worldwide ban on mesh.  Anything see-through is clearly just poor form, and again not a Day Walker’s issue or aim.

In life some people wait for their Saturn Return (the apparent astrological occurrence and life reckoning that occurs between the ages of 27-29). As a Day Walker, I just wear the fabric. It’s less emotionally taxing and a lot more enjoyable – unless you are prone to heavy perspiration. 

Again, let me clarify: people wearing shoes they can’t walk in, or donning ballroom gowns to work, or sporting huge flowers in their hair teamed with overdone curls and red lipstick – they are not part of my tribe.

I’m and indie Day Walker with a vintage upbringing. I like to think of it as being expressive – the world may see it as over the top, but I’m not a fan of the Sunday Best for Sunday only mentality. If you have something good, wear it. If that something good happens to be patent purple pumps with Day Walker jewelled detailing at 7.30am, then so be it.



Death to all Day Walkers!
From the desk of Ele Glass

Emma-Kate Dobbin, a Day Walker you may be, but a friend of mine you are not. Particularly in public places, unless of course, you are prepared to walk a good twenty meters behind me. If we lunch, let’s do it at different establishments, and converse via mobile phone. Especially if you’re wearing that.

Dear readers, don’t be fooled by her pretty shiny things: all that glitters is most certainly not worth its weight in gold (particularly if it was purchased at a chain store on the under $5 rack). As my mother has always told me: “Ele, there is a place and a time for everything, and if I ever catch you dressed like a two dollar hooker before lunch time I will disown you.” And sage advice that was, as I would be expelled from my rent free paradise that keeps me out of the stores typically frequented by Day Walkers. (This is not to imply in any way, shape or form that Ms Dobbin is a lady of the night, or depending on her shift, the day.)

So: A time and a place for everything. For the challenged amongst you, this means eveningwear is for (surprise, surprise) evening time, whilst daywear is for, no prizes for guessing this one, the daytime. Rules may have been made to be broken, but just as it is hideously inappropriate to front up for a breakfast date in a sequined maxi dress, this is the one rule to which there ought be no exceptions.

This is not to say we must all dress like Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany’s (however, if you actually took the time out to read Capote’s novel as opposed to drooling over her black dress and ballet flats, you’d know she was a hooker, yep, no better than Julia Roberts… in Pretty Woman, that is). Quite the contrary - it simply means one ought to be considerate to others when dressing for day. Blinding said breakfast date is not the way to talk your way into a long lasting relationship, nor is stopping traffic because let’s face it, some people have to get to work to write important columns so that Savvy readers don’t think that day walking is an acceptable practice.

Not to mention the sheer impracticality of a Day Walker’s wardrobe staples – all those sequins are a bitch to hand-wash.

Day Walkers are the worst kind of fashion victim. And sadly for Ms Dobbin, I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a reformed day walker. There will be no salvation – once they see the bright lights, the big city and the light at the end of the tunnel there is no turning back.

Tony Bannister, renowned UK fashion and design expert, and director of the fashion forecasting agency, SCOUT, believes that whether or not someone is a Day Walker is dependant on two factors:

“It’s about how it’s worn, and what the intention of the wearer is to have something which is shiny, that is sparkly, that it is look-at-me.” He recommends that Day Walkers should look to the catwalks to see how these pieces should be worn, and to learn how designers pull these flamboyant pieces together without hurting anybody’s eyes.

“Designers are usually showing it with the intention that it’s to be shown after dark. They use subtle embellishment and embroidery that are meant to look luxe and beautiful.” Sounds easy, right? But Bannister shows us how it can go oh-so-wrong.

“Then chains and high street brands take that look and do their own versions of it, in cheaper fabrics, and at a cheaper price. These can still work if worn with the original intention, that is, after dark.”  This is where the day walking theory is fundamentally flawed – these pieces CAN NOT be worn in daylight hours. Bannister goes on to point out that often these knock-offs are not worn with the original intentions, and creates an ensemble that is “off kilter; one that is horribly wrong.”

But the worst breed of Day Walker is the Alien Nation, that is the group of bright young things who read in the glossies that metallics are in so they kit themselves out in shiny stuff from head to toe.

To confirm this I ran the theory past Sydney-based stylist, Fernando Barraza. Much to my disappointment, he refused to lump the crime of day walking in the same category as matricide and corporate embezzlement.

“Do you think it’s a crime that in Japan they love Harajuku? I just see it as another free form of expression.”

So then Day Walkers should be free to be Day Walkers? Maybe. But can Day Walkers associate with non-Day Walkers? Is my aversion to glitter-toes Dobbin justified, or is it “perfectly natural” for us to stroll down the street arm in arm?

“Who is to say what’s normal?” asks Barazza. “When someone says no, it always means yes. If someone says to me ‘No you can’t wear that’ I always reply,  ‘Oh yes, yes I can.’” 

This throws me. I always thought that Barazza had impeccable taste, as each occasion I’ve seen him over the last few years, not once have I seen him stray to the sparkly side. But then, how well do I really know him? For all I know, he could be sitting at home in a bejewelled g-string while feeding me his lies.

“I already am a Day Walker,” he laughs when I put this to him. “You just don’t know it.” Does this mean that this is yet another relationship that I must walk out the door in the interests of good taste? 

I return to my theory of a time and place for everything. I ask Barazza if there ever an occasion when it’s inappropriate to be a Day Walker? Surely there must be some lenience on this issue – what about at a funeral?

“Black sequins,” Barazza making reference to Josh Goot’s latest collection. “Sequins upon sequins upon sequins!” Before he can go any further, I hang up on him. After all, I may one day need him as a stylist.