Sanjay Abraham Joint CEO AIB, Peter Morrissey & Joel Abraham Joint CEO AIB
Peter Morrissey is a man who does fashionably late, affordably chic, and ostentatiously bald exceptionally well. In a crowd of sensibly attired business graduates (don’t worry, the free wine and canapés made being confronted by all that pinstripe bearable), he stood out like, well, a camp, fab fashion designer as he gave the keynote address for the Australian institute of Business Alumni event at Adelaide Oval last Thursday. Accessorized with a wealth of entrepreneurial experience and some very thrifty sunglasses (Big W, who knew?), Morrissey preached from the mountain/moveable podium all things stylishly business.
This is a man who has dressed everyone from Madonna and Princess Di to Trudy from the tuckshop. In fact, he even dressed me right at this moment, as I recline in my pilfered Qantas business class pajamas (men’s size extra extra large, certainly, but beggars seriously cannot be choosers given I stole them off the flight attendant’s trolley on my way to the economy bathroom one time). Yes, what never quite turned out right for the socialist manifesto has successfully informed Morrissey’s multi-company Australian empire: all animals are equal, as ‘every mother should be able to buy a suit for her son to wear to a job interview’.
Even so, one might think it a (literal and figurative) stretch to be able to spruce up old Trudy like Lady Di at a Royals-only Sunday lunch (sans awkward cheating spouse and oddly glazed smile). Morrissey (or ‘Modesstey’ as he shall now be known) had only this to say on the matter: ‘Yes, turning really ordinary people into a prince or princess makes me a fucking genius’. Preach.
He describes his Big W line as ‘the McDonald’s of fashion’, but rejects the persistent snobbery attached to budget fashion within the Australian style scene. ‘I understand people’s needs, wants and desires – it’s irresponsible these days that big brands don’t concern themselves with these things,’ he told the audience at the AIB launch; ‘I did Big W so that no one could say they can’t afford to look good’.
And it certainly seems that Australia has risen to the challenge, with the Morrissey line selling to over 30,000 people every week at 187 Big W stores nationwide. To say that this success in business has been wrought with challenge, however, is more of an understatement than ‘flatforms are heinous’, or ‘the kids these days quite like a bit of midriff’. Controversy has continued to dog the loved and loathed designer as surely as florals for spring, but Morrissey remains positive about his experiences at Australia’s Supreme Court and catwalk. ‘My mother always said, to be incredible, you have to fail at ‘great’ and ‘good’…it’s not where you get to in the journey of success that matters; its what you feel like along the way.’
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