Even Anna Wintour might manage a smile at this mix of fashion and fun

There aren’t many acts in Sydney’s Fringe Festival this year that are simply fun. There’s a flying bubble show, a bubble show in space and a circus. The pursuit of comedy is now an earnest business.

And then there’s Glynis Traill-Nash ‘s In These Shoes. Part autobiography, part concert and definitely comedy. And all on a subject that certainly deserves a wry eye: fashion.

Traill-Nash is the former fashion editor of The Australian, so she knows her stuff. She’s an accomplished singer and performer. After 20 years, she’s come to realise that the industry she wrote about for two decades is a fertile field for fun, even if some of its top practitioners would rather no-one poked fun at their activities

Her props and costumes are a case in point: an amazing green sequinned cocktail concoction, a wonderful pink ball gown and, in a reflection of the name of the show, footwear from stilettos to crocs (yes crocs!).

The dialogue is filled with the biggest names in fashion, and anecdotes from the runways of Paris, New York and Milan. The songs pay homage to her travels. And throughout it all there is a grounded sense of what this is all about: fashion as a world not to be taken too seriously.

Traill-Nash is accompanied by a lone pianist, and has a voice “somewhere between red wine and scotch”, according to All About Jazz.

The shows at the Cabaret Hub at the Kings Cross Hotel have been a sell out.

Let’s hope there are more.

03 – 07 Sep |

Venue: Cabaret Hub- Kings Cross Hotel – The Theatre

244-248 William St, Potts Point 2011 (Gadigal Country)
Telephone:  (02) 9331 990

Plenty more to see at the Fringe Festival here