Buying and Selling Revisited: New Materialism, Fashion Intermediaries, and The Australian Department Store

Department stores have been an integral part of Australia's fashion ecosystem, informing styles, tastes, and consumer aspirations. Buyers, promoters, and visual merchandisers have been integral to this process. By selecting, marketing, and presenting these fashions for public consumption, these roles functioned as fashion intermediaries. Drawing on oral histories and media sources spanning the 1960s to the 1990s, this article highlights how these workers forged connections between retailing and fashion industries to position department stores as cultural as well as commercial institutions. The shifting tensions between creativity and economic pragmatism within these roles also illustrate the strengths of embracing ‘new materialism’.