Australia is situated in the southern hemisphere with long summer time. People here like to wear casual cloth all the time. So lighter apparel with cheap price is the main stream of apparel market. Due to the fact that labor cost in Australia is higher, it mainly imports or manufactures its apparel from overseas. With a population of 20 million, the order of one design with different colors and sizes is always limited. Australian people do like colorful apparel with latest design and affordable price.
However, Australia is still at the forefront of the fashion stakes. Australian fashion designers always keep an eye out for color themes and ways to interpret the world fashion for the Australian market and taste, particularly for the milder Australian climate. Timing and seasonality are crucial factors to fashion market. People who buy boutique clothing are usually paying for quality, so pricing the difference of producing an Australian-made apparel to one made in other place.
Australia-made apparel only accounts for small portion of the stake compared with imported apparels. In the financial year 2005/06, around 70 per cent of all clothing imports and 60 per cent of all footwear imports to Australia came from China alone, valued 3.5 billion AUD, an increase of around 35 per cent from 2000/01. In the year 2008 alone, imported apparel and textiles from China totaled around 3.3 billion US dollar, an increase of around 16.4% from the year 2007.