Sydney Vs. Melbourne - The Sartorialist Weighs In  April 29, 2009

I'd like to preface this post by saying that while I currently live in Sydney I'm actually from Brisbane so there's no inherent bias when it comes to futile Sydney vs. Melbourne style debates. I hate love both cities equally.

Scott Schuman on the other hand has no such fence-sitting qualms when it comes to the style of Australia's dueling fashion capitals. Playing somewhat to stereotype, The Sartorialist confesses that Sydney Fashionistas are body conscious and ooze sex appeal while their Melbourne counterparts "dowdy" and "dummy" down their ensembles creating a "very serious" look. Though I personally prefer black clad Kawakubo and Demeulemeester enthusiasts who could be mistaken for batty art teachers I think Schuman has picked a clear favourite.

The SMH offered the following quotes in an interview with Schuman:

"The girls here [in Sydney] are sexy and beautiful and they celebrate their femininity where I think in Melbourne I think it is much more intellectual," he said.

"Even though there's a lot of beautiful girls there, I think there must be that rivalry where they want to be more intellectual."

He said Melbourne women had a "very serious" style preferring "over design" along the lines of Comme Des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto and flats over heels.

"A lot of times they kind of dummy it down a bit and kind of dowdy it down, which to me I don't find that romantic," he said

"Where here [in Sydney] they work out hard, they are beautiful girls and they really play that up. But somewhere in each place there's that difference. Heels and all that don't always make the look."

Sydney: 1 Melbourne: 0

Melburnians, is this a fair assessment of your sartorial decisions? Has he got it all wrong?

Sydneysiders, does this mean we should spend more time in the gym?

Duke it out below...