---
node: fashion_au_exploration
type: fashion
slug: european_exploration_australia_fashion
title: "Fashion in the Age of European Exploration"
lead: "In the age of European exploration, Dutch and then British navigators reached the coast of the continent; they wore the dress of their own time — 17th- and 18th-century Western clothing — and first met Indigenous dress."
published: 2026-07-28
updated: 2026-07-28
image_file: european_exploration_australia_fashion.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Captain-James-Cook.jpg"
image_author: "Nathaniel Dance-Holland — Captain James Cook (1775)"
image_license: "Public domain"
change: "Created as a fashion sub-page under the history section, with a period image (australia region)"
requester: internal
reason: "Per the owner's decision, fashion lives under each history era"
---

## Overview

From 1606, European explorers touched the coast intermittently, but there was no settlement yet.

## Key garments and style

Dutch navigators, and later British explorers such as James Cook, appeared in the European clothing of their day — coats, breeches and hats. Encounters with Indigenous peoples were brief, and the mingling of dress was still slight.

## Transition

When Britain founded a colony in 1788, Western dress was brought to the continent in earnest.