---
node: garment_flannelette
type: garment
slug: flannelette
title: "Flannelette shirt"
lead: "The flannelette shirt, the Australian flanno, is a soft brushed-cotton shirt in bold checks, worn from the goldfields to the modern tradie and the backyard barbecue. Warm and cheap, it is a plain badge of working and country life."
published: 2026-08-10
updated: 2026-08-10
image_file: flannelette.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flanno%27s.jpg"
image_author: "Doug butler"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

A flannelette shirt is a loose button-up shirt of cotton brushed soft on both sides, usually in a bright red, blue, or green tartan-like check. Light but warm, it is the everyday shirt of the worker, the camper, and the winter weekend.

## How it is worn

It is worn buttoned or open over a singlet, sleeves rolled for work or left down against the cold, tucked in or hanging loose. Cheap and hard-wearing, the flanno needs no care and only softens with washing, worn until it falls apart.

## History

The checked flannel shirt clothed diggers on the goldfields and bushworkers through the colonial era and became, in its mass-produced flannelette form, an enduring emblem of the Australian worker. It has since swung in and out of fashion but never left the country and suburban wardrobe.