★★★☆☆
I went to the Melbourne Fashion Festival last night. Don’t worry, you’re still on the right review site. In These Shoes is a fashion cabaret show; part memoir, part commentary, part of the Festival’s 2026 program.
The creator and star is Glynis Traill-Nash, a formidable fashion journalist. She was the Fashion Editor of The Australian for ten years and has written for a bevy of other publications: the Sunday Telegraph, In Style, Grazia, The Sun-Herald, Harper’s Bazaar, and Marie Claire, to name a few.
The popular stereotype of a writer is of a cloistered, mousy figure, most at home behind a laptop screen with an audience in the figurative only. Traill-Nash breaks the mould.
Along with writing, her passion is singing jazz. Moonlighting as a singer, she performed in Sydney, Perth and London and took a one-woman jazz cabaret to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1998.
This unlikely combination of talents served Traill-Nash well in putting together this hybrid show. In These Shoes is a cabaret-style show, which Traill-Nash initially developed in 2024. It has toured Australia’s fringe and cabaret festivals, before heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2025.
It combines narrative reflections on her own career, some songs, and, of course, this is a fashion show! No small number of costume changes (including an original gown by Tim Chappel, Costume Designer for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert).
Traill-Nash’s evolution from front row to centre stage pays off, and she commands the stage. Her voice is strong, bringing life to an eclectic mix of songs that run the gamut from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Olivia Newton-John.
The soliloquies are a bit more hit and miss. At times, her practised pat feels a little too glossy – another list of cities to which she’s jet set, or celebrity designers she’s had the pleasure of interviewing – skating over the surely delicious, gritty stories in each of these names.
The most rewarding parts of the night are the glimpses of the more personal. The image of her ducking into a newsagent’s to wrap up a gift for a designer in leopard print paper and a giant red bow is striking (I won’t spoil the recipient!) or dealing with the phalangeal consequences of a seventeen-hour stint of stiletto wearing.
Her commentary on social and fashion trends felt a little less fresh – relatable but familiar beats on the satirically well-trodden ground around activewear, the joys of pockets, and so on. If it’s been covered by a Reductress post, suffice to say it’s a take that’s hit the mainstream.
Traill-Nash is ably accompanied on stage by Josh Haines, a Perth-based composer and performer. Haines is skilful on piano and a useful foil to Traill-Nash on stage.
Ultimately, In These Shoes is a polished show from a charismatic and talented performer. I might have occasionally wished it had cut a little deeper, but there’s still plenty of sparkle here for fashion fans to love.
In These Shoes runs to 22 February at Chapel Off Chapel. 12 Little Chapel Street Prahran Vic 3181.
Tickets: https://chapel.sales.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/158709
Website: https://chapeloffchapel.com.au/show/in-these-shoes/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/glynistn/ and https://www.instagram.com/chapeloffchapel/
Hero image by John McRae.
