Hats, pin stripe suits, and silk ensembles: Canberra fashion designers from past to present

The Canberra Museum and Gallery in the heart of Canberra, Australia, is exhibiting “Fashioned Here: The business of fashion in Canberra” from September 3, 2011 to January 22, 2012 – a collection of local fashion designers.

From private commercial and fashion houses in Canberra, the collection of designer fashions begins with a simple hat block from Stanley Taylor’s 1926 drapery and concludes with a series of colourful outfits designed by Maggie Shepherd in the 1990s. In between are a selection of men’s and women’s hats, suits, and dresses.

From the Tracey Lord design collection is an orange turban/beehive hat (circa 1960), a cocktail hat from 1970, an elegant black satin pillbox (1950s), a cream felt beret (1950s), and several straw and raffia hats. The Sylvia Parsons collection includes a green synthetic fur pillbox, a grey felt hat with ribbon trim, and a purple velour pillbox. One of my favourites is from the collection of Christine Waring – a “petit beret” of red velour with fur and felt cutwork flowers and leave. My other favourite is a panama hat (circa 1940) from RT White Mensworld.

Olivia Newton-John’s Mardi Gras party costume by Matthew Aberline Design (2008) is exhibited amongst a grey 1959 Sam Catanzariti man’s suit, a Joseph Label 1965 man’s pin stripe suit, day dresses by Sylvia Parsons, silk wraps and ensembles by Maggie Shepherd (circa 1970s-1990s), and other designs by Stanger than Fiction, Bonnie Begg, Phuan Thai, and Christine White.

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