Fashion history coming to Echuca Historical Society
History: Fashion items from the 1930s until the 1960s will be on display at Echuca Historical Society from February 1.
In the “swinging ’60s” your choices were simple: you were hip or you were hopeless (and horribly out of fashion).
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It might have been just 30 years from the depths of Depression fashions; but it might as well have been another planet in another solar system.
On October 30, 1965, at Flemington racecourse, a British model did not just throw another shrimp on the barbie, she just about poured a gallon of petrol on its open flames.
Jean Shrimpton and her “scandalous” miniskirt — a staggering 10cm above her knees — all but had women swooning in the members’ stand.
Fashion: Echuca Historical Society to showcase our past.
Where were her gloves, her stockings, her decency?
And the story rolled out across the world as fast as the cameras could click and film developed.
But the first casualty in any fashion war is always the truth.
The British bombshell did not set out to rewrite the future of fashion; she had only stepped out what many saw as “virtually naked” because her designer, Colin Rolfe, had run out of fabric before completing the dress they had planned.
To which she told him to finish it where it fell, adding: “nobody’s going to take any notice”.
The Melbourne Cup, Derby, Cox Plate and Caulfield Cup partly owe their success today to fashion in general and that 23-year-old model in particular.
By the early 1960s, crowds at the spring carnival were shrinking so fast the Victoria Racing Club came up with “fashions on the field” to attract more women to the track.
They paid Ms Shrimpton £2000 to spend two weeks in Melbourne as the face of racing (the Beatles had received only £1500 for their national tour the year before) and the rest is history.
That history is going to be on show at Echuca Historical Society during its new exhibition — a feast of fashion in Australia from the 1930s to 1960s.
Exhibition curator Jan Hollingsworth said the society had again been digging deep into the storerooms and this time has brought out more treasures to display to the museum’s visitors.
Jan said the 1930s were a time of the Great Depression and the start of the World War II.
At the same time, she said it was also a period to party and to try and forget about the state of the world.
“Fashion in the 1940s was subdued until 1947; when Dior hit the scene with lavish designs — much to the horror of the average person who was bound by ration coupons and lack of funds,” Jan said.
“Although still wearing the nipped-in waists of the ’30s and ’40s, the 1950s were colourful and extravagant.
“Already the emergence of the new breed of pop stars — especially Elvis — was an important influence.
“By the 1960s fashions were more comfortable, as the Beatles, Rolling Stones and British invasion became the leaders of fashion.
“Until that 1965 day when ‘the Shrimp’ — the world’s first supermodel — hit the world’s headlines.”
Jan said men’s fashion lagged a little; but by the ’60s they were as fashion conscious as the women.
Men’s fashion: By the 60s men began dressing smartly.
So what was Echuca wearing?
Well, you will have to head along to the exhibition to find out; because the society exhibition team has been able to add many local photographs for you to see and maybe remember the occasions.
“Come and join us in a trip down memory lane,” Jan said.
“As you walk through the museum you will see dresses and gowns from these periods — and those baggy pants the men favoured before paisley, purple, pink and puce became de rigueur for any young man in the 1960s.
“You will get a laugh out of some of the exhibits, you might even cringe a little if you can recognise some of the things you may have worn and thought so trendy and chic — and your children and grandchildren might enjoy that moment even more.
“The exhibition opens in the museum at 1 Dickson St, Echuca, on February 1 — so be there or be square.”
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