By SHELBY BROOKS
Night Life, curated by the National Trust of Victoria, presents some of the most well-preserved and luxurious clothes of 1920s and 30s Melbourne.
In the media, the Roaring Twenties is imagined through speakeasy bars and Great Gatsby-style extravagant parties. However, Australia’s elite also experienced the glitz of the 1920s, some of which is glamorously re-imagined for the popular ABC TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.
The Rippon Lea Estate in Elsternwick is the perfect backdrop for an exhibition of fashion from the era. The mansion was built in 1868, however a re-modelling in the 1930s gave the ballroom its many Art Deco features, including a Hollywood-inspired swimming pool.
The exhibition inside the mansion features more than 50 gowns from the 1920s and '30s from Australia as well as Europe, and showcases many accessories such as purses, gloves, shoes and jewellery.
An antique radio – crackling out the likes of Billie Holiday, Josephine Baker and Louis Armstrong – greets visitors, and ornate mirrors, a grand piano, mirror balls and silhouette shadows all create a secret underground atmosphere.
Mannequins stand in abstract poses on turning pedestals and in dramatic rows for maximum visual effect. The lighting is dim to create that illegal speakeasy vibe. Although this added to the atmosphere in some rooms, it is almost too dim to truly appreciate the colours, designs and intricate sewing of the garments.
Post-Great War, the 1920s saw the rise in the "flapper girl" – young women with freedom, a love of dance and ambition. Jazz music, dropped waists, fringing, boyish frames and bobbed hair were all the rage.
Two of Australia’s "bright young things" were sisters Ruth and Hope De Vere Cowderoy. Coined "independent" women, they studied singing at the Conservatorium of Music during the 1920s and have many of their evening dresses from the 1920s on display.
A dazzling white sequin shift dress weighing 2kg is a stellar example of the use of beading to reflect the electric light when dancing. It’s easy to imagine the shimmering dress worn at a party while dancing a high-energy Charleston.
Jazz music wasn’t the only influencer of attire in the 1920s. An opera coat made in London by Selfridge & Co (ca. 1923) used traditional Japanese inspiration in its design. Reminiscent of a kimono with its wide sleeves, the inside reveals an Art Deco pattern in bright yellows.
Heading into the Great Depression in 1929, fashion began to change with the times. The 1930s embraced femininity again, with pinched waists, flowing florals, demure wispy sleeves and longer, more modest hemlines.
The flapper girls, now wives and mothers, put less emphasis on expensive and superfluous beading and tassels. Rayon and cotton fabric textures sewn in a bias cut – which was designed to show off the body's shape – created the "modern"look.
Evening dresses from the 1970s are also presented to demonstrate how fashion can circle back on itself to take inspiration from previous eras.
A contemporary interpretation of the 1920s and '30s is also displayed in an interesting fusion of old meets new by D&K, an Australian fashion duo who make displays of fashion for critical commentary rather than for commercial profit.
The last display features mannequins with fishnet-covered faces and tatty wigs, perched among antique chairs and suitcases; they slightly detract from the sense of underground glamour of the rest of the exhibit.
The Night Life exhibition has clever technological displays, interactive moments and all the sparkling dresses one could ever desire. It's easy to imagine yourself as a flapper, dancing the night away in St Kilda in 1923.
Night Life is on at Rippon Lea Estate until July 30. Details here.