From Ann Dixon’s Bygone Days Fashion Collection Liane Arno takes a glimpse behind the scenes of a fashion exhibition opening in Wonthaggi next week.
By Liane Arno
HOW often have you picked up a book and it’s changed your life?
Could it be that rare work of fiction that changes how you look at the world, where you take the steps to become a more moral and better person? Or perhaps it brought to your attention a plight that you wanted to help put right? In Ann Dixon’s case it brought about a passion to collect vintage fashion that has brought joy to many.
The book – Shattered Silk by Barbara Michaels – was described in a Kirkus review as “a romantic suspense, and a diverting little caper it is. This one, like the antique gowns its heroine collects, glitters with details -- historical and macabre -- and with an entertainingly eccentric cast of characters.”
And so – just as the main character of the book started collecting garments, Ann started to do the same. So much so that she ended up building an extra storey in her home that required narrow shoulders and a lot of side stepping to navigate through the many boxes, cupboards and display racks.
The now named Bygone Days Fashion Collection has over 1500 pieces. Everything from the 1830s to the 1950s. From a time when women wore yards of petticoats or cage crinolines to keep their skirts full through periods of austerity when wars led to limited materials requiring shorter hemlines and silhouetted figures to the 1950s where clothing required a dependency on foundation garments – bullet bras, corsets, waist-cinchers and girdles pulled in, pushed out and bodies persuaded to adjust to the right form.
Ann’s daughter, Marny Javornik, is working hard to see that the collection finds a home here in Wonthaggi. And to do that she is giving us a taste in an upcoming exhibition, “Classic Cream, Beautiful Black.” Being held at the Wonthaggi Town Hall and running every day between 11am and 4pm from June 19 until July 5 Ann has gathered together an amazing variety of vintage clothes.
The exhibition includes stunning silk pieces, wedding and mourning gowns, and day and evening wear as well as accessories.
The incredibly multi-talented Karin Murphy Ellis is also displaying some of her garments as well as jewellery. Karin is a well-known rummager in Wonthaggi’s and beyond op shops as she sources the materials for her creations. She will take the treasured fabrics back to her studio and drape them over a mannequin to be guided on how the new garment will take shape. And then she will team it with just the right accessories that she has also made to create her one off designs.
Chris Denzil-Wiliams' avant-garde costumes, full of fantasy and whimsy, will also be on display. Chris’s label Christopher Tobias is well known to those who love to wear something just a little bit different.
Local artist Sally Everett, well-known to ArtSpace regulars, will also be exhibiting her beautiful garments. Sally uses leaves and plants to create subtle images on fabrics which are then made into classic garments.
And finally Marny is thrilled she has persuaded Zetta Kanta to bring her felted installation Tea Trees Talking to the exhibition, as well as some of her beautifully textured wall hangings. Zetta is a fibre artist who has created three life-size figures which are of course in classic cream and beautiful black.
Marny can’t speak too highly of the assistance that she has received from many. The council has provided the venue for nothing. Her fellow artists are giving their time freely. Big W has provided some mannequins so the clothes can be shown off to their best, and the Sentinel Times has been most supportive.
“I really want this wonderful lifetime collection of my mother’s to come to Wonthaggi,” Marny says.
“Unfortunately, at the moment there is no space and so we are in limbo until storage locally can be found, although the response from the council has been positive. But who knows – if there is enough interest in this exhibition and where Council can see that collections such as these are important, maybe they will be able to take up the offer in the future.”
Just remember it was Mark Twain who said “Clothes make a man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."
Classic Cream and Beautiful Black Fashion Exhibition, Wonthaggi Town Hall, June 19-July 5, 11am-4pm daily. Free entry. For more information go to www.wonthaggifashion.weebly.com
HOW often have you picked up a book and it’s changed your life?
Could it be that rare work of fiction that changes how you look at the world, where you take the steps to become a more moral and better person? Or perhaps it brought to your attention a plight that you wanted to help put right? In Ann Dixon’s case it brought about a passion to collect vintage fashion that has brought joy to many.
The book – Shattered Silk by Barbara Michaels – was described in a Kirkus review as “a romantic suspense, and a diverting little caper it is. This one, like the antique gowns its heroine collects, glitters with details -- historical and macabre -- and with an entertainingly eccentric cast of characters.”
And so – just as the main character of the book started collecting garments, Ann started to do the same. So much so that she ended up building an extra storey in her home that required narrow shoulders and a lot of side stepping to navigate through the many boxes, cupboards and display racks.
The now named Bygone Days Fashion Collection has over 1500 pieces. Everything from the 1830s to the 1950s. From a time when women wore yards of petticoats or cage crinolines to keep their skirts full through periods of austerity when wars led to limited materials requiring shorter hemlines and silhouetted figures to the 1950s where clothing required a dependency on foundation garments – bullet bras, corsets, waist-cinchers and girdles pulled in, pushed out and bodies persuaded to adjust to the right form.
Ann’s daughter, Marny Javornik, is working hard to see that the collection finds a home here in Wonthaggi. And to do that she is giving us a taste in an upcoming exhibition, “Classic Cream, Beautiful Black.” Being held at the Wonthaggi Town Hall and running every day between 11am and 4pm from June 19 until July 5 Ann has gathered together an amazing variety of vintage clothes.
The exhibition includes stunning silk pieces, wedding and mourning gowns, and day and evening wear as well as accessories.
The incredibly multi-talented Karin Murphy Ellis is also displaying some of her garments as well as jewellery. Karin is a well-known rummager in Wonthaggi’s and beyond op shops as she sources the materials for her creations. She will take the treasured fabrics back to her studio and drape them over a mannequin to be guided on how the new garment will take shape. And then she will team it with just the right accessories that she has also made to create her one off designs.
Chris Denzil-Wiliams' avant-garde costumes, full of fantasy and whimsy, will also be on display. Chris’s label Christopher Tobias is well known to those who love to wear something just a little bit different.
Local artist Sally Everett, well-known to ArtSpace regulars, will also be exhibiting her beautiful garments. Sally uses leaves and plants to create subtle images on fabrics which are then made into classic garments.
And finally Marny is thrilled she has persuaded Zetta Kanta to bring her felted installation Tea Trees Talking to the exhibition, as well as some of her beautifully textured wall hangings. Zetta is a fibre artist who has created three life-size figures which are of course in classic cream and beautiful black.
Marny can’t speak too highly of the assistance that she has received from many. The council has provided the venue for nothing. Her fellow artists are giving their time freely. Big W has provided some mannequins so the clothes can be shown off to their best, and the Sentinel Times has been most supportive.
“I really want this wonderful lifetime collection of my mother’s to come to Wonthaggi,” Marny says.
“Unfortunately, at the moment there is no space and so we are in limbo until storage locally can be found, although the response from the council has been positive. But who knows – if there is enough interest in this exhibition and where Council can see that collections such as these are important, maybe they will be able to take up the offer in the future.”
Just remember it was Mark Twain who said “Clothes make a man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."
Classic Cream and Beautiful Black Fashion Exhibition, Wonthaggi Town Hall, June 19-July 5, 11am-4pm daily. Free entry. For more information go to www.wonthaggifashion.weebly.com