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Gowns delight in ‘Dressmaker’ exhibition

Killer gowns in ‘The Dressmaker’

Craft / “The Dressmaker Costume Exhibition”, National Film and Sound Archive, McCoy Circuit, Acton, until August 18. Reviewed by MEREDITH HINCHLIFFE.

THE costumes in the film “The Dressmaker” have a role as profoundly important as those of Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving and Kate Winslet.

Much has been written about the film, the story and its box office success, with perhaps just a passing mention of the costumes.

This exhibition celebrates the costumes and the creativity and care that went into their creation. Margot Wilson designed and created Winslet’s costumes and Marion Boyce most of the remaining garments. The Winslet character in the film, Tilly Dunnage, has returned from Paris after working with Madeleine Vionnet, a French couturier, who is today known for popularising bias-cut gowns, and for her Grecian-style dresses. Boyce won multiple awards for the costumes in “The Dressmaker”.

During and immediately after World War II, generally the garments Australian women wore were drab, shapeless and worn. Colour, texture and shape burst on to the Australian scene in the early 1950s. The excitement and hope of the period is marked in the costumes in this film and the exhibition.

The headline on the first wall text panel viewers will see states: “A dress can change everything”. The film takes characters on a journey and the clothes were a huge part of that and help to tell the stories. Sarah Snook’s character, Gertrude, later Trudy, Pratt is transformed by her gowns.

Marion Boyce’s ‘deal sealer’ dress for Sarah Snook

Using fabrics and accessories collected over many years, Boyce and Wilson created elegant clothes that were strong, gutsy and curvy. The wide shawl collar coat and dress in post-box red moiré silk taffeta, designed by Wilson, shocks the crowd at a football match. The coat shows superb detailing, with gold lining, a fitted waist and self-covered buttons and is shown against a still of the astounded footballers. A nearby male mannequin is dressed in a football jersey and shorts from the period. One forgets that football jerseys were made from knitted wool and the shorts from cotton.

Boyce is quoted in the catalogue as saying that part of her job as designer is finding the inner peacock, the inner goddess or aspirations of the women. The “deal sealer” dress, Va-va-voom evening dress has a fitted and boned bodice with intricate drapery, low-cut sweetheart neckline and fish-tail skirt with side waterfall draping. It is in creamy lame with crystal and diamanté detailing. Her skills at draping, cutting and stitching are magnificent.

Winslet in the red moiré silk taffeta, designed by Wilson

These exotic garments appear against the background of drab Dungatar with its crumbling brick-rendered shop façades and warped weatherboards with peeling paint. The surrounding countryside is rolling ‘wheat-yellow plains’ with dead trees adding drama.

The costumes highlight the designers’ skills and vision in bringing the original author’s, Rosalie Ham, words to life.

This is a beautiful exhibition, with superbly created garments. However, I found the labels – pages from the catalogue – not very informative, and I could not find them for some of the gowns. On the upside, the film “The Dressmaker Behind the Seams” running on a permanent loop gives lots of information and interviews. At a child-sized table, origami paper and instructions for making garments are provided.

 

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