Vintage crack: Australian Women's Weekly treasure trove

The National Library of Australia have been keeping themselves very busy - they've just finished digitizing the first 50 year's worth of issues of the Australian Women's Weekly (from 1933 to 1982). That's 2770 magazines - from back to cover!

Best yet they've made this amazing resource accessible to us all to see, search, and enjoy on the web. The project was undertaken in association with the State Library of New South Wales (from whose collection many of the magazines were supplied) and with the permission of Australian Consolidated Press.

You can search by keywords across all issues, look at at a particular date range, read a whole issue, or best yet check out their amazing timeline of covers. It's not all kittens, kitsch and kweens. But be warned - this stuff is like vintage crack, its highly addictive! Don't be surprised if your friends and family have to stage an intervention to get you out of there..

 Check out the Australian Women's Weekly digital archive for yourself on Trove

 

Mission impossible: Melbourne in a day [the vintage shopping scene]

A short round up of CBD vintage shopping

Anonymous Posh really stole my heart. It's a little shop with a lot of soul. Its selection of vintage dresses, blouses, bathing suits is just that, select. You get the sense that every piece in the store was chosen, chosen to be there not just because it's old, retro, vintage but because the person who put it there really sensed its beauty, fell in love with it a little themselves and hope you will too. Oh, and the staff were incredibly friendly and personable too. I will definitely be going back and buying here on my return trip.

 

Anonymous Posh

Shop 43 Royal Arcade, Melbourne  

T. (03) 9650 4263

 Just a few shops up from Anonymous Posh in the Royal Arcade is Hunter Gatherer whose shop fit-out and overall aesthetic is hands-down the most refined and highly styled. After visiting the store I later read that it operates as a shopfront for the Brotherhood of St Lawrence!? Is that true? Damn spanking funkiest glitzy hipster opshop operation I've ever seen going on - if it is! Great range, excellent condition stock but I didn't find anything I fell I immediately fell in love with...this trip. Oh, except for the seventies tea-set (pictured below). If only the neon came with it. Am now thinking I need neon in my kitchen.

 

 

 

Hunter Gatherer

Shop 51 Royal Arcade, 335 Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne

T. (03) 9650 1843

Meanwhile in the Cathedral Arcade.... 

...I found Harry Wragg alongside a number of other small hip boutiques. Harry Wragg was also on trend with its youthful mix of vintage, new, and upcycled/reconstructed vintage garments and accessories. I actually found the new garments here much more stunning than the vintage and only wish I was younger and thinner so I could wear them. I can't stop being old but I can lose a few kilos so I might be tempted to try something on next time round. If not, I will definitely pick up one of the stylin' necklaces or spied (but thoughtlessly forgot to photograph, sorry).

Harry Wragg

Shop 7 Cathedral Arcade, 
37 Swanston St (cnr Flinders Ln) Melbourne

Up the stairs I entered the trojan horse of Retrostar Vintage Clothing whose unremarkable grunge entrance opens up to reveal a megaplex of vintage and vintage styled clothing and accessories. The shop excels in range with over two huge rooms of merchandise that you could easily spend over half a day going goggling over. A fun relaxed place to browse with a steady flow of shoppers, mostly Gen Y. While they do stock true vintage I did find the older pieces weren't in great condition and some could have done with a clean. But there are definitely hidden gems amongst the racks if you have the patience and like the thrill of the chase (I do). The sixties style red and black dress with tuxedo ruffle front and black suede shoes both caught my eye (pictured below), but were sadly not my size. 

 

 

What struck me here was the racks and racks and racks of remodelled 70s, 80s, 90s dresses skirts and even leather jackets that had been uniformly restructured to suit current looks, for example 100s of dresses cut to mid-thigh with elasticated waist inserted. Looking at the labels many of the garments are from China so I wonder if what we are looking at here are upcycled recycled Chinese garments made new in China?? Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just think it's an interesting phenomena, a sign of the times and our appetite for vintage if it is now being imported, remodelled from the East. I'm not 100% sure what the process is I'm witnessing is here anyway, just speculating really.

I know for one thing, the more recycled clothing the better.

What do you think?

Retrostar Vintage Clothing

1st floor, 37 Swanston St (cnr Flinders Ln), Melbourne

T. (03) 9663 1223 

Heading back out on the city streets and we find Out of the Closet (or OTC). Of the six shops featured in this post OTC would have to win the award for best shopping soundtrack and perhaps alongside Retrostar Vintage Clothing, best unisex vintage shopping experience. While the OTC (Flinders St) shopping experience suffers a little in the ambience department thanks to its below street level location, they do work the dark underground vibe to its best advantage, creating a subterranean Ali Baba cave of vintage gems. Vintage lamps illuminate the cavern and once your eyes adjust you can easily relax into the rock band basement apartment atmosphere. The relaxed glow over the merchandise and surrounding band and cult movie posters that plaster the walls lets you know this place is a little bit country and a lot rock'n'roll. 

On the day I visited the vintage dress selection was a little sparse on the ground for my liking but well organised, realistically priced, and varied enough to suit a wide range of tastes. Couldn't have been too bad as I saw two pieces I would have readily purchased if I'd had the cashola. An orange-green striped silk mod dress as well as a two-way striped cotton skirt in purple and navy ($40) - both of which would have been perfect for summer (see below). Importantly for guys, the store appeared to stock an excellent range of menswear. I just wish they'd use a younger hotter image of Mick Jagger in their mural.

Gotta love the Bubba Ho-tep poster!

 

 

Out of the Closet

238b Flinders St Melbourne

T. (03) 9639 0980

Speed Boy Girl was a cute little shop which according to their shopfront signs was days away from closing when I visited. Their vintage stock seemed to favour more of a Vince Noir electro feel (not that you could tell from the dress hanging in the door - see below). An ecclectic mix that seemed to favour a bold blend of 'proper' vintage with pop - I'm talking spandex and spangled. May they rest in peace or succeed in their new venture if they have moved to a new store.

Speed Boy Girl

5 Degraves St, Melbourne 

(Now closed I take it or moved elsewhere?)

SHAG The place is almost too cool for school. Shag succeeds in blending classic vintage with unique pieces from the 70s, 80s, 90s like no other. Glamorous, fun, cutting edge and sophisticated. Top notch, top of the line, worthily priced. A busy shop with good reason. I'll be back. Did I mention it was cool?

Carmen Jones of Sydney makes an appearance in Melbourne. 

One of my all time favourite vintage labels. 

Do you have a Carmen Jones in your wardrobe? 

Show and tell please.

Shag

Centre Way Arcade, 259 Collins St, Melbourne

T. (03) 9663 8166

 All in all a monster window shopping day for all

Mission impossible: Melbourne in a day ('Australian Made: 100 years of fashion' exhibition)

 While checking out the vintage shopping scene in Melbourne was high on the agenda, in reality the fact that I wasn't planning on doing any buying proved I was really there for other things. Going to see the Australian made: 100 years of fashion exhibition before it closed was probably top of the list and given  NGV had a stellar line up of other interesting shows I was sold. I think I'll take a look at the shows in separate posts to keep it simple.

But for now let's take a look at Australian Made: 100 years of fashion. Curated by Laura Jocic, and displayed in the Fashion & Textiles Galleries, Ian Potter Centre NGV, the exhibition was sumptuous and beautifully presented. If were local and hadn't left my visit until the last day of the show I'm sure I would have visited more than once - especially as it was free! My only complaint is I wanted more. More dresses more shoes gimme gimme gimme. 100 years of fashion - I want to see at least 100 dresses (and other things) LOL!

As wonderful as it must have been to work on the show I don't envy the curator's task of having to make the selection. I wasn't alone in hoping that the show continued on in the room next door - but no, in stepped the landscape photography show and it was curtains for the frills and spills of fashion.

Platypus fur cape (c1890). 
Happier days were spent at the bottom of a river.

  Yesterday's leather hat box... 

today's dream caramel leather tiffin carrier, no?

READ MORE... 

'From first European settlement the supply of clothing and the way Australian men and women presented themselves in the new colonies was of vital importance. Whether reflecting status and position, or exhibiting new found wealth and flamboyance, the nuanced language of fashion was of particular concern to Australia’s burgeoning and diverse society.

In response to the needs of this growing society, tailors and dressmakers established well patronised businesses, and numerous drapers and department stores were founded, with dressmaking departments providing for a fashionable clientele. Dressmakers such as Mrs Eeles in Melbourne in the late nineteenth century were precursors to the high end boutiques of the first half of the twentieth century, including Le Louvre in Collins Street.

Drawing on the NGV Collection of Australian fashion and textiles, this exhibition examines the rise of fashion in Australia from the 1850s to 1950s, while speculating on the fashionable trends and development of an Australian style of fashion. The exhibition will include rare early examples of labelled garments from the mid nineteenth century and a range of dresses, tailored items and accessories that were made and retailed in Australia.' - NGV 'What's On' exhibition guide