The National Gallery of Victoria is presenting two new NGV Collection Focus fashion displays featuring Dior & Yamamoto, The New Look opening on March 16 and Captivating style, 1950s Melbourne which is currently open for viewing.
NGV Collection Focus: Dior & Yamamoto, The New Look explores two pivotal moments in the history of fashion brought about by designers Christian Dior and Yohji Yamamoto. In 1947, Dior's first collection transformed female dress from the angular, war-time silhouette of the 1940s into a softer, feminine hourglass shape with wasp-waist and billowing skirt. Carmel Snow at Harper's Bazaar dubbed it the New Look. In 1981, Yohji Yamamoto's debut Paris collection also changed the course of fashion history by shaking up the concept of Western-style clothing with a collection that seemed unfinished and oversized, throwing the fashion world into controversy.
The Dior & Yamamoto NGV Collection display will showcase six garments alongside photographs and contextual fashion sketches by Parisian fashion designer Jacques Heim.
NGV Collection Focus: Captivating style, 1950s Melbourne features key artists who helped to cultivate Melbourne's era of style and glamour during the 1950s, when tree-lined Collins Street was considered Melbourne's epicentre of style. The display pairs the work of fashion designer Hall Ludlow and milliner Thomas Harrison, acclaimed for their ingenious designs and technical prowess, with the fashion photography of Athol Shmith, the celebrated studio and street photographer.
Captivating style presents twenty photographs from the NGV's extensive archive of Shmith works alongside fashionable garments that defined the 1950s era, including never-before-displayed Ludlow gowns.
In addition to these upcoming fashion displays, the NGV will offer a unique program of events coinciding with the 2013 L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, including talks by fashion luminaries Akira Isogawa and Richard Nylon.
