Australian Dress Register

The bodice and jacket were probably donated to the North Shore Historical Society between 1970 and 1996. The Historical Society, founded in 1959, collected a wide variety of items associated with the North Shore, including clothing, footwear and fashion accessories.

Don Bank cottage (6 Napier Street, North Sydney) was purchased by North Sydney Council in 1977, with the support of the Society, for use as a museum. Don Bank Museum opened in 1981, with many of the objects owned by the Society on display.

The Society's collection was subsequently donated to North Sydney Council. In 1996-97, most of the items on display at the museum were transferred to Stanton Library's archives to ensure their long-term preservation. The Society's donation forms the core of Stanton Library's Don Bank Museum collection.

The style and alterations to the jacket and bodice reflect the importance placed on clothing in a society in which the majority chose to spend a large proportion of their income on personal adornment. Australia was a country of immigrants divided by relative wealth rather than rank, and the social position of women was judged by their dress, personal behaviour and language. Regardless of occupation or social status, women's clothing of the nineteenth century reflected these criteria, with much effort and money being expended on following fashionable standards of dress in the current European style.

Such standards proved difficult to maintain during times of economic depression or geographic isolation when women had to make or alter their own clothes. In the late-nineteenth century, the world economy suffered from an economic depression which affected the Australian economy primarily between 1890 and 1899. It is possible that straitened financial circumstances meant the bodice and the jacket were not discarded but instead were altered quickly and unskilfully to suit changed social requirements, the different size of the wearer and the latest fashion.

Information about the original design and alterations has been gathered from close examination of the garment. Provenance to Robertson and Moffat, Melbourne is provided by the retailer's stamp printed on the webbing inner-waistband of the jacket.

'Threads', exhibition of historic costume from the Don Bank Museum collection, October 2012 to March 2013, North Sydney Heritage Centre, Stanton Library, North Sydney.

Bodice:

Cotton embroidered-net borders with floral motif, 2 x 100 mm-wide, machine-made, on centre front.

Cotton embroidered-net borders with floral motif, 90mm wide, machine-made, on front and back sides.

Cotton embroidered-net collar and standing neck with raised-embroidery floral motif and medallions, 160mm wide, machine-made, on shoulders and up neck.

Cotton embroidered-net edging with floral motif, 25mm wide, machine-made, on top edge of collar.

Jacket:

Cotton Brussels needle-lace with metal gimp and braid floral motif, 90mm wide, hand-made, appliqued to bodice front, back and sleeves.

Cotton guipure with floral and leaf motif, 70mm wide, machine-made, possibly chemical lace, appliqued to sleeve cuffs.

Cotton embroidered-net flounce, 240mm wide, machine-made, at back and side neckline.

Cotton picot edging, 7mm wide, machine made, below back neckline.

Cotton embroidered-net border, 25mm wide, machine-made, at wrist edge.

Cream silk satin ribbon, small piece remaining, at left collar edge

See notes below

Bodice: black cotton sateen on bodice front and back with matte side to the outside, black cotton lace inserts on front, black cotton lace inserts on back, black cotton lace standing collar on shoulders and continuing up the neck, black cotton lace edging on collar edge, black silk twill lining behind lace inserts on front and back.

Jacket over-bodice: black silk damask on body and sleeves, black cotton sateen lining inside back, sides and sleeves, black cotton lace on jacket front, back and sleeve forearms, black cotton lace on cuffs, black cotton lace below back neckline, black cotton lace on back and side neckline, cream cotton lace at wrists, remnants of brown fibre within lower front bodice/sleeve seams.

The bodice has been 'turned' and altered. The shiny side is on the inside and the unfinished side-seams and darts are showing on the outside. The neckline has been lowered and sheer lace panel and borders have been machine-stitched to the outer front and back. The lace collar has been hand-stitched outside. The armhole rolled hems have been unstitched, re-rolled inside and hemmed by hand. Cut black threads are still in the fabric around the armholes. A 10mm hole has been cut in the left back placket. The sheer lace on the front and back bodice was later lined with silk twill pieces between the fabric of the bodice and the applied lace collar. The hooks are on the right side of the back closure. They are in their original positions on the lace collar while those below the collar have been removed and re-attached by hand. Replacement loop eyes have been hand-stitched on the left side of the closure. Dark brown thread has been used for the hand and machine-stitched alterations except for the silk twill lining pieces where black thread was used.

Robertson & Moffat

MELBOURNE.

DM2.

The jacket over-bodice has been altered to fit a smaller figure. The back lining was removed, the front lining cut away from the seams, and the front and back side seams unstitched. Extra darts and pleats were then taken in the front and back panels and in the back of the lining. The lining and the damask were re-assembled being treated as a single layer of fabric. The front neckline has been lowered from a high round style to a deep V-shape and the width of the neck opening was reduced by hand-stitching an additional piece of damask fabric across the back of the neck opening. The sleeves have been made narrower by taking a seam down the full length, lengthened to the wrist with identical damask fabric, and the lace edging re-applied by hand. The main seams were stitched by machine and the pleats hand-stitched. The original machine-stitching is in black thread; all replacement machine-stitching is dark brown. The altered seam-lines have been covered with applied lace motifs, and a wide lace flounce applied as a bertha to the neck edge. The trimmings were applied using hand-stitching in dark brown thread, except for the darts taken in the back neckline and the applied guipure lace on the cuffs which were hand-stitched in black

All hooks steel wire.

Bodice: eight 10mm hooks and hand-stitched cotton loops at back.

Jacket: three 10mm hooks on left inside front and wire loops at waist level. Two 10mm hooks at waist level on inside right front. 30mm inner waistband, with two 10mm wire loops at left end.

Stiffening:

All stiffening consists of baleen hand-stitched into webbing tape covers and then hand or machine-stitched in place.

Bodice: Three 80mm lengths of boning are hand-stitched inside the standing neck, one on each side and one at the left side of the centre back closure.

Jacket over-bodice: The left front side dart has a 40mm bone with the similar right side bone missing. The five central back seams and darts are boned with two 120mm lengths hand-stitched to the outer darts, two 210mm lengths hand-stitched into tape pockets machine-sewn to the back lining, and a 210mm length hand-stitched to the centre seam.

Lining:

Bodice: Silk twill lining pieces were added after the bodice was altered. They extend upwards from the fabric at the lowered neckline, behind the embroidered-net inserts, to the line where the net lace collar begins.

Jacket over-bodice: The back and sides are lined with cotton sateen. The sleeves are lined with cotton sateen from the shoulder seam to the wrist.

The bodice and jacket, as originally designed, were made of plain or subtly-decorated black fabric at a time when black was principally reserved for mourning dress, and both were originally of an austere styling incorporating a high neckline with little or no trimming. The garments possibly reflect the nineteenth-century custom of dressing in full-mourning of untrimmed, matte, black clothing for at least one year after a death, followed by half-mourning for another six to twelve months when the mourner could progress to black, grey or mauve fabrics with subtle patterning and trim. Mourning etiquette was not as strictly observed in Australia, where silk and unobtrusive patterns were accepted during the full-mourning period. Dress custom was changing by the early twentieth century and black clothing was no longer reserved for mourning dress. The garments appear to have been altered to fit a smaller woman, who was not in mourning, at a time when women's dress had become more elaborate and dress styles more revealing.

Bodice: The armhole edges are worn and frayed in places.

Jacket: The silk damask is cracking and shattering around the applied heavy Brussels-lace motifs on the unlined jacket front and on the upper-arm sections of both sleeves. There are signs of wear on the outer areas of both sleeves.

Bodice: Both bodice armholes have a 10mm tear towards the front at breast height, mended by hand in black and dark brown thread. The back placket has been rehemmed with brown thread.