This is probably the largest collection of Australian vintage clothes and accessories. It contains not just high fashion but a wide range that could be used for retail, wholesale or hire.
Preference is given to keeping this in Australia and available for display.
Some of the collection has sold to make room to unpack. There are tons more to go which are surplus to the Collection.
The update page shows what is accessible now.
over a hundred thousand vintage clothes and accessories
From Victorian top hats and tails, bustles and parasols to the loose drop-waisted dress of the 20's to the simpler dresses of the 30's, and then the staggering diversity of cuts, colours, hats, bags and gloves of the 50's and 60's through to the bright colours of the 70's.
Ring or Email John for Email updates or when single items become available.
There are glasses, parasols, belts, braces, corsets, purses, hats, handbags, gloves, patterns, lace, embroidery, buttons, nighties, bathers, kimonos, kilts, fashion books, fashion magazines and so on.
Clothes from beginning of the horseless carriage through the 20’s boom, the 30’s depression, the 70's transformation to the American Empire and global economy.
In Victorian times there were names for hundreds of colours and who could wear them and where and when. In the 20's and 30's fabric print designers still designed their colour palette. Now colours are planned years in advance by chemical companies.
Dressmakers and tailors were respected and knew their community and culture. Clothes were personally fitted to the shape and taste of each customer. A suit might have taken 40 to 60 hours to craft. A dress a day or a week. Now they are made in three or four minutes by people on production lines living more or less in slavery.
The colours, the fabrics, the workmanship, the technology are almost gone and close to impossible to replicate.
latest news is on the update page
The clothes are more or less sorted into eras but they were often made and worn outside of their eras. Some were made from old patterns and old fabrics. Dresses were shortened and bodices remade. Hooks and eyes were replaced with press studs and press studs were replaced with zips..
A man's 1960's double breasted suit or collarless shirt might have been made in the latest style or else cut from the same pattern and stock of fabric used for the past 40 years.
The preference is to to sell everything together as one lot but it could be divided into eras, men’s, women’s, summer, winter, day-wear, evening-wear, bridal, children’s, formal, shoes, hats or accessories for example.
The photographs on the 1970's to 1800's top menus are just a sample of the thousands of pieces in the Collection. They give an idea of some of the thousands of things that are here.
They are not for sale individually at the moment. Mabs closed years ago so there are no staff to send photos, search, measure and fit or space to do it.