Fashion meets Fiction
As much as I love exploring new places, sometimes it’s more rewarding to discover gems just around the corner from my own house. Yesterday I headed a few minutes up the road into the Dandenongs to visit the Burrinja Cultural Centre which is hosting Fashion meets Fiction: The Darnell Collection. The exhibition is to celebrate the National Year of Reading, and Charlotte Smith from the Darnell Collection has curated it, matching outfits from her extensive vintage clothing collection to fictional heroines. Here are a few of my favourites – but please go and see it for yourselves if you can (my photos really don’t do it justice).
This photo shows the detail from an outfit representing Phryne Fisher…
I’m not quite sure as my photos got a bit muddled, but I think this ueber-feminine look is meant to be Madeleine Bassett from P.G Wodehouse’s Jeeves & Wooster series (if you get a chance, liven up a boring car trip with one of Wodehouse’s audio books read by Jonathan Cecil. They are HILARIOUS).
… just one of many crazily endearing quotes from “The Bassett”…
This gorgeous number is for a character in Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile.
Are you looking forward to The Great Gatsby when it eventually gets released next May?
I have to admit I haven’t actually read it. Hopefully I’ll find the time before the movie comes out!
Love this lace suit, inspired by Love Story.
The cover art for some of the books was nearly as fabulous as the outfits! And I loved the story that went with this pant suit. Signature stitches!
I suppose no fashion/fiction exhibition could have ignored Breakfast at Tiffany’s (another book I am yet to read, although of course I have seen the film several times!)… 
…I didn’t really agree with this choice of outfit though. While it’s exciting that it’s a real Christian Dior suit, it looks far too matronly for Holly Golightly. Maybe that’s just because we’re so used to the image of Audrey Hepburn in Givenchy though?
I didn’t know that To Catch a Thief was based on a book…
Grace Kelly would have looked stunning in this bejewelled gown and gloves.
I think this was probably my favourite – never heard of the book but I love the dress!
Once you’ve oohed and aahed over the dresses, there’s an anteroom with retro-style illustrations by Grant Cowan (sorry about the light reflections in these shots)…
… and there are also plenty of fashion tomes to browse, both in the anteroom and in the gift shop (where a lot of the books featured in the exhibition are for sale), as well as other free exhibitions at Burrinja. There are many other reasons to visit the area, so if Upwey isn’t in your neck of the woods, why not make a day of it – go for a wander through the hills, linger over lunch and take in this exhibition before heading home.
ダンでノン山に行ったことありますか？お散歩やアフターヌーンティーで人気な場所ですが、こういうギャラリーもあるって知っていましたか？昨日Burrinja Cultural Centre でFashion meets Fiction という展覧会を見に行きましたが、テーマは「本に出てくるヘロイン」です。「ティファニーでの朝食」や「風とともに」など、クラシックな本の主役をイメージしたコーディネートはすべてThe Darnell Collectionから選ばれたもので、素敵なヴィンテージな洋服がたくさんありました。日帰りで山での散歩、おいしいランチやアフターヌーンティー、ちょっとしたお買い物、そしてこの展覧会を見に行くのはいかがですか？