Clothing

An icon wearing an icon: Sydney Opera House Barbie
Stepping away from her signature pink, Barbie honours the Sydney Opera House with more subtle tones in her gown, that reflect the Opera House and its Harbourside location

Baubles, brooches & beads
We wear jewellery as articles of dress and fashion and for sentimental reasons – as tokens of love, as symbols of mourning, as souvenirs of travel

Bicornes, bonnets & boaters
There’s a variety of headwear across our collections ranging in date from early to late nineteenth century

Dressing Joan Sutherland
One of the most spectacular costumes on display in the exhibition The People’s House: Sydney Opera House at 50 is an extraordinary Renaissance dress designed by Kristian Fredrikson and worn by Dame Joan Sutherland in the part of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia

Forgotten objects – the hatpin
Rarely seen or used today, hatpins were once an essential item for the fashionable lady

Iridescent by Gerwyn Davies film
Artist Gerwyn Davies discusses the making of the exhibition 'Iridescent by Gerwyn Davies, at the Museum of Sydney

Keeping cool
Shading the face, fanning a fire into a blaze or cooling food, shooing away insects, conveying social status, even passing discreet romantic messages - the use of the fan goes far beyond the creation of a breeze.

Keeping time
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries watches were designed to carried on the person, attached to a waist hook, looped over a belt or as part of a chatelaine in the case of women