Walking outfit

This striking walking ensemble, dated from between 1885 and 1888, was made by Melbourne dressmakers, Hicks Atkinson of Collins Street in Melbourne, the colonial centre for fashionable dress in the late nineteenth century. The ensemble was purchased by Annie Bowman of Martindale Hall, Mintaro, north of Adelaide, and is one of the earliest examples in the Gallery’s fashion collection to feature a maker’s label. The label inside the bodice reads in gold letters ‘Hicks Atkinson, Robes and Costumes 48 to 352 Collins St.’, these words flanked by the British and Australian coat of arms.

This ensemble includes a high neck and bustle gown with a cream velvet bow at the front and is made from a woven rust-coloured and gold silk fabric depicting the extremely fashionable motifs of scrolling ferns and foliage. In nineteenth-century Australia, ferns were highly desired; ferns of different species were cultivated, collected and dried, and were widely depicted

in paintings, as well as used as design motifs on textiles, ceramics, furniture and architecture.

Rebecca Evans, Curator of Decorative Arts & Design