WELCOME to the glamour of 1950s fashion!
‘Emporium’, on display at the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum until Sunday 23 October, explores the rise of the department store, ready-to-wear clothing and advertising in the mid-20th century.
Department stores opened across Australia in response to a rise in wealth, the evolution of shopping as a pastime and the changing role of women from homemaker to active consumer.
The iconic exhibition features merchandise and picture-based advertising material from Albury’s iconic ‘Abikhair’s Emporium’, established by Syrian immigrants Saad Milham Abikhair and his wife, Shefia, in 1928.
When the Abikhair store was closing in the mid 1990s, Albury City was fortunate enough to acquire the complete merchandise and stock from the flagship Albury store for the collection.
This included original merchandise and advertising material from previous decades, especially the 1950s.
The store owners and operators, Saad and Betro Abikhair, immigrated from Mount Lebanon and opened their Swift Street store in Albury in 1928 after arriving in 1895 as hawkers from Melbourne.
At first, Abikhair relied on Melbourne manufacturers and wholesalers but eventually began importing and supplying goods himself.
Goods on offer included girdles, stockings, clothing, household supplied, beauty supplies, toiletry supplies, sewing supplies (haberdashery), shoes, hats – and much more in the style of the emporium.
The purpose-built store had two entries, one each for men and women, which navigated patrons to appropriate sections of the store.
As it was considered inappropriate for men to see, let alone purchase women’s ‘unmentionables’, the entry for men took them through sporting goods and men’s supplies.
Women were directed past eh women’s, children’s, men’s and household supplies counters before reaching the register.
The collection celebrates the 1950s beauty myth as stylised 1950s women promote toiletries, women’s garments and even vacuum cleaners.
This stunning marketing material demonstrates the context of the 1950s woman and the society they lived in.
The Yarra Ranges Regional Museum is located at 35-37 Castella Street, Lilydale.
The exhibition is open seven days until Sunday 23 October, from 10am to 4pm, except on public holidays.
For information and event/workshop tickets, visit yarraranges.vic.gov.au.
