Merino wool turns 200
Australian Merino wool has been there for all the great fashion moments – the Speedo wool swimsuit in the 1920s, the Chanel wool tweed suit in the 1960s and the Zegna men’s wool suit in the 1980s – and, to commemorate 200 years since Australia began exporting Merino wool to the world, those fashion milestones will feature in a major exhibition at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum.
Managed by AWI’s manager of fashion communications Melissa Grace and curated by leading fashion authority Jane de Teliga, the exhibition will showcase the developments of wool over the past two centuries, celebrating the contribution made by Australian, British, French, Japanese and Italian designers, and how the fibre led a worldwide fashion revolution.
It was in 1807 that the first bale of Australian wool was sent to Britain to be sold, thus establishing the Australian wool trade. Today, Australia still stands firm as the world’s leading producer of fine Merino wool, generating 420 million kilograms of fleece a year. AWI, in collaboration with industry stakeholders, has established a themed series of local and international activities and events, such as the exhibition, to mark the 200th anniversary.
Open to the public from July 25 to August 22 at the Switch House Gallery in the Powerhouse Museum, the exhibition will then move offshore, with a London showing from September 24 to October 8 at County Hall, Southbank.
Included in the display will be Samuel Marsden’s first wool samples sent to King George III in 1804, a wool convict jacket from 1855, a swatch book from Parramatta in 1886 and the Speedo wool swimsuit from 1920.
Centre stage in the exhibition will be two 25-metre-long catwalks featuring 30 mannequins displaying wool garments that have defined fashion over the past 200 years. Among the vintage items will be garments from Vionnet, Lanvin, Chanel, Christian Dior, Courreges, Vivienne Westwood, Giorgio Armani and Ermenegildo Zegna.
Contemporary designers have been asked to submit some of their latest designs to showcase the future of Merino wool in fashion.
Photographic panels will run along each side and follow the history of wool, from the shipping of the first bale in 1807 to the latest innovations in Merino wool.
The Powerhouse Museum is near Darling Harbour, in Harris Street, Ultimo, and the exhibition is open to the public from 25 July to 22 August.
More information: www.woolinnovation.com.au; www.merino200.com
Image: Model Penny Pardey in Pierre Cardin, photographed by Henry Talbot, Paris, 1967.
Return to Beyond the Bale Issue 28 index page.