For those who are based in Sydney (or likely to go in the next few months) a great new exhibition is opening next week on the history of swimwear.

Exposed! the story of swimwear highlights the designs and designers, past and present, at the forefront of Australian swimwear fashion.

What: Exposed! The Story of Swimwear.
Where: Australian National Maritime Museum, South Gallery, Darling Harbour
When: July 2nd to October 25th, 2009.
Cost: free!

More information at the ANMM website. Image courtesy ANMM.

It looks like this is a travelling exhibition so those who live in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Wagga Wagga and Newcastle will see it later. Sadly, it’s not coming to Melbourne - perhaps a trip is in order?

UPDATE: nice article about the exhibition from The Australian.

Speaking of swimwear, if you’d like something gorgeous for this summer you might like to check out the website of Glamoursurf a vintage site that specialises in bathing suits. Here’s one of my favourites:

1940s jersey Hawaiian print swimsuit. Image courtesy Glamoursurf.

Whilst we’re on a cycling theme, thought I’d show you these images that I found. I’m afraid that I can’t provide any information about them though, except to say that they were probably posted to various Livejournal communities and were saved without details. If you know anything, please let me know.

Hope you like them too.

A lovely reader wrote about the Sydney Tweed Run that was held a couple of weeks ago.

You may recall my post about the London Tweed Run and how it was a pity that we didn’t do something like that here - well, our Northern cousins have beat us to it, and you can see by the pics that the turnout in Sydney was nothing short of impressive. I was also pleased to see large numbers of ladies attending, at least one of whom looks to be wearing a corset!

I hope they don’t mind, but I’ve borrowed these images from Flickr’s pool and in lieu of individual crediting, each file name declares it’s source.

We can’t be shown up like this - someone needs to organise a similar event in Melbourne! In the meantime, Pete left this comment on the London Tweed Run post:

I have scheduled a Lether Saddle Tour (for old bikes, blokes and sheilas) with my touring club on Sun 19th July. It is not in Melbourne unfortunately, but more a country tour in the style of the Cyclist’s Special 1955.

We will be doing a 60km tour from Geelong out on the Bellarine peninsula. Any classic cyclists interested in this, riding old bikes and old clothes, contact: rides@mbtc.org.au

We had some beautiful evening clothes in Circa’s window last week - golds and peaches, shiny and sparkly to ward off the wintery nights. Sadly, we sold the centre piece (a fabulous peach bias cut gown with elaborate slashed and frilled sleeves) the first day, so we replaced it with another gold and I took some pics before any more gowns found new homes.

We’re having some lighting issues with the front window and it’s looking rather dark - this should be fixed soon.

We’re slowly expanding our Kiss Me Deadly range of beautiful vintage-inspired lingerie.

Just in - more of the gorgeous and popular black six strap garter belt. Six straps to hold your seams nice and straight - you’ll find them strong and comfortable and wonder how you ever got by without one. Available in small, medium, large and extra large for $68.

New to Circa we now have black Alouette waist cinchers in small, medium and large ($120) and a small number of Vargas Girdle dresses ($145). Catherine from KMD tells me that we’re currently the only retailer in Australia stocking these lines and you best be fast - the first girdle dress was snapped up before they were even ticketed. I’ll be ordering more, but the full range of sizes won’t be in until October.

Here are some lovely images courtesy Kiss Me Deadly.

Many people had to miss out on last month’s Salon Show so they’ve decided to do it all again - Thursday evening next week, June 11th at 7pm. Here are the details:

The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) is very excited to announce a second Robert Fritzlaff Salon Show thanks to popular demand.

Price includes salon show, light supper, designer talk and exhibition admission. Prices: Adults - $70; Concession/Child - $65; National Trust Members - $65; Members Concession - $60.
Bookings essential – 9827 2500

If that doesn’t sound enticing enough, here are some photos taken at the last Salon Show by Keith Glennan.

For this year’s Festival Fringe, Circa will be hosting an exhibition by Omnific Assembly entitled “Echo’s Lost”, focusing on memory and the space that is left behind once memory fades.

Echo’s Lost will present 12 to 15 small three-dimensional works. Due to the space requirements, each will be no larger than 200mm wide and be able to fit into the dimensions of the art deco china cabinet (seen below) in the front shop window. Applications are currently being received and close July 4th.

The exhibition will run for the three weeks of the festival - mid September to early October.

More information can be found at the Echo’s Lost website and the Echo’s Lost Facebook page.

When I was fifteen I had that poster of you on my bedroom wall - along with many others of my favourite, Marilyn Monroe.

Since then I’ve read hundreds of books on you (and boy are there a lot). I think I own about fifty or so including the fabulous catalogue of your private possessions, auctioned at Christie’s in 1999. Pity I couldn’t have been there, but it must have been a sad day when people eagerly bid for every small piece of your life from the book you read (and scribbled on) as a five year old to your dog licence (which, I recall, went for an awfully high price).

The clothes of course are my favourites - the glittery red heels you wore in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, the long blue gown you gaffer-taped up so the troops in Korea could see your legs better. The silk souffle piece of nothing you were sewn into, to sing for a President.

Still the greatest - happy birthday wonderful, golden lady. You’ll always be in my heart (and my bookshelf).

As you know, I do lots of hand washing to keep Circa full of vintage goodies - and this time of year when the sky clouds over and rain falls at least a little on most days, it becomes hard to keep up with demand. Lately we’ve been particularly short of dresses as dry cleaning has been the only way to keep up, and many fabrics are better when they’ve been laundered and dried in a sunny and breezy backyard.

My priority this week has been to catch up on my washing. Yesterday I spent the day at my circa 1942 green porcelain kitchen sink, hard at it. When the weather isn’t great it can take up to two days for them to dry so this morning (during a burst of sunlight) I snuck out there and took a few pics of what will soon be available in the shop. Note that they’ll look much better when they’ve been ironed and mended!

Bow ties - these are dried flat on a towel so that they don’t get peg marks on them.

Scarves - silks and acetates from the ’40s to the ’80s. Nice and colourful despite the cloudy day!

Edwardian chemise, Edwardian tea gown, nylon petticoats and 1930s wedding dress. Behind you can just see a brilliant yellow late ’30s ballgown.

From Facebook:

“The Carlton Hotel is holding a semi- monthly market featuring a variety of stalls for all to indulge.(dates are sporadic as i have to wait until studio’s are available). The whole concept is to have a market that starts later at a local venue that consists of music (that we want to hear)along with sangria and food.

Stall holders benefit by making some $ and the shoppers get cheap treasures so it’s win,win and a godamn RAD way to spend a sunday!”

When: Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th of June
Time: 1pm - 6pm
Where: Carlton Hotel, 197 Bourke st Melbourne, Australia

More information can be found at the Facebook page. I haven’t been to Hello Sailor yet but the feedback I’ve had is positive and that clothes can be acquired for extremely reasonable prices.

Photo courtesy Hello Sailor (from Facebook). Looks like it was taken at my new favourite bar - Palmz, the deco/tropical bar on the top of the Carlton Hotel building.

We recently shared a jug of Pimms cocktails up there. Despite the drizzle, it was quite magical, a wonderful place and well worth all the stairs you have to climb to get there. There’s a nice review of Palmz at the Age’s website.