CUTTINGS, COMBINGS, FETTLINGS AND FLOCK: FASHIONABLE CONSUMPTION AND AUSTRALIAN WOOL ‘WASTE’
FRIDAY 20 FEBRUARY
1:00PM – 2:00PM
TALK
Australia’s wool industry produced vast amounts of fine fleece from the nineteenth century, spurring clothing industries globally and driving fashionable consumption. Yet wool processing and clothes manufacturing also generated waste – products like cuttings, combings, fettlings and flock. Salvaged then sold to waste merchants, these materials had a second life.
This paper explores fashion and its resulting waste by drawing together the mail order catalogues produced by the Melbourne department store Foy & Gibson and the invoices it issued for the wool waste leaving its mills and clothing factories. It considers the value of these waste products in their second life.
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Free to attend.
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Dr Lorinda Cramer is a lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Deakin University. Her work explores the worn and material histories of Australian wool, the gendered dimensions of dress and textiles, and historical examples of sustainable fashion and waste in museum collections. Designed by 19-year-old architect JJ Clark, the Old Treasury Building was built to house the gold bullion discovered during Victoria’s 1850s gold rush. The colony’s leaders worked from offices in the grand palazzo-style building until the 1870s, and the Old Treasury now houses a collection of rare historic documents from Public Record Office Victoria, highlighting key moments from Victoria’s history. A regular calendar of events and displays reflecting Melbourne’s history are held at the Old Treasury Building, including permanent and temporary exhibitions. Visit the vaults to see where the gold bullion was stored, and learn more about the gold era in the Built on Gold exhibition.
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For more information, please contact the event organiser:
Old Treasury Building
info@otb.org.au
03 9651 2233