HAUTE HISTORY
A donation in kind by Australian philanthropist KRYSTYNA CAMPBELL-PRETTY opens the history books of high fashion to the world, with a collection of storied and iconic couture pieces now exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria.
The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne has been transformed into a breathtaking walk-in wardrobe of Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and more. And it is a walk down memory lane, among some of the biggest names in fashion. The Krystyna Campbell-pretty Fashion Gift features more than 150 garments from Parisian haute couture and international fashion houses dating all the way back to the late 19th century, with some of the earliest examples of couture by Charles Frederick Worth.
It traces over 100 years of fashion, with little black dresses from Chanel and Christian Dior’s mid-century New Look pieces, right up to a runway look from Dior’s Resort 2019 collection. Other iconic designs include Madame Grès’ haute couture gowns and that dress Sarah Jessica Parker wore to the 2006 Met Gala in New York. The exhibition opened on March 1, and admission is free to the public till it ends on July 14.
This collection was purchased by philanthropist Krystyna Campbell-Pretty, whose support for NGV’S Fashion and Textiles Collection was hailed as “unprecedented” by the museum’s director Tony Ellwood. The stylish patron has gifted NGV with over 250 garments since 2015, with this latest collection donated in memory of her late husband, Harold
Campbell-pretty, whom she described as “a committed supporter of the NGV and a great lover of women’s fashion”. After a career spanning almost four decades in research and strategic management, she now divides her time among various philanthropic endeavours, especially those supporting disadvantaged children in cultural and educational programs, particularly the arts.
“Fashion can be simultaneously artistic, pragmatic, and a crucial physical record of complex construction skills and techniques that are all but gone,” Campbell-pretty said. “For me, fashion is also visual and social history, reflecting the role, perception and lives of women in society. When I see very important garments, I get a sense of great thrill. It’s the feeling that you’re handling something that almost changed fashion history.”
Spectacular haute couture aside, visitors can also discover snippets of what went on behind-the-scenes at fashion houses: Original sketches and workbooks by Jeanne Lanvin and Madame Grès, embroidered samples from Lesage, fashion photography from Givenchy, rare early fashion magazines, and more. The curated pieces will form the foundation of the Krystyna Campbell-pretty Fashion Research Collection, a new specialist fashion research library created for the NGV.