HAUTE PURSUIT
Krystyna Campbell-Pretty’s fashion gift to the National Gallery of Victoria led her to an unexpected new vocation.
Krystyna Campbell-Pretty’s fashion gift to the National Gallery of Victoria led her to an unexpected new vocation.
Poised before an audience at the opening of the National Gallery of Victoria’s (NGV) Krystyna Campbell- Pretty Fashion Gift exhibition, the namesake of this extraordinary showcase, dressed in a strapless Alexander McQueen gown, seems to almost shimmer in the warmly lit space.
As the woman behind the display of more than 150 iconic garments – among them Yves Saint Laurent’s 1967 Le Smoking suit, little black dresses by Coco Chanel, Alexander McQueen’s seminal tartan series and haute couture from design luminaries including Madame Grés, Christian Dior, Balenciaga and Givenchy – Krystyna Campbell-Pretty is as chic and sophisticated as you’d imagine. Which is why it’s surprising to learn that fashion has not been an allconsuming passion in the philanthropist’s life. “I’ve always enjoyed buying and wearing nice dresses, but I have never ever been a collector,” she reveals: “In fact, if someone had said to me 10 years ago I’d be seeking out clothes by designers, I’d have asked: ‘Why?’”
Today, though, acquiring covetable apparel has become a full-time endeavour for Campbell-Pretty, one that started in 2015 when the NGV was offered Parisian collector Dominique Sirop’s suite of 130 French haute couture works dating from 1800 to 2003 and valued at $1.4 million. “It occurred to me that it would be a very good thing to contribute the money to the NGV so they could buy the entire collection,” Campbell
Pretty says of the donation made in memory of her late husband, Harold Campbell
Pretty, who loved women’s fashion.
But despite her sizeable benefaction, Campbell-Pretty’s awareness of the gaps in the
NGV’s fashion archive was only heightened. So, armed with a desiderata, she set out to remedy the shortfalls.
Her first triumph was in Paris, where she mustered the courage to enter the eponymous store of famed vintage and couture dealer Didier Ludot, her eye on a Balenciaga faux fur from 1955. “Didier is known for treating people with some disdain until you prove you are serious about buying,” confides Campbell-Pretty. “It took about two months to negotiate a price, but we got there eventually.”
Since then, an intense schedule – “I’m away four or five times a year, I go to auctions, I visit the dealers” – has resulted in her gifting the museum more than 250 garments, which sit alongside items such as sketches, photographs and fabrics.
“I’M AWAY FIVE TIMES A YEAR, I GO TO AUCTIONS, I VISIT THE DEALERS”
The current exhibition, where mannequins model looks spanning the late 19th century till today and stand in situ among glorious paintings and antique furniture, is a visual spectacular: sinuous silks, shimmering taffeta, shocks of metallics, cascading sequins and crystals, intricately hand-woven lace, plush velvets and more.
Campbell-Pretty, who “absolutely adores history”, also points out that beyond conveying the genius of the creators, the tableau is also a study of the changing roles of women over time. “I’d like audiences to gain an understanding of how life has evolved in the last 120 to 30 years for women,” she says, “to see how elegant and beautiful the work is and how art and fashion interplay and bounce off each other.”
Seeing the work on show for the first time, she reflects on her integral role at the NGV: “It really is deeply satisfying and completely a passion. But I still see the gaps!” Krystyna Campbell-Pretty Fashion Gift is on until July 14. Go to www.ngv.vic.gov.au.