No fans, and no national costumes among my family memories to match this week’s theme in Sepia Saturday. After all this is Australia and we have no national costume. All we have is embarrassment at some of the outfits worn by the Australian finalists in the Miss Universe or Miss World competitions when all the young ladies turn out in their national costume.
National costume mostly means something different to your usual everyday dress, some form of dressing up, and so I turn to other forms of dressing up at Castlemaine High School (Central Victoria) in 1946. The occasion was either the mid year Concert or the end of year Speech Night, both of which took place in the Castlemaine Town Hall.
From left to right, Margaret Bearlin, Barbara Fricke, Joy Cooper, Norma Woodward, Leonie Bryson
When I went searching for this photo I had thought the young lady was holding a fan, but no, she is just clutching her skirt.
Those were the days when, although it was a co-educational High School, it wasn’t thought proper to have both boys and girls in the same play. The girls had their one act play and the boys had theirs.
Prior to that c1938 , once again in Castlemaine, it was a case of dressing up as Grumpy (a bit of type-casting there) not long after the movie Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs came out. I don’t know what the occasion was.
Or you could go back to about 1910 at Murtoa when Vera and Hilda Tansey were all dressed up. I can’t explain why they were wearing these costumes.
Hilda on the right wears a sash saying M.B.B .for Murtoa Brass Band and is holding her father’s baton. She also has her father’s South Street medals pinned on her bodice. Vera on the left is wearing ????? . I think perhaps she is dressed as a flower, possibly a daffodil, with that frilly skirt. A lot of effort had gone into both costumes – i don’t think they came from any hire shop. And of course the dog had to be in the photo too. They were a doggie family.
And for more flirting with fans, national costumes or other forms of dressing go to the links on this week’s Sepia Saturday.
Bound for Australia 
The makeup job on the women in the first photo is good. I really couldn’t tell that they were all women. What is the non-dwarf dressed as in the Snow White photo?
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The tall girl is Snow White. The costumes tried to copy the costumes that had been used in the movie. The little girl at the right hand end is Prince Charming.
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For not having national costumes, you certainly have a bumper crop of character costumes. The Snow White entourage is really impressive.
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A wonderful collection of photos. That first one is amazing.
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Nice collection. I like all of them.
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There is no national dress here in the USA either.
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You may not have national costume, but your photographs fitted the “dressing up” theme so well. i especially liked your first image. .
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I was surprised at the comment about it not being proper to have boys & girls in the same plays together as late as 1946! I’ve always thought the U.S. was rather sticky about appropriateness in the early years, but I have pictures of boys & girls together in school plays back in the late ’20s here. Perhaps plays in which there was a romantic theme made the difference? At any rate, fun pictures, all.
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A great set. The last one wins a prize to have a dog sit so attentively looking into the lens. Perhaps the photographer is holding a stuffed toy?
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Hilda’s dress seems to be a fabric printed with images of instruments. Wouldn’t that have been unusual?
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I have a feeling it might be printed paper. I don’t where I got that idea from but if you enlarge the photo the skirt doesn’t appear to have a hem.
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What wonderful photographs. I am never sure why it must be that dressing up is limited to kids and those odd occasions when you go to a fancy dress party. I once hired a Samuel Pepys outfit for a week and wore it not just for a party but also for a couple of trips to the pub. Isobel refused to be seen wirth me – can’t imagine why!
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Great set of images, especially the girls and the dog.
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and…who is the last cutie without a mask? Did she just walk by and think “Hey, I’d like to be in this shot!” Snow White photo bombing?
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No, the tiny girl at the right hand end of the row is dressed as Prince
Charming, ready to rescue Snow White. Someone with a sense of humour must have done the casting.
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I especially like the last photo of the two young girls, especially the musical skirt…but what is that other one? you may be right and it was meant to be a flower.
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