Fashion

Sydney Opera House Barbie doll

An icon wearing an icon: Sydney Opera House Barbie

Stepping away from her signature pink, Barbie honours the Sydney Opera House with more subtle tones in her gown, that reflect the Opera House and its Harbourside location

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Baubles, brooches & beads

We wear jewellery as articles of dress and fashion and for sentimental reasons – as tokens of love, as symbols of mourning, as souvenirs of travel

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Bicornes, bonnets & boaters

There’s a variety of headwear across our collections ranging in date from early to late nineteenth century

Black and white image of a woman looking pensive to the side of the viewer. The words
Underworld

Flappers

The flapper was an alluring vision of sophistication and freedom for young women globally

Ikon Studio archive finding aid

Ikon Studio Archive

The Ikon Studio archive of candid street photography is a documentation of everyday life on one busy Sydney city street recorded over several days in 1950

Keeping cool

Shading the face, fanning a fire into a blaze or cooling food, shooing away insects, conveying social status, even passing discreet romantic messages - the use of the fan goes far beyond the creation of a breeze.

Sydney’s first Zoot Suiter

It’s amazing the characters you come across when researching the NSW Police Forensic Archive

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Underworld

The Roaring Twenties

The 1920s heralded the brave new world that emerged from the devastation of World War I