#randille

[lookingbackatfashionhistory]

• Night gown.

Date: ca. 1938

Designer/Maker: Randille

Place of origin: Melbourne

Medium: Silk

[threadden]

This was Danielle’s favourite fashion piece in the Brave New World Exhibition at NGV. One of the themes investigated in the exhibition is the emergence of the modern woman.  

Randille, Melbourne maker active 1930s

Night gown

c. 1938 silk

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Presented by Mrs A. G. Pringle, 1982 

When Table Talk reported on Randille’s collections on 21 November 1935, they called them ‘the most ravishing nightgowns, pyjamas and negligees ... effective enough to take its place almost as a ballroom gown’. 

Such night gowns recalled the Hollywood  figure of the femme fatale, one of the most extreme manifestations of the Modern Woman. The archetype often exhibited defiant behaviour while dressed in  floor-length gowns or  fitted black silhouettes.