Damayanthie Eluwawalage

BA (Hons) Project

Children's Fashion And Clothing in Western Australia; A Historical Overview.

Aim: To explore and assign information to originate a historical document regarding the history of children's fashion and clothing in Western Australia.

Introduction: This dissertation will attempt to unravel the clothes worn by colonial children in Western Australia, 1826-1900; in the context of social history, impacts and influences. Also this will briefly focus on the sociological aspects such as the way of life, class, power and the role of the dress in relation to the children's clothing worn in Western Australia. It will also discusses the effectiveness of the factors such as climatic conditions, local and international sources, beliefs, resources and materials utilised at the time.

PhD project:

History of Costume: The Consumption, Governance, Potency and Patronage of Attire in Colonial Western Australia

Abstract

This study endeavours to explore the consumption, governance, potency and patronage of attire in colonial Western Australia in the context of social, socio-economic and fashion philosophies. Clothes, nutriment and habitation unexceptionally and uniformly were regarded as a fundamental human necessity and requisite; whilst attire was primarily acknowledged as an elementary utilitarian requirement, due to its sociological and economic significance. The dissertation represents a new departure in the study of dress in colonial Western Australia, concerning the rationale behind individual and collective clothing demeanours in the existing society. As one of the significant social and cultural practices, rather than an account of fashion and vogue, this study will attempt to contribute to the understanding and enhancement of an immensely disregarded factor of colonial Western Australian ethno-economic history, as well as social history.

Attire was one of the principal cultural practices which constituted and emphasised the social stance, status and power of the wearer. The research focuses on the mythologies and ambiguities associated with colonial clothing and the way in which social class and status negotiate through wearing apparel in the colony. This thesis analyses colonial Western Australian fashion and attire in the context of social stratification, social conditions, power relations and cultural formation, in order to comprehend sartorial deportment and social practice in the colony. The study investigates the internal and external influences which impacted upon colonial inhabitants' ways of attiring, societal attitudes and social demeanour. It focuses the existing world-wide influences and impacts caused by the dominating events, ideas and social groups, and its effectiveness towards societal and cultural attitudes in the colony.

Fashion's ultimate function of signifying power and prestige, which linked with financial capability, and its impacts towards society and societal practice, is significant. The research examines the affiliation between colonial clothing and economic aspects of Western Australia, another neglected aspect of colonial history, in the context of the origin and development of colonial clothing economy, and the influence of affluent colonists who commanded the clothing behaviour in the colony.

Are clothes basically functional, and an unintentional medium of expression? or Are clothes primarily a representation of expression? One of the primary purposes of this study is to examine the meanings encoded in colonial dress and adornments. The function of clothing often proceeded beyond its utilitarian purposes. As the study explores, the concealed cultural and societal meanings of clothing were primarily established on power and gender relations. The analyses of gender in clothing reflects the sociological aspects such as different social roles between sexes and the power relations between them. In that context, this dissertation dichotomically attempts to redress colonial attire as an aesthetic experience, as well as generalised social and cultural expressions of the period.

This research exposes the unique social and cultural qualities which are noticeable and were applied in colonial society in many facets, which resulted in developing unique dress codes and distinctive demeanours in early Western Australia. Incomparable colonial characteristics, such as different societal and climatic conditions and the way of life in the colony, developed a distinguished society dissimilar to Britain and symbolic to its colonial outpost of Western Australia.