Dressed Up: Fashion & Photography 1850s to 1920s

This exhibition presents a rare opportunity to view works from AGSA’s rich collections of historical South Australian dress and photography. Drawing on recent research into the makers and wearers of the dresses, the exhibition brings the superb craftsmanship of the dressmakers into dialogue with photography of the period. Spanning from the 1850s through to the 1920s, the works offer a journey into a period of dramatic sartorial and social change.

The exhibition explores the way in which both photography and dress are artforms that emerge from everyday life – clothing worn in the home, close to the body, and a receptacle of personal and family histories. Similarly, photography was used to capture individuals and family members in pivotal moments of their lives, either dressed up in a photographer’s studio or informally at home or outdoors.

Both dress and photography provide an insight into the intimate and public realm, and the way in which social and class expectations shaped self-presentation. Through a series of tableaux highlighting key works, the exhibition offers a powerful encounter with the materiality of the past.

Curriculum Connections

Dressed Up encourages inquiry across History, Visual Arts and Design and Technologies, offering opportunities to examine changing social norms, class structures, gender expectations, and the impact of new technologies on society. Students can explore how dress and photography function as forms of visual communication, storytelling and artistic expression, while considering how people construct and represent identity in both private and public settings.

By engaging with authentic objects and images, students can develop empathy and investigate primary sources that reveal personal and family histories. The exhibition makes connections to the Australian Curriculum: History through studies of Australia's colonial past and social change, and to the Australian Curriculum: The Arts (Visual Arts) through analysis of works of art, material practices, design, representation and meaning.

If visiting in Term 1, you may also like to book your students into The Studio, a free facilitated workshop that connects to the exhibition.