AFTERNOON TEA & 2 LECTURES | HOMES OF THE COUTURIERS: The British and The Americans with Peter McNeil

SPECIAL EVENT: Double Lecture Program and Afternoon Tea

Fashion and interior design are intimately linked. Twentieth-century couturiers paid enormous attention to both their salons and their homes. The very words ‘house of’ suggest an intimate relationship between fashion designing, retailing and living. In this special double lecture programme, Distinguished Professor Peter McNeil will take you on a surprising journey, firstly through his discussion of British designers, who moved between modernity and tradition: from the Titanic, to the British Country house, to Neo-Punk.Designers discussed will range from Norman Hartnell and Hardy Amies to Anouska Hempel and Zandra Rhodes.

The second lecture will feature the stylish North Americans, who embraced all facets of world culture.  Designers discussed include Hattie Carnegie and Pauline Potter (Baroness de Rothschild), to Carolina Herrera, Carolyne Roehm and Chado/ Ralph Rucci.

Distinguished Professor Peter McNeil is an award-winning fashion historian who works at University of Technology Sydney. He began his career researching Australian design. His first thesis, ‘Designing Women’ (1920-1940) discovered a lost of world of Sydney interior design by women (some lesbian) and gay men, and he stitched their contributions into Northern hemisphere debates. The relationship of fashion, furniture and interior design remains a life-long passion for him, along with the under-rated design activity of women and queer men. His monographs include Luxury: A Rich History; and ‘Pretty Gentlemen: Eighteenth-Century Dress and The Macaroni Fashion World’.

Your ticket includes two lectures by our special guest Peter McNeil, and an afternoon tea of petit fours and tea or Market Lane coffee, served on our Wedgwood fine bone china, and time to browse our exclusive range of books, gifts, and homewares at TJC Emporium.

This lecture is presented on-site at The Johnston Collection. Please see your ticket for details. NOTE: Tickets for this event do not include access to our exhibition-house, Fairhall. Guided tours of the current exhibition can be booked separately.

This event is supported by The Colin Holden Charitable Trust.

Image: Greta Garbo in New York's Hotel Plaza, 1941. Photo: Cecil Beaton.