Outfit, womens, 'Rainbow Serpent', [polyester]/chiffon/, Bronwyn Bancroft, Sydney, 1987.

Outfit comprising an evening dress and cape. The full length sheath dress made of black chiffon with woven spots. The dress is sleeveless with a wide round neckline and plunging back. Right side seam has a hole for the sash which is of the same fabric. The long cape wraps around the upper torso and tapers to a long trail at the back. It is made of black rayon covered with rows of screen printed 'scales'. These scales are printed with 'Aboriginal paisley' in metallic gold paint on red, blue, yellow and green ground scales. Two large shoulder pads covered with purple and white cotton. Centre front fastening with two hooks and eyes and large painted metal button.

NOTE: One of the shoulder pads has become detached, it will have to reattached by Conservation.

Bronwyn Bancroft is currently one of the most important urban Aboriginal designers. She exhibits work as an artist, designs textiles and fashion clothing, posters and other graphic work for a range of Aboriginal and human rights issues, Aboriginal arts and community programmes. She is influential in her own as well as the wider Australian community through her activities as a member of a number of Aboriginal cultural organisations and mainstream arts organisations. Her work is significant in that it demonstrates a contemporary personal view of traditional themes and reflects Bancrofts own exploration of her Aboriginality. The 'Aboriginal paisley' design was a satirical comment on the long history of the European paisley, itself drawn from the Indian boteh.

This collection was made by Bronwyn Bancroft for a fashion parade of work by Aboriginal designers held in Paris in 1987.

These outfits were featured in a fashion parade at Au Printemps department store in Paris in 1987. The parade grew out of a programme devised by Lilly Madden, nutrition co-ordinator at Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service. She had been running health, beauty and modelling classes to train and increase self esteem among young Koories and decided to stage regular fashion parades to display the talents of young Aboriginal models and designers. One of these parades was documented by a freelance journalist and photographer and appeared in the Paris daily, Le Monde. The article created such interest that they were invited by parade garments at the Au Printemps department store in Paris. Supported by the Aboriginal Medical Service a group of ten models displayed the work of three Aboriginal designers, Bronwyn Bancroft, Mini Heath and Euphemia Bostock.

Purchased 1994

94/120/3