Womens outfit by Jenny Bannister and Kati Mindszenti
Object No. 2001/78/1
Jenny Bannister (b.1954) is one of Australia's most significant dress and fashion designers. After completing a Diploma of Fashion Design and Production at Emily McPherson College, Melbourne in 1974 she went on to become one of Melbourne's leading avant-garde fashion designers and advocates. Her innovative and experimental dress designs featured prominently in exhibitions and events arising from the art clothes movement of the 1970s and 1980s. This trend saw artists, designers, craftspeople as well as fashion designers exploring dress as a creative outlet, resulting in a blurring of the boundaries between art, craft and fashion. It encouraged designers to take a more independent approach to fashion design and to consider limited production ranges as a viable part of the Australian fashion industry.It also gave rise to a number of boutiques in Sydney and Melbourne specialising in independent art clothes designers. eg Flamingo Park and Clarence Chai. Like many of its adherents Bannister was inspired in part by Punk style with its anarchic, anti-elitist, do-it-yourself attitude to style and materials. She melded this with a blend of mysticism, feminism and fantasy. In Bannister's work traditional materials, construction methods and fashion trends were abandoned or reworked, new and unusual materials introduced, inspiration sought in popular culture and an element of shock added through her references to fetish and subcultural styles. This outfit with its studded patchwork construction, crudely tied shoulder straps and references to medieval armour, mermaids and Amazons highlights Bannister's liberal aesthetic. Leather was also one of Bannister's favourite materials at the time. Attracted to it's antiquity, suppleness and sensuality, she explored these distinctive qualities in her work. The wearer Kati Mindszenti was also involved in the design of the outfit and it reflects her personality as well as the concerns and creativity of the designer.The involvement of the wearer in the design reflects a very different attitude from high fashion where the designer dictates the style. Here the designer acknowledges the outfits intimate relationship to the wearer and the how their personality and 'performance' in the costume, inform its identity.
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Summary
Object Statement
Outfit, womens, pants/ top/ sleeves/ mini dress, leather with metal studs, designed by Jenny Bannister and Kati Mindszenti, made by Jenny Bannister, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1980-1982
Physical Description
Outfit, womens, pants/ top/ sleeves/ mini dress, leather with metal studs, designed by Jenny Bannister and Kati Mindszenti, made by Jenny Bannister, Melbourne, Australia, 1980-1982. Womens three piece leather outfit comprising top, pants and a mini dress that converts into a pair of long sleeves. The outfit is constructed from grey and silver leather pieces of various sizes and shapes, pieced together with metal studs. Top: the fitted top features narrow leather shoulder straps tying at shoulder and a single leather breast plate quilted with concentric stitching. The hemline is uneven and unfinished. Mini dress: the mini dress features narrow leather shoulder straps. Note:The studs on the dress can be unclipped so that it forms two panels which can then be clipped together to form two long sleeves which clip onto the top. Pants: pair of fitted pants with fish scale detail over crotch and up both legs from hem. The front openings fasten with metal zippers and two metal press studs. They are machine sewn and fully lined with black polyester voile.
PRODUCTION
Notes
Designed by Jenny Bannister and the donor Kati Mindszenti. Jenny Bannister (b.1954) is one of Australia's most significant dress and fashion designers. After completing a Diploma of Fashion Design and Production at Emily McPherson College, Melbourne in 1974 she went on to become one of Melbourne's leading avant-garde fashion designers. Her innovative and experimental dress designs featured prominently in exhibitions and events arising from the art clothes movement of the 1970s and 1980s including the 'Art clothes' exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1981, the Australian Art Clothing exhibition in 1986 for the Commonwealth Arts Festival in Edinburgh and the international travelling exhibition 'Australian Fashion:the contemporary art' devised by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in 1989. In the early 1980s Bannister met the donor Kati Mindszenti who was working with community development programs while socialising with a range of designers, artists and musicians involved in Melbourne's artistic fringe. Getting dressed up and night clubbing was an important part of her Mindszenti's social life and her clothing style was alternative and adventuress. Jenny Bannister was part of this talented creative scene and agreed to do some one-off pieces for her because 'I promoted her clothes, with my own creative twists and wore them with joy and enthusiasm' Mindszenti correspondence with curator,2001. Mindszenti already had a Bannister shift made of leather pieces worn over rainbow tulle petticoats and this inspired the leather outfit. She went to Bannister and asked for 'the ultimate winter fantasy outfit to blend in, then radiate out from the cold grey Melbourne foggy nights' Mindszenti 2001. Mindszenti comments that they designed the outfit together, Mindszenti giving Bannister a feel for what she wanted 'I held an image of soft clingy leather in grey and silver. Smaller silver scales in strategic areas'. Jenny Bannister sourced the leathers and suggested the pants feature overlapping scales in a v shape on the crotch with two zips on either side and more scales running up the leg from the hem, the result an 'urban space mermaid theme.' Mindszenti 2001. The top had an Amazon woman touch with a quilted breast plate over one breast and sleeves that could clip off and clip together into a mini dress. The outfit with its unusual studded leather patchwork construction and thematic melding of history, myth and space travel movies is typical of Bannister's bold and eclectic themes. Leather was her favourite material, its antiquity, suppleness and associations with deviant sensuality were also exploited in her designs. Made by Jenny Bannister in her workroom in Melbourne in 1980-1982.
HISTORY
Notes
Worn by Kati Mindszenti for night clubbing in Melbourne. 'I was young, slim, exotic, erotic, dreamy, bleached, multi coloured, spiked, in my own rhythm zones and dancing like a gypsy princess-all my image fantasies expressed in this outfit of unsubtle variations.' Kati Mindszenti 2001. Kati Mindszenti gave the outfit to her friend Lesia Hrubyj with the instructions, wear it or donate it to the Powerhouse Museum. Jenny Bannister had suggested to Mindszenti that she donate the outfit to the Museum when she had finished wearing it.
SOURCE
Credit Line
Gift of Kati Mindszenti, 2000
Acquisition Date
31 August 2001
Copyright for the above image is held by the Powerhouse and may be subject to third-party copyright restrictions. Please submit an Image Licensing Enquiry for information regarding reproduction, copyright and fees. Text is released under Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivative licence.
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