POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Baby's silk dress

Object No. 86/1047-2

This baby’s dress was worn by Leslie Nicholl Walford AM (1927-2012) in the late 1920s. Walford was a renowned Sydney interior designer and newspaper columnist. In 2010, Walford was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, ‘For service to the performing arts, particularly in the field of theatre restoration and decoration, and to the profession of interior design’. [1] Walford was the son of Leslie Nicholl Walford and Dora Olive Marguerite Byrne (nee Alexander). [2] He was described in the press in 1928 as ‘one of the most admired of Sydney’s babies’ [3] and in 1929 a photograph of Walford with his mother was published under the title ‘A Cupid in Society’ by a Sydney newspaper. [4] In the same year, while staying in Bowral, his nanny wrote daily to Dora, where ‘She mentioned how she dressed Leslie - sometimes in a blue smock, a blue coat and blue hat; sometimes in a pink crêpe de chine baby’s frock with white socks and red shoes; sometimes in a tiny raincoat and galoshes. She boasted that Leslie was universally admired for his golden curls and beautiful outfits and was ‘the King of Bowral’. [5] Styles of clothing for babies and toddlers, and childrenswear more broadly, have historically been slow to change. While clothing for young children was becoming increasingly gendered in both style and colour from the 1920s, babies continued to wear dresses until the 1960s, regardless of gender. Pragmatic reasons can also be taken into consideration, as dresses allow the task of nappy changing to be quicker and easier. [6] Alysha Buss, Assistant Curator, 2020 References: 1. ‘AUSTRALIA DAY 2010 HONOURS’, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 26 January 2010, p 9. 2. Leslie Walford and Dora Byrne (authors) and Edith M. Ziegler (editor), Darling mother, darling son: the letters of Leslie Walford and Dora Byrne, 1929-1972, NewSouth Publishing and Sydney Living Museums, Sydney, 2017, p 1. 3. ‘DEATH OF PROMINENT SPORTSMAN. Mr. Leslie N. Walford’, Daily Telegraph, 5 December 1928, p11. 4. ‘CUPID IN SOCIETY’, Truth, 13 October 1929, p18. 5. Walford, Byrne and Ziegler, p 15. 6. Noreen Marshall, Dictionary of children’s clothes: 1700s to present, V&A Publishing, London, 2008, pp 31-2, Sarah Wood, Museum of Childhood: a book of childhood things, V&A Publishing, London, 2012, p55.

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Summary

Object Statement

Dress, part of collection, babys, silk, maker unknown, possibly England, c. 1927

Physical Description

Baby's dress, pink silk gathered at shoulders and falling from shoulders. Fastens across shoulders with two press studs on each shoulder. Sleeveless with the shoulders and armholes trimmed with white hand faggoting. Decorated across chest and around hem with machine faggoting lines and floral motifs. Self-fabric bow on right shoulder. Handstitched.

DIMENSIONS

Width

400 mm

Depth

420 mm

PRODUCTION

Notes

Maker unknown, possibly made in England, 1927-1930.

HISTORY

Notes

This baby dress was worn by Leslie Walford in the late 1920s. It was possibly purchased in England. Leslie Nicholl Walford AM (1927-2012), was the son of Leslie Nicholl Walford and Dora Olive Marguerite Byrne (nee Alexander). [1] Walford was described in the press in 1928 as ‘one of the most admired of Sydney’s babies’ [2] While staying in Bowral in 1929, his nanny wrote daily to his mother, where ‘She mentioned how she dressed Leslie - sometimes in a blue smock, a blue coat and blue hat; sometimes in a pink crêpe de chine baby’s frock with white socks and red shoes; sometimes in a tiny raincoat and galoshes. She boasted that Leslie was universally admired for his golden curls and beautiful outfits and was ‘the King of Bowral’. [3] A watercolour miniature portrait of Walford painted by Gladys Osborne (Reynell) in 1929, when he was about two and a half years old, also portrays the style of clothing he was dressed in at the time. [4] A similar image of Walford, this time a photograph sitting with his mother, was published under the title ‘A Cupid in Society’ by a Sydney newspaper in October 1929. [5] From 1936 Walford attended Tudor House preparatory school in Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. From 1938 he attended St Aubyns preparatory school in Sussex, England, although the school was moved to Pentrefoelas, Wales as a precaution during the Second World War. From 1941 until 1945 Walford attended Winchester College in Winchester, England, after which he commenced the first part of his army training at New College, Oxford, as part of a War Office training scheme for potential officers. Walford spent two and a half years serving in the British Army. From 1949 until 1952 he returned to New College, Oxford, to study philosophy, politics and economics. He seized the opportunity to take trips to continental Europe during this period, where he further developed his interest in art and history. It was these travels that in part inspired Walford to embark on a career in interior design. In 1954 Walford began studying decorating in Paris, at the Le Centre d’Art et de Techniques, later Ecole Camondo. Walford returned to Australia in 1956 and opened his first interior design showroom in 1957 in Double Bay, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Walford was a prominent Sydney interior designer for almost fifty years, decorating notable houses such as Elizabeth Bay House and Kirribilli House, and property for wealthy clients, such as the Murdoch’s News Ltd Holt Street, Sydney offices and James Fairfax’s Retford Park in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. He was a member and president of the Society of Interior Designers of Australia, a great supporter of cultural institutions in New South Wales and established along with family the Seaborn, Broughton and Walford Foundation to promote performing arts. Walford was also well known through his newspaper columns, including ‘Our Town’ for the Sun-Herald, which ran from April 1967 - December 1982. [6] In 2010 Walford was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, ‘For service to the performing arts, particularly in the field of theatre restoration and decoration, and to the profession of interior design’. [7] References: 1. Leslie Walford and Dora Byrne (authors) and Edith M. Ziegler (editor), Darling mother, darling son: the letters of Leslie Walford and Dora Byrne, 1929-1972, NewSouth Publishing and Sydney Living Museums, Sydney, 2017, p 1. 2. ‘DEATH OF PROMINENT SPORTSMAN. Mr. Leslie N. Walford’, Daily Telegraph, 5 December 1928, p11. 3. Walford, Byrne and Ziegler, p 15. 4. Walford, Byrne and Ziegler, plate 10. 5. ‘CUPID IN SOCIETY’, Truth, 13 October 1929, p18. 6. Walford, Byrne and Ziegler, ‘Fortune shone on decorator’, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 March 2012. 7. ‘AUSTRALIA DAY 2010 HONOURS’, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 26 January 2010, p 9.

SOURCE

Acquisition Date

12 August 1986

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