By CASEY NEILL
DRESSES and hats from Dandenong’s past delighted visitors at Heritage Hill this month.
They joined artist and curator Kitty Owens to view and discuss pieces from the Dorothy Hart Collection on 14 April during Heritage Week.
Mrs Hart owned Benga House, part of the Heritage Hill site on McCrae Street, from 1936 to 1987.
The family donated the hats and dresses to the City of Greater Dandenong in the late 1980s.
“Each item was unpacked in front of the group, providing us all with a surprise as it was unwrapped,” Ms Owens said.
She provided a mother and daughter and some ladies on an outing from a retirement village with background on the house and family.
“Ian Hart was a local doctor, and one of the ladies in the audience had met him,” she said.
“Mrs Dorothy Hart was a skilled dressmaker and we suspect made many of the dresses.
“We looked at mainly 1950s era dresses, all in excellent condition, some with matching jackets, admiring the fine hand stitching on some of the finishes.
“The visitors particularly enjoyed looking at an evening dress with a huge chiffon skirt, which almost spilled over the edges of the table.
“Several visitors had a lot of knowledge about vintage textiles to share with the rest of us.”
Ms Owens said Dr Hart’s bowler was among the hats examined, along with some handmade ladies hats from elegant Melbourne shops such as the Block Arcade.
“One hat had been made in England for the former Victorian department store Buckley and Nunn, another hat had a tag inside that said Made in France,” she said.
Ms Owens is a freelance social history curator and was an Artist in Residence at Heritage Hill in 2013.
“I previously did an art installation based on the collection related to Benga and I am interested in innovative ways visitors can experience heritage sites and collections,” she said.
