How modernist queen Frances Burke kept wartime Australia looking fabulous
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By Janice Breen Burns
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Credit:Argus Collection, The Age Archives
Nanette Carter and Robyn Oswald-Jacobs would dearly love the subject of their book
Frances Burke – Designer of Modern Textiles NOT to be remembered primarily as a fashion icon.
“You’re not … it’s not going to be all about …” Oswald-Jacobs’ pleas are delicate, not to offend this fashion writer assigned to their story; “Not all about … fashion …?”
Well no. But oh. It’s hard to flick quickly past what a crackingly fashionable character Burke was. What a thoroughly modern, elegantly gay, hats-and-pearls working woman of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. Her work was not only sought by the seminal young architects of the mid-century modern era but her lady clients were known to commission Burke’s tres chic fabrics for their frocks AND their curtains.