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  • Close-up detail of a vintage dress on a mannequin, with sleeve puff detail.
  • An open bodice revealing layers of ruffled tulle underneath.
  • A mannequin's hand resting on a blue velvet gown with elaborate silver diamante detailing.
  • A strapless white gown with heavy embroidery, displayed on a mannequin.
31 Oct – 13 Dec

The Sweet Stuff: Fashion as Confection

  • Free
  • Art

The Sweet Stuff explores fashion as confection, both the craft of making and the pleasures of indulgence. In French, confection means to assemble or tailor, while in English it evokes sweets —liquorice allsorts, humbugs, piped icing. This double meaning has inspired an installation where garments are imagined as visual confections: colourful, excessive, and delightful.

Drawing from the National Trust’s Fashion and Costume Collection, the display ranges from nineteenth-century silhouettes to twentieth-century couture, highlighting cycles of repetition and reinvention. Fashion here is presented not as mere utility, but as play and expression.

Just like a sweet, fashion can be fleeting and indulgent, yet it lingers in memory. The Sweet Stuff celebrates that pleasure — revealing that the most joyful, playful garments also carry lasting cultural meaning.

Hours

Date Times
Fri 31 Oct
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Sat 1 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Thu 6 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Fri 7 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Sat 8 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Thu 13 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Fri 14 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Sat 15 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Thu 20 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Fri 21 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Sat 22 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Thu 27 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Fri 28 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Sat 29 Nov
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Thu 4 Dec
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Fri 5 Dec
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Sat 6 Dec
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Thu 11 Dec
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Fri 12 Dec
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm
Sat 13 Dec
  • 10.30am - 5.30pm 10:30am - 5:30pm

Location

Tasma Terrace
6 Parliament Pl
East Melbourne 3002

Open in maps location for

Price and bookings

This is a free event

Booking not required

Contact details

  • telephone number: 03 9656 9800
  • email address: info@nattrust.com.au
  • Visit website for The Sweet Stuff: Fashion as Confection
Facebook page for The Sweet Stuff: Fashion as Confection Instagram page for The Sweet Stuff: Fashion as Confection

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