Powerhouse Museum is all about fashion at the moment. The “Frockstars” exhibition takes you behind the scenes of Australian Fashion Week, from the designer’s studio to the make-up mirrors to a front-row seat just a few claws away from the catwalk. As per the Powerhouse’s usual excellent curation, it’s all very interactive – you can choose to sit in a fashion buyer or magazine editor’s seat in the front row, pop on some headphones and hear anecdotes from the real fashionistas. Or make Easton Pearson paper dolls, or peruse Nicola Finetti pattern pieces, or test out hair and make-up techniques.
Up a level, things get a little more historical with a stunning collection of fashion photography by Bruno Benini. Again, the museum’s presentation really brings the photography to life – you can go into Benini’s darkroom, snap your friends in a replica studio, and get an up-close view of his negatives with a magnifying glass and lightbox.
Perhaps most fabulous of all is an installation of projected images in a room of mirrors that seems to go on forever. You can lose yourself in the prismatic refracted light, as classic black and white images loop through a sequence that goes for eight or nine minutes in full.
Clare Fletcher 