Exhibition at Glen Eira Town Hall. The invitation featured a photograph by Bruno Benini and the exhibition showed sumptuous gowns, prim suits from those times plus Bruno’s prints.

The cocktail party was opened by the Prue Acton O.B.E. at the Glen Ira City Council on Thursday 26th April at 6.30. The exhibition showcased the fabulous exuberance and innovation of 1960’s Australian women’s fashion, through a vibrant selection of garments, accessories and fashion photographs by Bruno Benini, Athol Shmith and Henry Talbot.

A fresh new look emerged in Melbourne during fashion during this exciting decade of cultural and social change, with a new generation of fashion designers influencing the youth fashion and culture of this period.

Reverie Revelry was part of the ‘Core Program” through the lens of fashion, showcasing how photography and fashion intersect in our daily lives, and the way in which photography represents our innermost aesthetic dreams. Featuring work by Bruno Benini over the years, his images were interpreted by young Australian photographers in their own style.

Photography infiltrates our daily lives as one of the most prominent forms of modern communication: from art, advertising, media and surveillance to smartphones, selfies and social media. Our need to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs has never seemed more acute.

Stories from Melbourne’s most elegant department store told by managers, models, clients, sales personal, buyers & window dressers. One chapter featured Hazel Benini talking about her husband Bruno Benini’s involvement with Georges, as well as her own work there. She wrote an extremely popular Georges ‘Diary’ in Saturday’s Age for several years, a widely read chatty ‘what’s new’ weekly column as well as creating exotic store displays that always caused an impact with customers.

The 1960s were an exciting time in fashion, a time of transition from the ladylike looks of the earlier eras into youthful vibrancy. The exhibition covered key 1960’s silhouettes from the micro mini to the ’wild hippie’ maxi styles. A fresh new look emerged in Australian fashion during this decade of cultural and social change, with a new generation of fashion designers influencing the youth fashion and culture of this period.

Garments and accessories by diverse Melbourne labels and fashion designers, including Prue Acton, Norma Tullo, Mr Simon, Sharene Creations, Miss Hartnell and Hartnell of Melbourne are featured with accessories. They provided a rich insight into the evolution of Australian fashion and the groundbreaking fashion styles such as the mini dress that symbolise the 1960s.

A suite of glamorous photographs by the celebrated Melbourne fashion photographer Bruno Benini, who supplied the invitation image, were also on display with works by Athol Shmith and Henry Talbot.

Hazel Benini attended the opening night cocktail party with 800 guests sipping ‘Benini Belini’s’ as they listened to Hazel speak about Bruno’s life and work. Guests walked through rooms starting with the ‘mock-up’ studio entry with walls of Bruno’s favourite blow up portraits and fashion prints then continued through the studio complete with props and rolls of background paper. The darkroom was followed by more rooms with large and small photographs highlighting the diversity of top fashion designers’ garments over the years. The book of the same name was launched and is for sale in the book shop. Bruno’s remarkable photography archive was acquired by the Powerhouse Museum in 2009 with funding assisted from the Australian Government through the National Cultural Heritage Account. The archive was meticulously accumulated over 50 years by Bruno & Hazel Benini.

The book of the same name showing the extensive collection of Bruno’s photographs was launched at the opening cocktail party, and is for sale in the book shop.

The Ballarat International Foto Biennale was founded in 2005 and attracted significant international and Australian photographers as one of Australia’s pre-eminent photographic festivals. It is a not-for-profit event that immerses the historic town of Ballarat in photographic art.

Attracting a large following, it showcases leading Australian and overseas photographers in galleries and exhibition spaces throughout the town. Photographers held solo or combined exhibitions, one of these featured 4 works from Bruno Benini.

POL was unique in the history of publishing in Australia. The magazine began at a time when the possibilities of magazine production seemed limitless with technological advances creating new freedoms for art directors.

Unlike magazines published today, POL had a very informal sense of its niche with high production values. It was unique among women’s magazines in appealing also to men in carrying articles with no gender-specific readership. POL is valuable as a mirror of Australia during the decades in which there was a strong Australian cultural self-belief. The generation of photographers whose work appeared in POL read like a ‘who’s who’ of the profession over the past three decades.

The magazine released at the same time as the exhibition, featured iconic Australian creatives included a 1976 Bruno Benini photograph of artist Neil Douglas wearing his handwoven, handmade suit in his mudbrick home with one of his paintings.

When the 2000 Olympic Games were held in Sydney, the NGV created an exhibition called “1956 Melbourne” to commemorate the first Games on Australian soil. Bruno Benini’s photograph of ‘The Banquet of Cleopatra’ by the Italian artist Tiepolo was used as the invitation for a display of artists’ work in this exhibition.

1956 proved to be a significant year for Melbourne – hosting the Olympics, the growing intake of post war refugees and migrants, and the introduction of television. “Melbourne 1956” brought together approximately 40 works from the permanent collection of The National Gallery of Victoria. A diverse range of material – including paintings, prints and drawings, sculpture, decorative arts, photography, fashion, and textiles – explores the developing multi-cultural society of Melbourne.

In conjunction with ‘Melbourne Fashion Week’, this solo exhibition of Bruno’s Benini’s photographic work showcased Australia’s leading models and popular designers’ garments. Formal dresses, casual clothes and beachwear were photographed on location or in the studio, often complete with props.

The opening night cocktail party was attended by Bruno & Hazel Benin and the most influential fashionistas. TV personality Maggie Tabberer hosted the event and spoke about Bruno’s life and career. It was one of the most well attended and popular exhibitions during Fashion Week.

Fashion reflects the mood of the times and photography captures its image. In the 1950’s, a time of affluence following the constraints of the war years, fashion photography enjoyed a previously unprecedented prominence.

On one level, fashion photograph’s basic function is to show and sell clothing. But they can also be a record of social trends. These images are an index of culture and society, of people’s aspirations, limitations and tastes. They are about clothes and the conventions and attitudes of the people who wear them.

The publication featured iconic fashion photographs by Bruno Benini & Athol Shmith.

To celebrate Italian Fashion Week, local Italian photographers were asked to exhibit their work in the City of Melbourne venues. Bruno chose to show a selection of people who he had photographed over the years, which was shown in the lobby of the iconic ANZ Building in Collins St, Melbourne. They caused quite a sensation as Melbourne was conservative at the time.