Image of Imogen Hubber shot by Janie Barrett – for The Age

Built between 1948-1950, the Rose Seidler house was built by Architect Harry Seidler fas a home for his mother.   Harry had had it with the bland monotony of suburbia, the little boxy houses with their small enclosed rooms; and he set out to create something entirely different. Something that celebrated the amazing Australian environment, something that brought the outside in and brought the occupants together. There is much that has been written and said about the Rose Seidler House, but in a nutshell it is the purest example of Mid Century Modernist architecture in Australia and still by some considered ‘stark’ even by todays’ modern standards.

The house is now owned by the Historic Houses Trust and each year, faithful fans of the Fifties gather there to dress up in their classiest threads, do some dancing, some shopping and generally all have a rip roaring time.

This year I was thrilled to be  invited to celebrate the Sweet 16th Fifties Fair at the house, and come and present on Fifties Fashion & Styling as well as judging the coveted Best Dressed Awards.  Of course, being the busy bee I was, I didn’t have a spare moment to even break out my camera, so thankfully there were other who did.

Image by Louise Whelan

It was quite a cold morning, so the cardigan didn’t come off till much later. Louise stopped me in the green room just as the morning light bounced up from the slate floor and created this beautiful soft feature.

Thank you to my kind reader Susan for taking these pics on the day and sending them to me to use here.   The first pic is me talking all about the fun of fifties fashion, flanked by my two lovely girlfriends Kesenya from Alice Jean and Brooke. (Thanks for being such great models ladies!)

This pic is of the amazing watercolour sketch that  Illustrator Sadami Konchi created of me as I spoke – how cool is that!

The Fifties Fair has been running now for 16 years and attracts around 5000 people on this one day to indulge in a bit of retro nostalgia. I’m told that the Fair is evolving into bigger and better things in the next year and can’t wait to see what is in store. It is such a highlight of the year here and a wonderful opportunity for all of us crazy 50′s lovers to get together and live a day in imaginary blissful world.

Check out The Age for a fantastic, colourful slideshow of pics from the Fifties Fair here.