This 1947 cinema newsreel item from Westralian News reports on a fashion parade to benefit the Kindergarten Union and to show off the new post-war looks (‘the envy of every woman’). After wartime austerities, full skirts, long hemlines and bright colours (like the ‘poinsettia crepe and sequins’) would have been particularly appealing.

The narrator invites her female audience to imagine themselves not only in the gowns, but in various glamourised settings – ballrooms, cocktail parties, restaurants – and as the subject of admiring gazes. Primed by the cinema setting, they are encouraged to picture themselves as socialites or film stars.

While the outfits are certainly elegant, the models are often endearingly awkward, revealing the amateur origins of the occasion.