California Fashions

Bathurst hosts a series of events known as “Autumn Colours” each year, concentrating on local history.  This year, one of the events was all about the little known California Fashions clothing manufacturer.  I’ve lived here all my life and only learned about it in the last couple of years.

Let’s start with a little history lesson…..

In 1912, the Small Arms Factory in Lithgow opened, making munitions.  They supplied our military in WWI and WWII. 

However, during WWII they could not meet the demand, so a second factory opened at Bathurst.  That facility was not required once the war ended, which left a large empty building and unemployed workers.  The hunt was on to find an industry to replace it.

Enter California Fashion Group.  They operated at the site from 1946 to 1963.  This was a group of American fashion manufacturers.  Separate brands that came under the umbrella of California Fashions.  They made women’s apparel, swimsuits, footwear and children’s wear.  They made some very high end fashion.  Cole of California was a leading swimwear company, with Esther Williams as the main face of their brand. They catered for both the domestic market and exported to America.  Many of their items were worn by Hollywood stars, all made in Bathurst.  In Gillian’s Island, the character of Ginger is seen in a zebra print one piece.  That was made in Bathurst.  Some of the other brands were Kimm’s childrens wear, Joyce footwear, Zukia and Betty Barclay.  The English company of Horrockses  also had their Australian manufacturing arm in the building. 

Robins Shoes were the other company that worked there, making Gro Shoes form children, Sandler and Jane Dempster.  They still operated in Bathurst up to the 1970s, although at a different site, and I remember going on a school excursion to the factory in primary school.

At its peak, they employed 500 people, so a major employer.  Some of the employees are still around and the Historical Society are gathering stories from them to flesh out the little history that is recorded of this significant part of our more recent history.

Now to our tour…..

The site has been used by various other industries since California Fashions closed down.  No one seems to know why it closed.  Hopefully, they will find that out during their research.  I refer to the buildings as “Atels”.  That was a kitchen manufacturer that was there when I was growing up.  After that it became “Timber Industries”.  Mick did a bit of work in the building at one point during that part of its life.  

The building exterior is relatively unchanged since its inception.  It is now a warehouse for bales of wool.  It was rather a nice backdrop to the display.  What I noticed was what wonderful natural light came into the building through high windows in the saw tooth roof structure.  It would have been a great bonus for those working there.

Here is a photo of how the factory looked.

The above are all Horrockses, the British manufacturer.  The ones below are the various California Fashion labels.

There was a nice display put on by the museum and we listened to a very interesting talk on the history.  Initially, the museum only owned a couple of garments that had been manufactured there.  Then, after a previous general historic fashion display they were gifted two more.  They were able to purchase one Cole of California swimsuit at quite an expense.  Then, when talking to one of the previous employees, it transpired that she owned several items, some of which had been samples and have never been worn that she lent for the day.  What a bonus that was.

Let's have a closer look.

Aren't they a lovely collection and still looking so fresh.  I can just picture the dresses with the big petticoats of the day holding the skirts out.

The main designer for Cole was very innovative. She was American of Hungarian descent and was the first to introduce some elastic to cotton fabric.  She also used a lot of shirring in garments.

The two piece with the mesh insert was extremely risque when it was produced.

There isn’t a great deal of written history either.  Some ads had been found in magazines and on Trove and some articles located in the archive of the local newspaper, particularly of a more social side of things.

Clothing made at California Fashions featured on the front cover of the Australian Womens Weekly on several occasions.

It was such an interesting event to attend and was extremely popular.  They ended up having to run the event twice on the day to meet demand.

Once I got home afterwards I decided to have a look through a box of random vintage magazines that I have.  

I didn’t expect to find anything, but to my delight and astonishment, I found a few articles and ads in Woman's Day magazines from 1958 and 1960. The article featuring Fred Cole was a great bonus, as was the article featuring Cole of California swimwear. 

I have now donated the magazines to the Historical Society, as they are endeavouring to collate a collection to do with the topic.