Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Melissa Fagan, Transit Lounge, $29.99.
Fashion and department stores, at times, deliver some interesting stories. It is a poignant reminder of the ways in which retail stores and fashion have connected women’s lives across decades.
This is one such case with Fagan’s family history an extraordinary evaluation of her mother and grandmother’s lives.
For all who know Brisbane, McWhirters, a once-celebrated department store in Fortitude Valley, is an icon. For Fagan, it is a winning formula that shares the fascinating true story of the iconic department store, explores the role of fashion and how it connects us.
Fagan discovers both what has been lost and continues to shine behind the dusty shop counters of an Art Deco treasure. Ultimately this sensitive exploration of self and family speaks of the ways in which life so often surprises us and of how the legacies of others can truly enrich our own lives and relationships.
Sometimes it seems the ‘most invaluable stories can be found in the unlikeliest of corners’.
McWhirters is a heritage-listed former department store at Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as McWhirters Marketplace, McWhirters & Son Ltd, and Myer. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
What Will Be Worn is a fascinating insight, complete with an array of photos that help share the story.
As one comment states: “… it is also a rigorous examination of the ways in which women shroud ourselves, figuratively and literally … Melissa’s portrait of her mother, ‘the lost princess of Brisbane’…,” is quite endearing.
Here is another observation: “… with delicacy, flair … Fagan performs beautifully the dance of writing history, slipping seamlessly back and forth between what is know and what must be imagined”.
Interlacing the rendition is an inquiring mind, but it’s not censorious. The emotionalism cannot be denied, but above all it’s animate, witty and caring.
