20th century style | State Library of New South Wales

20th century style

The AJC's autumn race carnival at Randwick Racecourse coincides with Australia's major yearling and bloodstock sales, as well as the Royal Easter Show, ensuring good attendance by both country and city folk. Sam Hood's black and white studies of fashion-conscious ladies and gentlemen, attending the 1937 Sydney Cup, bear witness to the elegance of a bygone era.

David Moore's colourful shots freeze frame the 1965 Melbourne Cup - the year English model Jean Shrimpton broke all the rules and shocked the staid matrons of the Ladies' stand with her casual take on race fashion. Moore revisited the public spectacle of the Cup in the early 1990s, when a gent in traditional morning suit, complete with top hat, vied with the bright colours and extravagant hats of 'dress to excess' fashions on the field.

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 > View photographs of bookmakers, officials and punters at Sydney's Harold Park raceway, 1999, photographed by Stephen Dupont catalogue link