Lorinda Cramer
Biographic Data
| ID | 3782962 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lorinda Cramer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lorinda |
| FAMILY NAME | Cramer |
| SIGNATURE | CRAMER L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Deakin University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1330-8368 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Fleeced
Cuttings, Combings, Fettlings and Flock
As Australia's wool industry produced vast amounts of fine fleece from the nineteenth century, the wool processing and clothes manufacturing industries generated waste – products like cuttings, combings, fettlings and flock. Salvaged and then sold to waste merchants, these and other materials had a second life. This article explores how the products and handling of wool waste are connected to gender: the work, including that defined as noxious fo…
A Historical Culture of Clothing Circularity
As Australia grapples with the consequences of mounting fashion consumption then discard, we look back to the country’s history of clothing adaptation to trace the historical dimensions of a long-standing culture of circularity. In focusing our gaze on the colony of Victoria in the mid-nineteenth century, we place philosophies of clothing care in a context of rapid change that demanded a willingness—if not an absolute need—to mend, adjust, resize…
Museum-Based Learning for Online Collections Students
In the field of museum studies there has been a regular chorus of scholars and industry-based professionals calling for practice-based placements for museum studies students. In order to prepare students for work in the museum and to apply key learnings to the field, their higher education learning needs to include placements, internships, field trips, and volunteering (Message 2023; Robenalt et al. 2022). Indeed, one of the four key pillars of m…
Reflections on a discipline in distress
A “Bacchanalian Mardi Gras”
In the 1970s, a shift took place in the dress practices of attendees at the Melbourne Cup, marking out the period from the conservative formality of the decade before.Evident in the public areas of Flemington Racecourse, this new trend saw boisterous young racegoers dress in satiric, comedic or raunchy attire.Commenting on this trend in the late seventies, the journalist Keith Dunstan decided that unruly young people engaging in these madcap dres…
All the Men at the Pump’
Australian wool-growing has long been cast by most writers as a masculine endeavour, from the male squatters who took great swathes of land to run their sheep, displacing First Peoples and transforming ecosystems in the process, to the shearers who became the embodiment of hardy bush masculinity. The pastoral insights recorded by Anne Drysdale in her diaries spanning the 1840s, however, provide rich insights into a female engagement with the indu…
In “the Finest Australian Wool”
From the late 19th century, when the Melbourne manufacturer and department store Foy & Gibson began to produce mail order catalogues for country customers, it recognised the potential to sell clothing made of Australian wool. This article explores how Foy & Gibson influenced consumer attitudes towards the natural fibre by encouraging them to feel wool as a next-to-the-skin experience. By focusing on underwear and swimsuits in the catalogues acros…
Well-Dressed” in Suits of Australian Wool
The global explosion of synthetic fibers in the mid-twentieth century challenged Australia’s wool industry, demanding new ways of marketing the natural fiber to compete with these so-called modern miracles. The menswear market changed profoundly with the convenience of synthetic fabrics and the excitement that surrounded the power of science embodied in these clothes. Some Australian men turned to the “Your Clothes” feature in Man: The Australian…
The Comfort of Things in White Australia
Within a decade of moving to Australia in 1897, Japanese immigrant Setsutaro Hasegawa commissioned a number of three-piece suits and separates from a local tailor. Hasegawa perhaps found it difficult to afford this clothing, given his occupation as a laundryman at the time. Using Hasegawa as a case study, this article highlights the importance of three-piece suits for masculine dignity and belonging in Australia during the heyday of the White Aus…
Clothes Shall Mark the Man’
This article aims to extend the ways in which the experiences of Australia’s Second World War civilians and returned servicemen are understood, through a close reading of four men’s suits. These suits reveal a dynamic wartime sartorial transformation that was shaped by cloth and workforce shortages, government intervention and social pressure, patriotic consumption, masculine duty and dignity. The suits shine a light on the cultural meanings of h…
Tropical whites
This article explores the social and gender history of ‘tropical whites’ – all‐white men's suits worn with pith helmets in tropical societies colonised by European powers – between c .1900 and 1939. Focusing on two northern Australian ports with multiple connections to Asia, the article shows that tropical whites helped to sustain inequities of race, gender and class in the colonial tropics. The fashion did this by helping to produce hegemonic ma…
Busy, Without Thimbles, at the Needlework’
Australia’s gold-rush history has long been dominated by narratives of male adventure: of landscapes where men lived side by side, mateship took on increasing importance in the pursuit of gold, masculine behaviours and manners were emphasized and domesticity was shunned. In the early years of the rich discoveries of gold, men often travelled alone to the colony of Victoria in their search for wealth. This article examines a situation this unique …
Rethinking Men’s Dress through Material Sources
Singlets occupy a special place in the wardrobe of Australian men, though they might be worn as underwear or sportswear, for work or leisure, daily or as fashion. The semiotic approach favoured by cultural and fashion studies analyses has tended to link the singlet – in particular the iconic Chesty Bond singlet – with working-class masculinity, connecting different groups’ singlet-wearing to a masculine ideal. Turning to the growing use of materi…
Relaxed Bodies and Comfortable Clothes
As Australia's Second World War servicemen began returning home, many anticipated the pleasure of stepping out of their uniforms for the last time. Yet scholarship on the role clothing played in repatriation and post‐war rehabilitation in Australia remains scarce. Exploring the post‐war swing towards sportswear, the article considers the growing idea of relaxed bodies and the language of comfort that underpinned it. It argues that being attentive…
Hidden from view
‘Women have mostly been left out of history’, boldly asserted Elizabeth Willis in her exhibition text for The Story of Victoria in 1985. Taking Willis’ statement as a starting point, this article aims to trace firstly how women have been rewritten into Australia’s social history exhibitions focusing on the use of voice as a strategy to do so, and secondly how these voices have changed historical master narratives – by allowing a shift from a big …
Remembering and Fighting for Their Own
On the third anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan on 18 August 1969, a simple but distinctive concrete cross was planted on the site of the battle to remember the eighteen Australian lives lost. The memorial cross was later toppled, lost and recovered but its physical form was never forgotten. In Australia, veterans made it a focus for their commemoration of all who served and died in the Vietnam War, replicating it across the country. This arti…
Diggers’ Dress and Identity on the Victorian Goldfields, Australia, 1851‒1870
At the periphery of the British Empire, the newly discovered goldfields in the Australian colony of Victoria sparked global interest. Migrants hopeful of striking it rich poured into the colony from 1851, and while men such as laborers were considered the ideal diggers they were not the only seekers of gold. Those who might have preferred a white collar willingly accepted manual labor for the prospect of instant wealth. This paper explores the co…
Making a Home in Gold-rush Victoria
In the rush to be rich, contemporary commentators warned that not everyone was suited to life on Victoria’s goldfields. Women unfamiliar with household labour or exertion were cautioned to remain at ‘home’. This article explores the genteel women who migrated to Victoria during the first two decades of the gold rush, and how they negotiated the British ideal of genteel leisure against the demands for domestic labour in the colony. In particular, …
Keeping Up Appearances
The discovery of gold in 1851 attracted a flood of migrants to the Colony of Victoria. Aspirational migrants, who struck it rich on the goldfields or in providing services to the diggers, turned to material consumption to express their newfound wealth, with the consequence that clothing could complicate its wearer’s social status. Integrating primary sources and surviving material culture, this article explores genteel articulations of the sponta…
Hidden from view
‘Women have mostly been left out of history’, boldly asserted Elizabeth Willis in her exhibition text for The Story of Victoria in 1985. Taking Willis’ statement as a starting point, this article aims to trace firstly how women have been rewritten into Australia’s social history exhibitions focusing on the use of voice as a strategy to do so, and secondly how these voices have changed historical master narratives – by allowing a shift from a big …
The Comfort of Things in White Australia
Within a decade of moving to Australia in 1897, Japanese immigrant Setsutaro Hasegawa commissioned a number of three-piece suits and separates from a local tailor. Hasegawa perhaps found it difficult to afford this clothing, given his occupation as a laundryman at the time. Using Hasegawa as a case study, this article highlights the importance of three-piece suits for masculine dignity and belonging in Australia during the heyday of the White Aus…
Tropical whites
This article explores the social and gender history of ‘tropical whites’ – all‐white men's suits worn with pith helmets in tropical societies colonised by European powers – between c .1900 and 1939. Focusing on two northern Australian ports with multiple connections to Asia, the article shows that tropical whites helped to sustain inequities of race, gender and class in the colonial tropics. The fashion did this by helping to produce hegemonic ma…
Busy, Without Thimbles, at the Needlework’
Australia’s gold-rush history has long been dominated by narratives of male adventure: of landscapes where men lived side by side, mateship took on increasing importance in the pursuit of gold, masculine behaviours and manners were emphasized and domesticity was shunned. In the early years of the rich discoveries of gold, men often travelled alone to the colony of Victoria in their search for wealth. This article examines a situation this unique …
Rethinking Men’s Dress through Material Sources
Singlets occupy a special place in the wardrobe of Australian men, though they might be worn as underwear or sportswear, for work or leisure, daily or as fashion. The semiotic approach favoured by cultural and fashion studies analyses has tended to link the singlet – in particular the iconic Chesty Bond singlet – with working-class masculinity, connecting different groups’ singlet-wearing to a masculine ideal. Turning to the growing use of materi…
Relaxed Bodies and Comfortable Clothes
As Australia's Second World War servicemen began returning home, many anticipated the pleasure of stepping out of their uniforms for the last time. Yet scholarship on the role clothing played in repatriation and post‐war rehabilitation in Australia remains scarce. Exploring the post‐war swing towards sportswear, the article considers the growing idea of relaxed bodies and the language of comfort that underpinned it. It argues that being attentive…
Keeping Up Appearances
The discovery of gold in 1851 attracted a flood of migrants to the Colony of Victoria. Aspirational migrants, who struck it rich on the goldfields or in providing services to the diggers, turned to material consumption to express their newfound wealth, with the consequence that clothing could complicate its wearer’s social status. Integrating primary sources and surviving material culture, this article explores genteel articulations of the sponta…
Diggers’ Dress and Identity on the Victorian Goldfields, Australia, 1851‒1870
At the periphery of the British Empire, the newly discovered goldfields in the Australian colony of Victoria sparked global interest. Migrants hopeful of striking it rich poured into the colony from 1851, and while men such as laborers were considered the ideal diggers they were not the only seekers of gold. Those who might have preferred a white collar willingly accepted manual labor for the prospect of instant wealth. This paper explores the co…
Making a Home in Gold-rush Victoria
In the rush to be rich, contemporary commentators warned that not everyone was suited to life on Victoria’s goldfields. Women unfamiliar with household labour or exertion were cautioned to remain at ‘home’. This article explores the genteel women who migrated to Victoria during the first two decades of the gold rush, and how they negotiated the British ideal of genteel leisure against the demands for domestic labour in the colony. In particular, …
Remembering and Fighting for Their Own
On the third anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan on 18 August 1969, a simple but distinctive concrete cross was planted on the site of the battle to remember the eighteen Australian lives lost. The memorial cross was later toppled, lost and recovered but its physical form was never forgotten. In Australia, veterans made it a focus for their commemoration of all who served and died in the Vietnam War, replicating it across the country. This arti…
Hidden from view
‘Women have mostly been left out of history’, boldly asserted Elizabeth Willis in her exhibition text for The Story of Victoria in 1985. Taking Willis’ statement as a starting point, this article aims to trace firstly how women have been rewritten into Australia’s social history exhibitions focusing on the use of voice as a strategy to do so, and secondly how these voices have changed historical master narratives – by allowing a shift from a big …
Busy, Without Thimbles, at the Needlework’
Australia’s gold-rush history has long been dominated by narratives of male adventure: of landscapes where men lived side by side, mateship took on increasing importance in the pursuit of gold, masculine behaviours and manners were emphasized and domesticity was shunned. In the early years of the rich discoveries of gold, men often travelled alone to the colony of Victoria in their search for wealth. This article examines a situation this unique …
Rethinking Men’s Dress through Material Sources
Singlets occupy a special place in the wardrobe of Australian men, though they might be worn as underwear or sportswear, for work or leisure, daily or as fashion. The semiotic approach favoured by cultural and fashion studies analyses has tended to link the singlet – in particular the iconic Chesty Bond singlet – with working-class masculinity, connecting different groups’ singlet-wearing to a masculine ideal. Turning to the growing use of materi…
Relaxed Bodies and Comfortable Clothes
As Australia's Second World War servicemen began returning home, many anticipated the pleasure of stepping out of their uniforms for the last time. Yet scholarship on the role clothing played in repatriation and post‐war rehabilitation in Australia remains scarce. Exploring the post‐war swing towards sportswear, the article considers the growing idea of relaxed bodies and the language of comfort that underpinned it. It argues that being attentive…
Clothes Shall Mark the Man’
This article aims to extend the ways in which the experiences of Australia’s Second World War civilians and returned servicemen are understood, through a close reading of four men’s suits. These suits reveal a dynamic wartime sartorial transformation that was shaped by cloth and workforce shortages, government intervention and social pressure, patriotic consumption, masculine duty and dignity. The suits shine a light on the cultural meanings of h…
Tropical whites
This article explores the social and gender history of ‘tropical whites’ – all‐white men's suits worn with pith helmets in tropical societies colonised by European powers – between c .1900 and 1939. Focusing on two northern Australian ports with multiple connections to Asia, the article shows that tropical whites helped to sustain inequities of race, gender and class in the colonial tropics. The fashion did this by helping to produce hegemonic ma…
In “the Finest Australian Wool”
From the late 19th century, when the Melbourne manufacturer and department store Foy & Gibson began to produce mail order catalogues for country customers, it recognised the potential to sell clothing made of Australian wool. This article explores how Foy & Gibson influenced consumer attitudes towards the natural fibre by encouraging them to feel wool as a next-to-the-skin experience. By focusing on underwear and swimsuits in the catalogues acros…
Well-Dressed” in Suits of Australian Wool
The global explosion of synthetic fibers in the mid-twentieth century challenged Australia’s wool industry, demanding new ways of marketing the natural fiber to compete with these so-called modern miracles. The menswear market changed profoundly with the convenience of synthetic fabrics and the excitement that surrounded the power of science embodied in these clothes. Some Australian men turned to the “Your Clothes” feature in Man: The Australian…
The Comfort of Things in White Australia
Within a decade of moving to Australia in 1897, Japanese immigrant Setsutaro Hasegawa commissioned a number of three-piece suits and separates from a local tailor. Hasegawa perhaps found it difficult to afford this clothing, given his occupation as a laundryman at the time. Using Hasegawa as a case study, this article highlights the importance of three-piece suits for masculine dignity and belonging in Australia during the heyday of the White Aus…
Reflections on a discipline in distress
A “Bacchanalian Mardi Gras”
In the 1970s, a shift took place in the dress practices of attendees at the Melbourne Cup, marking out the period from the conservative formality of the decade before.Evident in the public areas of Flemington Racecourse, this new trend saw boisterous young racegoers dress in satiric, comedic or raunchy attire.Commenting on this trend in the late seventies, the journalist Keith Dunstan decided that unruly young people engaging in these madcap dres…
All the Men at the Pump’
Australian wool-growing has long been cast by most writers as a masculine endeavour, from the male squatters who took great swathes of land to run their sheep, displacing First Peoples and transforming ecosystems in the process, to the shearers who became the embodiment of hardy bush masculinity. The pastoral insights recorded by Anne Drysdale in her diaries spanning the 1840s, however, provide rich insights into a female engagement with the indu…
Museum-Based Learning for Online Collections Students
In the field of museum studies there has been a regular chorus of scholars and industry-based professionals calling for practice-based placements for museum studies students. In order to prepare students for work in the museum and to apply key learnings to the field, their higher education learning needs to include placements, internships, field trips, and volunteering (Message 2023; Robenalt et al. 2022). Indeed, one of the four key pillars of m…
Fleeced
Cuttings, Combings, Fettlings and Flock
As Australia's wool industry produced vast amounts of fine fleece from the nineteenth century, the wool processing and clothes manufacturing industries generated waste – products like cuttings, combings, fettlings and flock. Salvaged and then sold to waste merchants, these and other materials had a second life. This article explores how the products and handling of wool waste are connected to gender: the work, including that defined as noxious fo…
A Historical Culture of Clothing Circularity
As Australia grapples with the consequences of mounting fashion consumption then discard, we look back to the country’s history of clothing adaptation to trace the historical dimensions of a long-standing culture of circularity. In focusing our gaze on the colony of Victoria in the mid-nineteenth century, we place philosophies of clothing care in a context of rapid change that demanded a willingness—if not an absolute need—to mend, adjust, resize…
Fashion and Cultural Textiles (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · History (11 works) · History (11 works) · Art (9 works) · Clothing (8 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Gender Studies (8 works) · Crafts, Textile, and Design (7 works) · Archaeology (6 works)