What’s one thing I love above all else? …not vintage fashion, actually, if we want to get technical. But I am quite fond of vintage fashion. I’m also quite fond of Judith Durham, lead singer of the Australian ’60s band The Seekers, owner of one beautiful voice, and one of those people who just radiated sweet wholesome vibes.
As it turns out, Judith also had a smashing wardrobe. Don’t be turned off by the fact that it was the ’60s and think of stringy hair and mini-skirts. Judith’s fashion sense was classier than that – she apparently held the Queen as a fashion role model, in fact.
So, why not share some of her lovely vintage outfits with you in my post today?
- Emerald Green Dress
This is probably her most iconic dress (and also happens to be one that she made herself, I believe), but sadly I can’t find any good pictures of it…so I’ll have to share a video featuring it instead.
Oh, and I may as well take this opportunity of mentioning that not all the pictures in this post will be terribly high quality…sadly, there’s a lack of clear, non-fuzzy pictures of dresses I especially like. Sadness.
(Fun fact: last I knew, this dress was actually in an Australian museum; the concert this clip is from has the world record for having the largest concert audience in the Southern Hemisphere!)
A lot of Judith’s concert dresses were the same style of floor-length, flowing, feminine, and fairly simple, but with some little thing to set them apart (like those cool sparkly buttons on her emerald dress). As one I especially like which will give you a good idea of the style, here is
2. White Dress with Pink Thingys on the Sleeves and Collar
Another concert dress of hers which I especially like is
3. Gold and Pink Dress
Isn’t it really pretty? I love the bow. (I think she made this one herself, too.) Here’s the obligatory full picture of it in horrible quality:
4. Pseudo Wedding Dress That She Wore in the Video for “Morningtown Ride”
As far as I know she only wore this one in one music video-thingy, never in concert, but it’s quite pretty.
It does look rather like a wedding dress, doesn’t it? I have a picture of her actual wedding dress too, as a matter of fact, which is also lovely:
5. Actual Wedding Dress
Here’s a higher-quality picture, but you can’t see the dress itself as well…at least you get a closer look at those cool sleeves:
6. Light Blue Dress with Pastel Jacket
I would make this one a little longer, but I like the delicate pastel-ish vibe.
Here’s a closer look at the jacket part:
7. Navy-Blue Dress with Yellow Buttons
Here’s a very smart navy-blue thingamajig – I love the color combination of the dark blue with the bright yellow:
8. Black Dress
Here’s a simple black dress that I quite like – I could happily own this one myself (though, again, I would want it a bit longer).
I love the pleated skirt. You can see it more clearly here:
9. Red Corduroy Two-Piece
Isn’t the corduroy texture cool? You can see the full outfit more clearly in this picture, though in less detail:
10. Orange Suit
This is another cute one. I can’t tell if it’s two-piece, or a dress trying to look two-piece:
I (again) would want it a little longer, but other than that it is cute.
Well, I suppose that’s as good a place to stop as any. There are more I could put in, of course, but one can’t go on forever. That was rather fun, though! Should I do a series of these vintage wardrobe posts? Maybe do some period drama wardrobes sometimes too? Oh, and which of Judith’s dresses would you want in your own wardrobe?
Toodle-oo!
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Oohlala, let us have plenty of each? *hopeful puppy eyes* Because I cannot for the life of me choose between vintage fashion and period drama😜 This is fascinating, and as your views page will attest, I have read it several times already😉
That emerald dress…. May I swoon??? Is that allowable? How about over that gorgeous delicate pink on white darling of a dress? And the black one, the one you said you’d love to wear if it was a little longer…. Because same here, I want it to swirl around my ankles, pleats that perfect deserve to swirl (;
I adore the straightly clean and elegant lines of the 1960’s…. So simple, and yet so beautifully tailored…. And she sewed herself?!
I have got to start listening to them, this is intriguing!
Plenty of each sounds great to me! I’m so glad there is interest for this kind of post 😀
Hehe, aren’t they gorgeous? (Of course, feel perfectly free to swoon ;)) There were a lot of great styles in the ’60s…and even for the particular styles I don’t like, there was still a certain…I don’t know…classiness? Attention to detail?…that I feel we don’t see enough of anymore.
Yes, she did! Isn’t that so cool? It kind of makes me want to get better at sewing…I’ve never really mastered dealing with patterns; they’re so confuzzling.
You should! Judith has a gorgeous voice (and the boys aren’t so shabby either, especially Bruce), they have some great songs and harmonies, and they have a very wholesome, cute vibe that I just love.
Ahhhh I loved this post Lizzie! I’m not very familiar with the Seekers or Judith, but now I’m equal parts wanting to listen to their music and dive headlong in 60s fashion!!!
#8 is really cute though yes, it does need to be longer! And the veil on her wedding dress is quite interesting! I think the Gold and Pink one is my favorite though, so sweet and elegant and she made it herself?? Wow!
I’d love to see more posts like these in either of those genres!
Thank you!! I would definitely recommend checking out their music…see my little endorsement of The Seekers in my reply to Emily 😉
Isn’t the Gold and Pink so pretty? I love the pattern/texture of the gold. Yes (unless my memory is playing tricks on me :P), that is one of the ones she sewed herself! Isn’t that cool?
Lovely! *starts percolating post ideas*
I’ve just stumbled on this website. I’m a big Seekers fan, and have spent quite a bit of time researching photos of the group and individual members, since these are often uncaptioned or mis-captioned. So I know when/where most of these photos were taken. I would agree that Judith always made a big effort to look nice, and has been described as looking classy. She tried to create her own image, but did get criticised in the media for not looking ‘with it’. Sometimes she got some nasty comments which upset her. To say that Judith’s fashion was classier than mini-skirts is not quite correct; she certainly had her mini-skirt phase during approx 1967-71, and there are a lot of photos and some video of her wearing these, including some very short ones. She definitely had the legs to match! But for concerts, she normally wore long stage dresses, and looked great in them. The story of her making her own dresses has become exaggerated over the years; she scaled this activity down from mid-1965. By this time she had lost quite a bit of weight, and was able to buy outfits ‘off the shelf’, or having more money could have outfits made for her. Looking at the individual photos:
First photo: Not sure about this one, but I think it is from her Australian solo tour in March 1969.
Second photo: Taken on arrival at Launceston, Tasmania on 11th Feb 1966 during the group’s tour of Australia/New Zealand that year.
Third photo: This was at the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium on 14th Nov 1966. Her dress was purchased from a shop in Baker St, London. Nothing to do with the AOTY award which they received in Melbourne in Jan 1968 (Judith actually wore a 2-piece miniskirt outfit for that one!).
1. Emerald Green Dress: She didn’t make this one, it was purchased from a shop in Knightsbridge, London. As far as I am aware, she only ever wore it for the concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne on 12th March 1967. However, there are some posed shots of her wearing it earlier in 1967 taken in Bristol. As you say, the dress survives in a museum collection.
2. White Dress: She wore this when the group sang ‘When Will The Good Apples Fall’ as part of their 1968 TV Special ‘The World Of The Seekers’ filmed in Jan 1968. I think the TV company had it made for her. She certainly wore it during concerts on their 1968 OZ tour which followed the filming.
3. Gold and Pink Dress: She wore this one on the TV Show ‘Sunday Night At The London Palladium’ on 20th March 1966. I’m sure she didn’t make this one; it was almost certainly made for her by a dressmaker she first met in 1964 when doing a TV series, and who she later employed to make dresses for her. She may have only worn this one once; certainly there don’t seem to be any other photos of her wearing it. Interestingly, the following day the group attended an awards ceremony, and Judith wore a different dress that was definitely made by her dressmaker.
4. Pseudo Wedding Dress: Actually a 2-piece outfit. Only worn for performing ‘Morningtown Ride’ on the 1968 TV Special filmed at Como House, Melbourne, and also for some portrait shots taken at the same time which were later used on album sleeves. The TV company definitely had this one made for her, and retained it after the filming. Eventually donated to the National Film & Sound Archives in Canberra where it still survives.
5. Actual Wedding Dress: She bought this in Melbourne. Her wedding took place on 21st Nov 1969. The person behind the happy couple on the second photo is her sister Beverley.
6. Light Blue Dress with Pastel Jacket: Photos taken in Autumn 1965 in Manchester Square, London. The jacket survives in the NFSA collection, where it is described as a coat.
7. Navy Blue Dress: I’m reasonably sure this was taken on Top Of The Pops on 1st Dec 1966 when they sang ‘Morningtown Ride’.
8. Black Dress: This dress is not black, it’s actually dark green! Photos date from mid-1966 and were taken at the house where Judith was then living in Richmond. First photo taken in the back garden, and the second one in front of the house. Both are posed shots. The Mercedes car did not belong to any of the group. I think it belonged to the photographer Rob Whitaker (who took the photos). However, it could have belonged to John Ashby who was Judith’s boyfriend at the time time, and also the group’s road manager. He is the fifth person in the second photo (third from the left). There is a problem here though; in another photo of her wearing what looks like the same dress, it is now blue! Possibly she bought two similar dresses in different colours.
9. Red Corduroy Two-Piece: Taken in Richmond Park at the same time as the previous photos. The first photo has been ‘flipped’ and is wrong way round. Interestingly, there is another photo of her wearing the same outfit taken a few months later; the skirt is a lot shorter, so presumably she had altered it to match the rising hemlines at that time!
10. Orange Suit: I’m sure this is a 2-piece outfit. Photo taken at Sydney Airport in Jan 1968, also during filming of the TV Special.
Final Photo: Taken at the Yaldara Winery in the Barossa Valley, South Australia in March 1967 during the filming of their 1967 TV Special ‘The Seekers Down Under’. A fun photo, with the group fooling around with some of the place’s equipment. The group loved having fun, and there are quite a lot of fun photos of them.
Hope all this is of interest.
Hello, Cristopher! Thank you for stopping by. I’ve been a fan of The Seekers for some years and so was aware of some of these photo locations/tidbits, but not all of them – thank you for the information!
I’ve since found that two more of Judith’s outfits on the photos here survive, both in the collection of the Australian Music Vault in Melbourne. These are the white dress (No.2) and the red corduroy two-piece (No.9). The emerald green dress (No.2) is in the same collection.