David Jones Archive

In 1838, Le Bon Marché department store first opened its doors on the Left Bank of Paris. That same year in Sydney, David Jones welcomed customers to his eponymous emporium right in the heart of the city. LeBon Marché (the good deal) is celebrated by Émile Zola as the thinly veiled Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies’ Delight) retailer in his 1883 novel of the same name. David Jones is fictionalised as upmarket department store Goode’s in Australian author Madeleine St John’s 1993 novel The Women in Black, which in turn informed Bruce Beresford’s 2018 film Ladies in Black and the 2024 TV series of the same name.

David Jones has long been a conduit between Australia and France, and the gifting of the department store’s archive by David Jones to Powerhouse embeds that story in a broader narrative of industry and creativity.

Named after its Welsh founder, David Jones ‘has been an importer of French fashions since the 19th century,’ recounts Powerhouse senior collection curator Roger Leong. ‘Later, they would import original garments from the great Parisian couture houses and offer clients the service of reproducing those designs in David Jones’ workrooms.’

As interest in fashion and luxury products peaked post-World War II, so did David Jones’ ambition to become associated with Parisian chic.

In 1946, the store organised its first French fashion parade to showcase the works of sought-after haute couturiers including Pierre Balmain and Jacques Fath alongside the houses of Carven, Patou and Molyneux. In 1947, David Jones signed an exclusive deal with Balmain to create outfits especially with the lifestyle of Australian women in mind. And only months after Christian Dior burst onto the Parisian fashion scene with his audacious ‘New Look’ collection that same year, featuring wasp waistlines, slender shoulders and ample skirts, DJs inked a deal with the man acclaimed as the world’s most important couturier to show the first ever Dior collection outside of Paris.