David Jones is Australia’s oldest department store, and the oldest department store in the world still trading under its original name. The store opened in Sydney in May of 1838 with the best and most exclusive goods available. By 1887, the expanded store had a mail order business and also sold furniture. By 1899, the company had started manufacturing its own goods to combat the high cost of imports.
In the 1920s, the company built its huge flagship store far away from Sydney’s retail center. When it opened in 1927, this grand department store, which remains the flagship of the company to this day, single-handedly moved the hub of Sydney’s retailing to Hyde Park.
During the years of WWII, David Jones continued in business despite rationing, difficult times, and loss of staff to the war effort. In 1947, David Jones brought Sydney out of the post-war doldrums with Paris-style fashion parades. Pierre Balmain had the women of Sydney enthralled, and one year later came the collection of Christian Dior’s famous ‘New Look’, the first time Dior had ever shown outside Paris.
The company expanded to twenty stores in the years after the war, and is now an Australian national chain with thirty-five stores all over the country.
Written by coutureallurevintage.com
from a 1930s mens shirt
Courtesy circavintage
from a 1941 suit
Courtesy of circavintage
from a 1941 suit
Courtesy of circavintage
from a 1940s day dress
Courtesy of coutureallurevintage.com
