Вера Фелс–Левин (1901- 1993)

Вера Фелс (Vera Fels) – ур Левин (отчество неизвестно), родилась в Чернигове 24 апреля 1901. Вместе с мужем (коллекционером картин и всего красивого) после революции бежала в Париж, где начала карьеру модельера.



В Париже она встретила своего мужа Щия/Чарльз Фелс (русский анзак).

После войны он ненадолго вернулся в Сидней и натурализовался как британский подданный, а затем продолжал ездить по всему миру, занимаясь, в частности, экспортными поставками из Шанхая в Париж.

В 1934 году они приехали в Австралию. Ее дом моделей “Germaine Rocher” был очень известным в 1930-1960х годах. Cалон Веры даже упоминается в «Поющих в терновнике» Колин Маккалоу.

Она проводила регулярные парады мод, которые со временем стали популярными общественными мероприятиями. Каждый год Вера посещала Париж и привозила наряды из коллекций Christian Dior, Courreges, Balmain, Givenchy и Venet. Вернувшись в Сидней, ее салон копировал наряды в ограниченном количестве.

Вера Фелс вышла на пенсию в начале 1970х и вернулась во Францию, где предположительно умерла.

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Vera Fels arrived in Sydney in February 1934, accompanied by her husband and two ‘premier modelists’ previously employed at the House of Lelong, with the express intention of relaunching her Paris salon in the antipodes. In an interview appearing in the press the next day, Mrs Fels stated that, having heard of the beauty of Australian women and their flair for dress from Australians visiting the French capital, she had come to the other side of the world to substantiate the reports for herself.

Trading as Germaine Rocher (1935-1971), Vera Fels’ fashion empire soon took up the entire 5th floor of the Trust Building in King Street. Considered the epitome of elegance, her salon was decorated in grey with gilded chairs, a marble corridor, mirrored walls and deep carpets, replicating the extravagances of Parisian haute couture right down to the imported French pins. Travelling regularly to the Paris shows to buy model gowns, patterns, fabrics and trims, she then paraded these French originals alongside her own designs as part of her twice-yearly collections. Tasteful and elegant, Rocher garments were sewn on treadle machines to maintain high standards of finish and control, with care taken in all aspects of construction, from fabric selection to cutting, sewing, mounting, pressing, hemming and invisible stitching. As an air of informality began to take hold in Australian fashion and society during the 1970s, Mrs Fels closed the doors of her salon and retired to France.

1959 - Lived at Point Piper, Sydney.


"I was very good friends with all the French designers." she said. "We worked well together for over 30 years, first with my husband Charles, then, when he died, on my own for 20 years. 1 used to visit Paris every year and sometimes twice a year. But there came a time when haute couture started to go down and boutiques were opened ... It was not my line; I didn't know anything about boutiques, so I thought, it's time to retire'." She had no regrets then, about closing the rooms in the Trust Building in King Street Sydney, where she had beer the first tenant. Business, she is sure, would have been as good as ever, but it was getting next to impossible to find girls who wanted to devote their days to sewing beautifully.

per AI - She died on April 12, 1993, at the age of 86. She was a prominent figure in Sydney's fashion and social scenes, bringing Parisian haute couture to Australia from 1935 to 1971. 

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Sydney fashion legends who inspired The Dressmaker movie starring Kate Winslet

COUTURE dressmaker Tilly Dunnage of Dungatar is a work of fiction, but her story owes much to fashion doyennes “Little Ol’ Beryl From Bondi” and Russian emigre Vera Fels, who stitched up 1950s Parisian glamour for Sydney ladies about town.

Bondi Junction seamstress Beryl Strudwick graduated from helping her mother Alice with dressmaking to become “Australia’s queen of haute couture” as Beril Jents, who described her best-known client Elizabeth Taylor as “scruffy”. “I can’t believe this is little Beryl from Bondi Junction sitting here.”

Fels hosted regular parades for her Genevieve Rocher label, showing Paris originals alongside half-price local reproductions, at a grey salon with champagne drapes in King St.

As Dunnage, played by Kate Winslet in The Dressmaker movie opening in Sydney today, explains: “My design, but Dior inspired.”

When the world emerged from functional, austere wartime day dresses and suits, Jents and Rocher epitomised 1950s glamour. Their salons billowed with opulent frocks, full skirts nipped into tight bodices draped from jewel-hued chiffons, shiny taffetas and lustrous satins.

.....................Women then had plenty of reasons to dress up for balls and race meetings to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, her 1954 royal tour, then the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.

French wool buyers in Sydney from the mid-1800s introduced French chic, and wealthy Australian women travelled to Europe for designer outfits. From 1900 others could purchase through stores such as David Jones, which offered a French salon.

..............Fels and her art dealer husband Charles fled Russian Bolsheviks to Paris and arrived in Sydney with two French seamstresses in the early 1930s. They followed Pellier to the elegant St James Trust Building, opening a salon in 1935. Fels visited Paris annually to cultivate “relationships with the couturiers”.

Kate Winslet plays homecoming Tilly Dunnage in The Dressmaker.

Fashion designer Germaine Rocher (Vera Fels) with model Victoria in 1970.

Retailers Norman Myer and Charles Lloyd Jones of Sydney’s David Jones joined publisher Frank Packer to up the ante in 1946. Packer sent the Australian Women’s Weekly fashion editor, his sister-in-law Mary Hordern, to Paris to select fashions for parades around the country. She returned with 120 beach, day and evening outfits, although they were not for sale. After the parade opened in the Grand Ballroom at David Jones’ Elizabeth St store in September, 1946, coverage in the Weekly sent circulation soaring to 700,000 copies a week.  As Dior launched his first collection in Paris in 1947, David Jones became the first Australian retailer to purchase a complete haute couture collection of 60 garments. More than 800 people packed David Jones’ Elizabeth St store for a gala viewing of the designs.
Fashion designer Germaine Rocher, aka Vera Fels, in 1963.

Passengers ex SS MOLDAVIA, Sydney, 8 February 1934 [includes British Passport pertaining to Mrs Vera Fels] - NAA: SP42/1, C1934/2910

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/designers/sydney-fashion-legends-who-inspired-the-dressmaker-movie-starring-kate-winslet/news-story/bdd6cb5ee7d96fd2f0e6d5aa3b87b8d3