The 50's Fair

Flashback Feature

Published for The Stylander August 29, 2025

Pia Anderson | The Hollywood Honeys | The Hollywood Hombres
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Way before the “Trad Wife” lifestyle trend, there was Rockabilly, a 1950s US style of life that trends every so often, and has thriving sub cultures all over the world, even in countries with ancient trad cultures.
 
Rockabilly music is a blend of white country music*, and Black music styles, like Rhythm and Blues, Boogie-Woogie, Jump Blues and Bluegrass. 
Rockabilly”, the word, is a portmanteau of “rock” [rock and roll] and “hillbilly”, the latter, a term to describe white Americans who live in rural, mountain areas in the US, primarily in the Appalachian region and Ozarks, which is where white [what is now known as] country music is said to have originated.
 
*Hillbilly was a combination of Southern Appalachian, British folk music [both originally Germanic, both styles taken to the United States during the first waves of British migration] and [liberal use of] African-American traditional folk songs and hymns. This combination was known as Hillbilly Music, the original name for America’s country music until the 1940s.
 
Rockabilly now is used to describe the subculture, and the people, who revive and live the culture; fashion, decor, cars to music. 
There was a resurgence in the 00s for a decade and a bit, and Australia surged hard, with fantastic vintage themed events, music festivals, balls, car shows, ‘speakeasy’ bars and well-dressed people everywhere. 
Major events on the Australian Rockabilly social calendar, Brisbane’s annual GreazeFest, still going, and The Fifties Fair at Rose Seidler House. The Fifties Fair had its last hurrah in 2016 but, if you’re feeling nostalgic, the Rose Seidler House has just been reopened.
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Sunday, August 29, 2010

The 50s Fair 2010

…not for women though, not fair at all in terms of social, political and human rights. Certainly not in comfort. The girdles and corsets… shudder.

There is a huge vintage 50s culture revival community in Australia, in the world actually, which blows my mind a bit.  Women have fought so hard for liberation in all forms that I find it weird that women of the naughties willingly embrace the whole 50s look and ideology.  Not just the dress but manner and behaviour.

However, I do believe that this embrace is fundamentally a return to /and longing for gallantry, formal manners and immaculate grooming and a backlash to a lackadaisical world. I completely understand this. Casual is reaching its abuse-by date.  

I am a feminist and I love gallantry. I have never mistaken gallantry as indicative of a weakness in me, so I do hope that the women [and men] who choose to recreate this ideology, understand that they have the best of both worlds. 
They have made the choice to dress like this, to live like this. It is not expected, not enforced, and… they have a voice. Something which our fore-sisters did not have.  It’s easy to dress and act like a 50s housewife when you will never have to be one.

I do have a few American style 50s dresses, both vintage and vintage-vibe, but wasn’t really in the mood to wear them because it would have meant the whole face and hair kit and kaboodle.  Although I was tempted to wear some of my Mother’s 50s saris, I didn’t because woods, crowds and vintage saris don’t mix.
I loved how the majority of fair-goers were dressed up and mainly young, which had me thinking where the Old Folk were… It seems that many yearn for the “good old days”, except for the ones who were actually there.
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Sunday, August 21, 2011

The 50s Fair 2011

The Fifties Fair 2011 (Rose Seidler House, Sydney)
“Despite the forecast calling for rain and in spite of a week of constant precipitation, fair weather reigned:) for the Fifties Fair and thank heavens for that!

…because it’s not everyday you turn sweet sixteen and you don’t want rain to dampen your parade off swell frocks and bobby socks!  

Held in the grounds of Rose Seidler House in Wahroonga, NSW, the Fifties Fair is Australia’s biggest celebration of all things fabulously fifties, except thank goodness, attitudes.  As I have said before, it’s fantastic to dress like a fifties female when you never have to be one. 
It was a most awesome day with lots to see and, although not so much “do”, there’s a lot be a part of and to see. I do have some gripes, holding it in such open grounds leaves no room for a Plan B: In Case of Rain, which was the case today, and the entry fee of AUD25.00pp/ AUD70 for a family may just be a bit too much in these economic conditions, hence a drop in attendance from previous years.
Most affected by the entry fees were the vintage retailers who all reported a major drop in sales. 

Oh well, times are always hard and then… they swing back up again.
 
 
Images, story and the 2010 and 2011 stories [published online], by TS Publisher, Sandhya Nand.
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