Pauline Hastings

Dr Pauline Hastings is an independent scholar and Professional Historian with research interests in clothing manufacturing in Australia’s postwar period. Her work utilises a multidimensional approach that connects social, cultural and economic histories. Pauline’s recent PhD thesis (Monash University, 2024), Behind the Seams: A Social, Cultural and Economic History of Clothing Manufacturing in Victoria, Australia, 1945–1990 explored the golden age of Australian mass market garment making and its subsequent decline in the final decades of the twentieth century through the lived experiences of the industry’s workers, business owners and others connected through cloth and clothing.

Relevant Publications

P. Hastings,  ‘Fibres on the Field: Jean Shrimpton, Christine Borge and the Promotion of Orlon and Wool at the 1965 Melbourne Cup’, Australian Historical Studies, 56 (1), 2024: 145–166. Available Open Access here

P. Hastings, ‘Miniskirts and the Unravelling Rag Trade,’ Web article, Old Treasury Building Museum, 2023.