David Jones Archive
The David Jones acquisition is designed to preserve and amplify the retailer’s 186-year history and mark the beginning of a partnership with the 143-year-old museum.
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.’
