Description
Gyula Heitler, born in Bratislava in 1912, learnt from a young age how to buy and sell in his parents’ general store. Arriving from Europe in 1947, Gyula changed his name to John J Hilton and worked for his sponsor Alexander ‘Gigi’ Schwarz at Olympia Fashions, a dress shop in Pitt Street. Then, together with his elder brother Emil, he started a business manufacturing ladies knitwear.
Adopting the trading name, John J Hilton, they looked around for Australian creative-fashion opportunities and decided to focus on women in their mid-twenties and older, offering them elegant and durable dresses at a fair price. The business grew to 100 employees, with showrooms around Australia and representatives in Paris, New York and London.
John J Hilton was one of the first to export Australian fashion to Japan, as well as to Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada and United States. A pioneer in the use of wool in women’s dresses, John J Hilton was the recipient of fashion awards, including the Australian Wool Award. The resulting goodwill attached to the John J Hilton brand name meant that garments were still available for purchase well into the 1990s. Source: https://www.daao.org.au/bio/john-hilton/biography
“It’s a Honey, It’s a Hilton” …& it certainly is a honey of a dress. A beautiful super light cotton slightly sheer dress with fantastic 1970’s era retro print. A perfect little spring secretary or race track dress. The quality is sublime, as is all of the Hilton labels.Button top. Belt. Sheer sleeves. The condition is fantastic. The dress will best fit an Australian size 8 to 10.
