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Thousands of costumes, hats, shoes and other props lovingly collected over 48 years have been donated to the WA Screen Academy at Edith Cowan University.
The donation was made by Perth costume designer Gail Pether.
Ms Pether ran vintage clothing boutique and costume hire business Memory Lane in Mount Lawley for almost half a century, before making the difficult decision to close the doors one last time and retire.
Over the past two years, she has sold off a lot of the collection, but decided to donate some of her most valued pieces to the Screen Academy.
"I had kept back quite a range of things I know are difficult to get in the industry," Ms Pether said.
"I was really happy that I could send it here — not only for the professionals to still have access to it but also all the emerging film people.
"It's just great that they won't have to travel over east all the time to get every single thing they need."
When Ms Pether first began collecting and selling vintage clothing in the early 1970s, very few people were doing it.
"In Perth there was not much around," she said.
"Memory Lane grew over the years and being in the film industry I tended to keep all the good, original stock and sell what I had lots of or didn't need.
"And I'm a hoarder, especially with vintage things.
"Anything I know that is difficult to get I try and hang onto.
"Even simple things like men's waistcoats. Just about every period, until today, had a waistcoat and yet they are nearly impossible to get."
Uniforms are another sought-after item and Ms Pether's collection has been included in the gift to the university.
Genuine period clothing is also in increasing demand by documentary makers who want to film short re-enactments.
"I love doing documentaries, because I can use original stuff and it looks so much better," Ms Pether said.
She said she had supplied a number of outfits from the 1960s and '70s for a documentary about painter Brett Whiteley.
Since making the emotional decision to wind up her business, Ms Pether said she had been searching for suitable homes for some of her most prized pieces.
She approached several institutions about the collection without success.
But when she contacted Dr Cathy Henkel, director of the WA Screen Academy, the offer was immediately accepted.
"I thought this was a beautiful collection and it would be a shame to see it broken up," Dr Henkel said.
"[The offer] just happened to be at a time when we were expanding into new facilities."
The racks and boxes from Memory Lane destined for the university will fill three rooms.
"We are planning to catalogue it and put it online and make it very accessible to the industry over the next 12 months," Dr Henkel said.
"I'm really delighted that we have the military and police uniforms because they are very difficult to get hold of.
"But just the scale if the collection is what is really exciting for us.
"We won't have to go hunting around op shops to find what we need — we have it right here."
For Ms Pether, the university has made the task of offloading her life's work a bit easier.
And now she is looking forward to spending more time with her grandchildren.
"It's been a hard couple of years, moving it on," she said.
It's very emotional, it has been my whole life.
That's why I'm so happy that we have kept some it here."
Topics: theatre, opera-and-musical-theatre, film-movies, history, university-and-further-education, perth-6000
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