Sequinned dress : Miss Sylvia Raye, ABC Entertainer

Sleeveless lilac mini dress with high rounded neckline and full length zipper down the back. The dress is made in two sections with a fitted bodice and an A-line skirt. Large plastic sequins with a pearlised purple sheen are attached in vertical rows over dress by running stitch.

This dress was made and worn by Sylvia Raye, an entertainer who worked with the Australian Broadcasting Commission Concert Band. The ABC, funded by the Australian Government, made numerous tours to entertain Australian and Allied servicemen in South Vietnam during the war. Miss Raye toured Vietnam twice, in October 1970 when she was 27 years old and again in December 1971. Her first tour began in Saigon and ended with a concert at Butterworth RAAF base in Malaysia. On that tour there were 16 musicians and five entertainers, Miss Raye, Mary-Jane Boyde, Helen Noonan, Gordon Boyd and Buster Fiddess. The show band was conducted by Eric Cook. The second trip in December 1971 was a smaller group and again began in Saigon. The group also performed at Vung Tau and aboard the United States supply ship Corpus Christi, a show which required sailing for 1 hour to reach the vessel. This group consisted of three musicians, Gus Merzi on keyboard, Wally Wickham on bass and Mark Bowden on drums. The singers were Miss Raye, Jan Adele, Johnny Holmes and an English duo. Sylvia and Mark, who had met briefly in Sydney before they left, were later married after having their first date in Saigon. Following her two trips to Vietnam, Sylvia continued her successful career in entertainment.