Thelma Afford

Thelma May Afford (née Thomas; 1 December 1907 – 21 August 1996) was an Australian costume designer, theatre performer, and fashion journalist who worked in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. They had no children. Leslie Rees, a close friend of the Affords, described their marriage: "Between husband and wife, there was the deepest and most tender affinity in all matters and on all levels." and also at the Adelaide Repertory Theatre, where she worked with Agnes Dobson and Robert Helpmann.

In 1934, she was commissioned to design for the Melbourne centenary pageant. worn by Jessie Deakin Brookes, (a social worker and grand daughter of Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia), who donated it to the State Library Victoria in 1998. It featured three iconic Melbourne buildings, Government House, the town hall and Flinders Street railway station, the Murray Darling river and irrigation system and a headpiece modelled on the Yallourn power station transmission tower. It was the inspiration of the exhibition Velvet, Iron, Ashes displayed at the State Library in Victoria in 2019–2020.

Thomas then worked, prior to her marriage, on South Australia's centenary celebrations in 1936. She enjoyed costume designing on a large scale, and added that "period costumes give a designer more scope than modern clothes".

She was resident designer at the Minerva Theatre from 1940 to 1950 and designed most of the costumes for husband Max's plays, including Awake My Love (a rewrite of his earlier Colonel Light play), and those of other playwrights including Sam Speewack, for the Independent Theatre through the 1950s. She also worked for the Garrick Theatre and the Tivoli Theatre in Melbourne. Also in 1957 she designed the costumes for Cinderella, the pantomime at the Elizabethan Theatre, praised for "its handsome costumes" and described as "Cinderella done in French 18th century style".

Cinema For cinema, she was costume designer at Cinesound for Cecil Kellaway's 1939 film Mr. Chedworth Steps Out, and in 1947, she designed period costumes for Charles Chauvel's Sons of Matthew, and Cobb and Co. Oscar Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest, broadcast 18 December 1957 on ABN-2, Ending It, Pride and Prejudice, Three-cornered Moon, and A Phoenix Too Frequent. She remarked that costumes for TV were different than for the stage since the focus was on the upper-body of the actors instead of the silhouette, and the filming was in black-and-white, more precisely 9 shades of grey.

Journalist Afford authored articles in drama journals, newspapers, and a posthumously published a book titled Dreamers and Visionaries on the little theatres in Adelaide in the first half of the 20th century.

Teacher Thelma Afford worked as an art teacher in the late 1920s and early 1930s, then again towards the end of her career from 1955 to 1978 at Queenwood School for Girls in Mosman where she was Senior Art mistress.

Death and legacy After Max's sudden death at 48 in 1954, Thelma remained in Sydney where she lived until her death in 1996.

At her death, Thelma left instructions to establish a fund with The Trust company for the attribution of an annual $10,000 "Max Afford Playwrights' Award" and a $7,500 "Thelma Afford Theatre, Stage, TV or Film Costume Design Award".

Her designs are collected in the State Library of South Australia, the State Library of New South Wales and the Fryer Library at the University of Queensland.

Professional associates

George Bell Kester Berwick Charles Chauvel Elsa Chauvel Agnes Dobson Doris Fitton Pierre Fornari Ken G. Hall Alan Harkness Robert Helpmann J.C. Williamson

Publications