Best foot forward

When I was growing up, Double Bay always seemed magical. There was the glitz of the Ritz, generous helpings of bon vivant (both the cake and the persona) and a parade of women dressed in the most fabulous attire. 

My father’s parents were Hungarian immigrants who had come to Sydney in search of a new life. They found a home in Double Bay, set up a shoe store and became part of a community of entrepreneurs, artists and fashionistas who transformed this harbourside suburb into a thriving, cosmopolitan village, a little pocket of Europe for those far from home. 

While it has since gone through moments of growth and decline, much of what made Double Bay enthralling remains. Especially when you know where to look. 

Maria Finlay’s story is entwined with Double Bay’s. In 1956, she emigrated to Sydney from Hungary with her mother, Magda, and a decade later, opened her eponymous Bay St boutique. She had arrived when Double Bay was little more than a supermarket and a pub, and grew with the suburb, emerging as a doyenne of the Australian fashion scene. 

“I always wanted to come here. I had 30-odd uncles and aunts already here,” Finlay says. “I came here and I loved everything about it. I had a vision about what was waiting for me here and it was everything.”

Almost any woman worth her sartorial stripes in the 60s, 70s and 80s would remember dressing up to shop at ‘Maria Finlay’, where they would be greeted with champagne, croissants and European threads. For Finlay, buying, styling and helping her customers look and feel fabulous was a joy. 

“I loved every minute of it,” she says. “It was exciting because the products I sold were coming in for women who, for a long time, just wore what they could get. For me, and for others like me, it was very, very rewarding.” 

Finlay has always had an innate sense of style and her fascination with the industry was obvious when, as a teenager in Hungary, she would ask family in Australia to post her magazines so she could see what people were wearing. 

“I’ve always loved fashion. I loved wearing it and loved trying to put it together. It wasn't easy in Hungary because we didn’t really have ways of getting new and up-to-date things.” In Double Bay, though, she was truly among it. “I was breathing fashion, I was watching fashion. Having come from Europe, suddenly it was colour.”

Finlay’s two daughters — Andrena, a BAFTA and LOGIE-winning producer, mentor and teacher, and Marina, an actress and artist — have vastly different connections to the store. Andrena adored working in ‘Maria Finlay’, starting there at 15 and returning between films.

“I still feel people’s fabric all the time and I can tell them what they're wearing,” laughs Andrena. Conversely, Marina’s main memory is of playing hide-and-seek among the garments. 

Both women were drawn to film for equally diverse reasons. Marina was there as a performer, while Andrena loved the tribe created on set. On her first job, she was enthralled by those operating the camera, the lights, the boom. 

“I just thought, 'I love this world',” Andrena says. “I was very young and I said ‘train me’ to all these big, burly professionals. And they went ‘OK’. So I learnt, and the more I learnt the more I loved it.”  

When asked how she moved from acting to painting, Marina offers a simple explanation: Judy Cassab — a Double Bay artistic icon who arrived in Sydney in 1951 (also from Hungary), won the Archibald Prize twice and left an indelible mark on the Australian art world. 

“I was modelling for her from about 20,” says Marina. “I really liked sitting still. An artist has to be very still. Prior to that it had been hectic, very hectic. So that stillness with Judy, watching her work in stillness, was seductive — but I didn't think I could do it myself. So for many years I sat while she [painted]. And then destiny just led me there.” 

Andrena and her mother also modelled for Cassab, yet Marina was the only one to paint the artist, the portrait simply falling off her brush. 

“Most portraits are very difficult but I knew Judy's face. I realised that as she was watching me, I was studying her,” Marina says.

There is a palpable bond between Finlay and her daughters; yet this drive and creativity reaches back further. Finlay could not have built all she did without her own mother, Magda. 

“My mother taught me a lot. We had a very, very special love for each other. She taught me life. She gave me life, and then she taught me how to live it,” she says.

Double Bay’s magic doesn't just stem from its elegance, cafes or waterside sparkle. It’s found in the tales of those who call it home; those who have rebuilt lives and found their calling. Woven together, these tales form a shared history. Everyone has a story. All we need to do is ask.