Notes on fashion

Cecilie Geary in front of a pin board of memories and surrounded by some of her fashion books....
Cecilie Geary in front of a pin board of memories and surrounded by some of her fashion books. Photo by Linda Robertson.
DSA artist Bill Scott and Cecilie Geary in the DSA advertising department in 1962.
DSA artist Bill Scott and Cecilie Geary in the DSA advertising department in 1962.
The imposing frontage of Selfridges store, London where Geary worked in the advertising department.
The imposing frontage of Selfridges store, London where Geary worked in the advertising department.
Geary (right) on a Siseido media trip, Penang 1991.
Geary (right) on a Siseido media trip, Penang 1991.
DSA adverts from the Otago Daily Times from 1956, with copy written by Geary.
DSA adverts from the Otago Daily Times from 1956, with copy written by Geary.
DSA adverts from the Otago Daily Times from 1956, with copy written by Geary.
DSA adverts from the Otago Daily Times from 1956, with copy written by Geary.
DSA adverts from the Otago Daily Times from 1956, with copy written by Geary.
DSA adverts from the Otago Daily Times from 1956, with copy written by Geary.
Beauty pages from Fashion Quarterly by Geary.
Beauty pages from Fashion Quarterly by Geary.
Beauty pages from Fashion Quarterly by Geary.
Beauty pages from Fashion Quarterly by Geary.

After writing about major players, products and people in the fashion and beauty industries in New Zealand and overseas for more than half a century, Dunedin's Cecilie Geary realised that her rich working life was worth recording. She talks to Jude Hathaway.

Cecilie Geary had no inkling when she joined the advertising team of the Dunedin department store DSA, in 1956, that the door had opened to a fascinating career encompassing fashion and beauty writing.

It was a career that covered more than 50 years and having come full circle and happily settled back home in Dunedin, she decided to complete a career memoir in the form of an e-book.

It's aptly called Being There. Memoirs Of A Fashion And Beauty Writer.

Geary is well aware of the serendipitous nature of her career path that took her from work in department stores, local radio and advertising agencies to scripting fashion parades and writing feature articles for newspapers and magazines before finding her niche in dedicated fashion magazines.

It was here she cemented her name as an astute fashion commentator.

''I had nothing really planned. Once I was in the system one job rolled into another.

"I was never out of work and I feel fortunate that I was given so many amazing opportunities. I don't think it could happen that way today. Things have changed.''

Through the pages are rich glimpses into the beauty and fashion worlds including its people.

These run parallel with careful observations of the development and maturity of New Zealand's fashion design industry, from various viewpoints.

Geary had completed high school at the art school at King Edward Technical College, Dunedin.

''It was a logical place to go for those wanting to pursue a career in art as I did at that stage.''

With hopes of becoming a trainee commercial artist she joined the advertising department at the DSA, then a prominent Dunedin department store that had been established in 1890.

It was here she honed her skills, not as a fashion illustrator but as a copywriter while ''doing a little drawing on the side''.

''The output from the department was prodigious and involved the production of several newspaper advertisements a week, some of them full-page. They would appear in the Evening Star at night and the Otago Daily Times the next morning.

''I remember having to go around to the Otago Daily Times to collect the inked metal letterpress printing plates after each advertisement had been published. They were inky and really heavy, although always wrapped up in newspaper.''

As she points out in the book, it was not long before the penny dropped and she realised her writing skills far surpassed her ability to draw.

''Alongside the talented fashion artist Bonnie Webb and her successor the equally gifted Bill Scott, my efforts were pretty pathetic.''

But, even then, it had not occurred to her that she could make writing a career.

Geary was also beginning to learn about and develop an in-depth knowledge of fashion.

This came from numerous sources including the New York Times to which DSA subscribed.

''We pored over the full-page advertisements from famous stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales and Bergdorf Goodman and really were inspired.''

Another source of knowledge was the DSA store buyers.

''I loved talking to them. They always looked sharp - in the context of the 1950s - well-groomed, black suits, that kind of thing.

"But what I really appreciated was how they could articulate intelligently about various aspects of fashion; the line, the cut, the important designers, and I lapped it up.''

''In those days before the advent of fashion boutiques, the department store was God and it was from the department store window displays or the in-store fashion parades that new trends were revealed.''

The more interested she became in fashion, the keener she was to learn more.

She joined the Dunedin Public Library where she read everything she could about fashion history, still unaware that she was laying solid foundations for a career in the fashion industry.

She also moved into copywriting for the commercial radio station, 4ZB.

This added further experience to her resume when she made the decision to board SS Southern Cross and head to England (despite the fact that the editor of Vogue Australia had shown interest in her fashion copy portfolio and had invited her to visit when in Australia).

But she was hellbent for London where, within two weeks of her arrival and a week after she had applied for a copywriting job at Selfridges, she had a call from the advertising manager's secretary to say she had the job.

Although surprised at the landmark store's tired appearance and its adherence to tradition, her work now included scripting fashion parades and writing press releases for in-store promotions.

When not working, she explored galleries and museums and attended matinee performances in West End theatres.

Two years on she left Selfridges to return home to New Zealand where she joined her parents, who had moved north, in Auckland.

Once more she was in the job market and once more, within two weeks, she was offered a position in the large department store, Milne and Choyce.

But, by then she was already settling into her work as a senior copywriter at Wardlaw Advertising, a small agency in downtown Auckland owned by Bob and Reg Wardlaw.

Bob Wardlaw was her parents' next-door neighbour.

''I was there three years but fashion was my forte and I missed it.''

She decided to try freelancing.

Her first assignment was fortuitously with Maysie Bestall-Cohen, former model and the then co-director of the June Dally Watkins Deportment School whom she had met through Bob Wardlaw.

''She was co-ordinating a fashion parade and asked if I would be interested in writing the script.''

So began a professional relationship that lasted 30 years.

Geary worked alongside Bestall-Cohen during the years she directed the annual Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards. She also wrote a fortnightly column in the Auckland Star which was co-ordinated by Bestall-Cohen.

''It was the late 1970s and the first time I saw my name in print,'' Geary said.

With new-found confidence she began writing on a freelance basis for various magazines.

But it was in 1985 when she became a regular contributor to Christchurch-based Fashion New Zealand that her ambition of working on a fashion magazine was realised.

It was owned by Paula Ryan - whom she had met through the Benson and Hedges awards - and her then husband Don Hope.

Geary became a regular contributor and the next year issues were bumped up to four a year and the name was changed to Fashion Quarterly.

Her career as a fashion writer and beauty editor, and a long-term working relationship with the New Zealand fashion notable, lasting over 20 years, had begun.

Semi-retirement - she writes for the New Zealand Fashion Museum - has not lessened Geary's fascination for all aspects of fashion, from the design creativity, the fabrics and the glamour to social aspects and history.

''I remember British fashion writer Colin McDowell saying that, `If fashion writing was just about pretty girls in pretty frocks it would all be pretty boring'. So right.''

 

 


The book

 

Being There. Memoirs of a Fashion And Beauty Writer 1956-2006 by Cecilie Geary is published as an e-book for computers, tablets and e-readers by the New Zealand Fashion Museum. Proceeds from the $15 price go to the museum. For details contact nzfashionmuseum.org.nz


 

 

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