Fashion is a competitive business and there's not much love lost among its participants, but the authors - museum curators and a design historian - steer a steady course among rivalries to recognise the contributions of earlier generations of designers, despite a dearth of early materials.
Few drawings have survived, key fashion magazines have been short-lived and even museums collected relatively few examples of New Zealand designer clothes until the 21st century, when several exhibitions of New Zealand fashion were curated. The Eden Hore collection of around 200 fashion garments from the 1970s in Naseby in Central Otago is one of the few significant private collections of New Zealand fashion.
Until the late 1980s, the New Zealand garment industry was protected against imports, manufacturers flourished, some copying or making overseas designs under licence, but a significant number creating their own designs. In those days, also, many women sewed at home.
From the late 1980s, cheap imports saw the demise of many garment factories. Now, despite the high profile of New Zealand designers, numerous graduates emerging from fashion design courses and the proliferation of new labels, the authors question the sustainability of garment production in this country.
The authors tell the stories of many designers and their labels, including Trilby Yates and Bobby Angus in the 1940s, El-Jay and Barbara Penberthy of Babs Radon in the 1950s and on through Marilyn Sainty, Thornton Hall, Trelise Cooper and Rosaria Hall. Some blossomed briefly (fashion is a business as well as an art), while others managed to reinvent themselves for subsequent generations and economic times.
The book concentrates on Auckland designers, although a few Dunedin names are mentioned - Tanya Carlson, Donna Tulloch's Mild Red, the defunct Blanchet and, of course, Margarita Robertson of Nom*d. She opened her first boutique, Hang-Ups, in Moray Pl in 1975 and, since 1979, her shop Plume has been in the forefront of Dunedin fashion stores. In the 1980s, she developed her distinctive Nom*d label, with its Gothic flavour, which continues to go from strength to strength.
The authors also talk about the influence of fashion competitions and shows, the New Zealand Wool Board Awards, the Majestic competition in Wellington, New Zealand Gown of the Year, Benson and Hedges Fashion Awards, New Zealand Fashion Week and even smaller ones like the emerging designer award at Dunedin iD Fashion Week.
The Dress Circle is a fascinating book to read, and to browse through, and a valuable introduction to the much overlooked history of an industry that is so focused on hyping the present and future it can scarcely remember last season's fads.
• Charmian Smith is an ODT feature writer.
