Waitati designer Fiona Clements made the replica of an original Dunedin Fire Brigade tunic for her father, Paul Clements, who is chairman of the Dunedin Fire Brigade Restoration Society.
"Dad wanted one to wear when he drives around in the old fire engines," she said this week.
Mr Clements (61) is a 40-year veteran of the Dunedin Central Station and is the author of a book about the Dunedin fire service, Ready Aye Ready.
"He hasn't seen it yet, because he's up in Christchurch helping out with the earthquake," Ms Clements, a third-year fashion design student at the Otago Polytechnic, said.
The tunic was the first one worn by the Dunedin Fire Brigade.
"It was called a frock coat, because there was a skirt on the bottom. It was ridiculous how much work was involved. It has layers and layers underneath, which all had to be hand-stitched. It certainly makes you appreciate the skill of the old seamstresses 150 years ago."
Ms Clements, who describes herself as a "clothing engineer", rather than a fashion designer, based the tunic on an 1863 photograph of Dunedin fireman Captain Rees.
"There was no physical example of the jacket in existence. I even contacted the London and Melbourne metropolitan museums and they couldn't tell me anything," Ms Clements said.
"It's a basic jacket, but it was much harder to make than I thought, because you can't see where the seams are in the photo. So, there was a lot of research and quite a bit of guesswork involved," she said.
"For the material, I first tried felting an old Salvation Army blanket, but that didn't work, so I managed to source some material in Dunedin."
The frock coat was worn with black trousers with a red stripe, a black leather armband with the letters FB [Fire Brigade], a leather helmet for attending fires and a glazed cap for other occasions.
The design was based on the London Metropolitan Fire Brigade uniform and was eventually replaced in 1864.
"The reason it went out of style was because the material became popular to make women's coats out of and it got too expensive to make."
The 150th anniversary of the Dunedin Fire Brigade will be held in Dunedin from March 10 to 12.
