Vintage New Zealand Fashion Labels

I have lots of posts brewing in my brain but I kinda don't have time to give them the energy they deserve, so here is something for the interim. A couple of months ago I was photographing my favourite labels on some of my vintage made-in-New-Zealand clothing and forgot about the pictures, so here they are. I always get super excited when I find vintage that was made here, especially when I find it in opshops. I am really interested in the history of the fabric and garment trade in NZ and I would love it if anyone has recommendations of books about it, other than The Dress Circle. There is very little information on most fashion labels from 20th century NZ and I fantasise about creating some sort on online directory of them when I have imaginary spare time. I have plenty more in my collection- El Jay, Glengyle, Ballantynes, early Dotti, Katie's, HOT Warehouse, Rico of Holland, Truly Fair, VIRUS, Lulu by Lenbry, Isadora Duncan, Reno, Thornton Hall, Andrea Biani and lots more, but these are my favourites.

'Freckles' by J. M. Bartlett & Co., from a 1950s day dress I got on Trademe, worn here aaaages ago.

My two Horrockses dresses, the first woolen one made in the UK in the 1950s and bought for a mere $30 from a vintage shop here in Wellington, worn here and the second made in New Zealand in the 1960s, picked up from an opshop for me by my friend Alex in Christchurch for $6 and worn here.

My amazing 1960s red woolen military dress by Bobbie Brooks that I thrifted when I was 15 or so for $4. I remember skipping last period (sorry, mum) on a fine Friday to go opshopping with my friends and being so happy to snag this in the middle of summer, along with some rose-print rayon shorts that I have no idea what happened to. I was wearing this in the photos used in our first ever blog post, where we were photographed by a local street style thing for the newspaper. This one deserves far more wear than I give it.



An amazing and very modest 1950s Bobbie Jean swimsuit that I plan on wearing under sheer skirts and dresses when it warms up. My friend Margot's mum sold this to me for $5 when I found it in her costume box, haha, and I've worn it here and many other times that have remained undocumented.



A Rayana Production, on a perfect 1950s royal blue velvet dress that I got off Trademe. Worn here in perhaps one of my favourite outfit posts ever.



Mod-ish 1960s Freddie Allan dress that I got from Recycle Boutique. Fun fact: soon after I moved here I saw this dress being taken to Recycle to be sold and decided that I needed it, and then 3 weeks later I saw a shop assistant pricing it and putting it out on the rack and snapped it up immediately.



Jennie Casuals, on these amazing late-1970s embroidered high-waisted short shorts that I don't think I've ever worn on here. These almost perfectly match a pair of ABBA-esque flares that I got from Two Squirrels for $5 years ago, even though I don't wear jeans- they have matching red and yellow floral embroidery.



Lots of things from this Frankie label have passed through my hands in my time at the opshops, all of them seem to be from around the 80s. I managed to persuade Christie to sell me this dress after years of coveting it openly, and it's one of my favourites. The light fabric and butt-skimmingly short length make this perfect for hot days, hence why I wore it here in Singapore.



Perhaps my favourite of all of these, California Cottons, made in New Zealand in the 1950s. EDIT: It looks like I just wasn't Googling hard enough because I found a few mentions of this label including some amazing ads here and here. Does anyone own this book and have any info on the brand? How something made in NZ can be in any way Californian is beyond me, but hey, it was a different time. I got it off Trademe for a very small price, and wore it to see Bon Iver earlier this year with purple 60s high-heeled suede mary-janes by another enduring NZ label, Andrea Biani. You can kinda see it in this terrible webcam photo.

Also I would really truly love to see other photos of labels from the vintage collections of other Kiwis, so if you have any please please send me links or email me (georgianess at gmail dot com)! I would love to do some sort of master post on them, or something.

WTF NZ

Hey guys! Sorry for being so slack lately, uni has been extraordinarily busy and I've had a million essays do. I'll get onto regular posting soon-ish (including a rehash of the Media essay I just wrote on heteronormativity in fashion blogging), but for now let this suffice. Please watch the video and consider making a donation, even if you don't live in New Zealand. The services that these guys are providing to LGBT+ youth are absolutely essential, and they deserve a couple of your dollars for all the amazing work they do. 

Thanks!

(Is the video working? It sometimes does and sometimes doesn't on my browser. If it's not showing up, please check this out, then go to wtf.org.nz.

Winter Blues

 
(Wearing a thrifted kids 1960s peter-pan collar coat with velvet piping, 1950s leather school satchel from Trademe, 50s-esque dress I got made in Vietnam from vintage fabric, lilac floral knit cardigan from Trademe and black t-bar flats from Trademe)

Photos taken by the amazing Kita, at this cool little pathway full of natives we discovered at one of the many parks near our house. We pretty much live in the bush. There was a full-length one of my outfit but it was so terrible I chickened out.

The other day (actually over a week ago, but my card reader broke and I only just got a new one) Jack and I had use of another flatmate's car, so as usual I shirked my responsibilities as a student in favour of an opshopping trip around the Wellington bays. We had such good luck and left with a pretty huge haul, meaning I had to cram in the tiny backseat while our velvet rocking chair sat in the front.



This chair is best thing we found all day, I think. We needed a chair to chuck our clothes on/fill a gap in our room, and this one was super cute and also it rocks. We got it from this weird, inexplicably-priced opshop in Miramar, where some things were super cheap and the others ludicrously expensive. The useless (the weights are in stone? Who understands stone? Edit: OK, it turns out people in the UK use stone. I am an idiot.) but cool-looking green Art Deco scales were $2 but there were New Zealand woolen blankets- I'm sure every Kiwi reading this has one on their bed, you know the kind- for $30 each. I found a cute little 70s Japanese ceramic gnome on a log that was $20. WHY? The scalloped oval mirror was a pretty good $4, perhaps because the rivets that held the mirror bit to its backing were coming away. Nothing a quick turn of the screw can't fix. Our walls are pretty much full so I've slotted it in behind our 'bookshelf' (coffee table wedged between the bed and wall) for now.


I always pick up these sheer pink swiss-dot ballet skirts when I find them. I was a ballerina for 12 years so I have a soft spot for them, we used to wear them for class when I was a kid. Also the awesome vintage Australian tablecloth I couldn't leave behind for $1. My flat doesn't even have a table. Nostalgia vs. practicality is a constant battle for me and I think it's clear which side generally wins. 'Useless but cool-looking' is pretty much my aesthetic outlook.



Rose is my name, my favourite flower, my favourite smell, and perhaps my favourite motif. I dropped a massive $5 on this mid-century-esque tray but I've been forcing Jack to bring us tea in bed on it to make it worth the spend. Also 70s mushroom vase that I'm going to grow coriander on my windowsill in, and this delicate little saucer with a sorta tessellated bird pattern that I'm keeping my rings and hairties in on my dresser. Also got some large Agee preserving jars for $2 each, which I guess seems like lots for a jar but I've seen them for $15 in ~antique shops~ haha. Preserving rules!

Squirrel Sale

I've been a bad blogger lately. I apologise. I have the same boring excuses: busy with school, extra-curricular activities, social life, travel. I've bought so many beautiful things that I haven't shown the world yet! My goldenponies t-bar flats arrived in the mail a month or so ago and they are like, the nicest shoes I've ever had. They are really really nice. And they look cute with everything.

Not long after that my Demonia creepers arrived - and they are so awesome, but oh lord the blisters of the first week were the worst of my life. Now they're worn-in and super-comfortable and I have a lot of fun being two inches taller.

In April I went to Bali for 10 days, and it was hot and insane and there were monkeys climbing on me and I loved it. Expect some photographs of my trip soon, it was an amazing place to photograph so I took hundreds!

I have a fair amount of spending money left over from my trip and I was thinking of buying a black 15" Cambridge Satchel. Do any of our followers have one? Is it worth the two hundred NZ dollars?

wearing:

thrifted faux fur hat and vintage 'juniors' dress, gifted fur coat, retail tights, goldenponies t-bars, Revlon lipstick in berry haute

I wore this to the wonderful winter sale at Two Squirrels Vintage, one of my favourite vintage stores that I'm sure I've mentioned before, owned by the very sweet Vanessa and Warren. I took home beautiful things and saw lovely people, and went home happy.

This dress fits me so well, I love the shape of it and the swiss dots are wonderful!

(the back of this dress is so perfect, I almost want to wear it backwards) 

The pale pastel blue colour and style of this dress gives off a vibe that is hard to describe but so fantastic!

I took this photograph a few hours ago of the beautiful 'super-moon' out in the sky tonight. The photo really does not do it justice, it was breathtaking.

Vietnam Haul

Here are some pictures of the aforementioned fabric market, which is inside Tan Dinh market, and tailor in Vietnam. I was pretty happy with my experience at Chi Chi Tailor, which is at 138 Ð Pasteur (down the alleyway behind the shops) in Ho Chi Minh City. The staff were really lovely and had excellent English, and I had no trouble getting across what I wanted.

Inside the fabric market. I could've spent days there, and insisted on dragging my mum back many times for more haberdashery stuff and amazing fabric. It went on and on for rows and rows. Looking back at these pictures I realise there is so much I probably missed and I wish I'd spent more time there, although I still managed to find some excellent fabrics to bring home for my stash AND I am going back in July anyway. My favourite purchase was some strawberry-print denim that I think I paid $2/metre for, that I plan on making into some truly tacky high-waisted shorts when summer comes back to Wellington (ha ha).

The tailor had a pretty good selection of fabrics available too, but nothing that really lit my fire. I got these four dresses made, the right-hand one based on a picture from the Horrockses book Jack got me for my birthday (this one looks significantly better on a human body) and the other three based on my favourite simple 1950s dress with slight variations in the skirts. The pink lily-of-the-valley fabric was from my friend Ella, and the teardrop, stripe and velvet fabrics were from the market. I think it worked out to about $30-35 per dress including fabric, and they're mostly lined and all decent quality.

These are the ones I got from the second hand stalls at another market, that are known as 'ao sida'. They're imported clothes that people have donated from other parts of Asia and Australia and the stalls were pretty gross, but I got 3 awesome 80s dresses. When I saw the pink-y rose corset one my initial reaction was that it was hideous, but then I went back and found I'd fallen in love with it for some reason. It's grown on me a lot since then! Also the black rose-print one still needs to be taken up, as it's nearly ankle length on me which is not overly flattering but it has a nice 50s-esque shape in general. There is another one, a plaid woolen drop-waisted pinafore, but it was having a soak when these photos were taken, sorry! They were $2-3 each, which I'm extremely happy with.

Here's my whole haul (also see some of our tapestries up above the window, awesome right). The anomalous one is from River Island, but the label is Chelsea Girl which is apparently what they were called in the 60s. This one comes from a range that are remakes of their original designs, so it's kiiiinda... vintage... in a way? I don't usually like new-new clothing- as opposed to new-to-me clothing- but it was a gift from my dad and it's really beautiful. I think that sums up all the crap I acquired over there, so here's a little tiny haul from yesterday when Jack and I ducked into a few opshops on our rug hunt (WHERE DO YOU FIND A DECENT RUG?? SERIOUSLY). We desperately needed a bin so I was pretty chuffed to find this cute 1970s floral rubbish tin. Also: vintage unused tea towel and black leather mary-janes. Not bad for $10. Just wanna take a moment to say how cool it is to have a significant other who really enjoys thrifting, who I don't have to drag into every opshop. It also means our room is super cool cause it's full of kitschy stuff from before we were born. OK, DONE.

Under the Sea

I felt pretty good when I put on this outfit, but now that I look at it in photos I think maybe it's too twee? Maybe there are too many whimsical components and they're all competing? I'm not sure. Every now and then I go through these stupid first-world crises where I have no idea what is ugly and what's not and I have trouble dressing myself, and I am definitely doing that now. I do know I god damn LOVE this novelty-print 1950s dress though. I bought it from House of Maryanne before I went away, and when I got back it was waiting at the foot of my bed for me. When I haven't been wearing it, it's been hanging on my wall like a piece of art. Not only is the under-the-sea print phenomenal, but it fits really well and got the perfect big pockets so I can carry all my junk around in them. Today I was feeling a little better thanks to hitting the inhalers hard, so went into town with my lady flatmates for beer and chips, and it was awesome to get out of the house after doing nothing for so long.

After she struck up a conversation about the length of my hair, I spent a good half hour trying to persuade the lovely girl who poured my pint to try going shampoo-free, which I started doing after I read about Eline's success with it. I'd like to take this opportunity to tell everyone reading this to give it a try too, as it not only does amazing things to your hair but is ridiculously cheap. I now only wash my hair once a fortnight-ish, which is totally not gross but actually really awesome. It's good for the hot water bill and good for me. If you find your hair problematic in any way you should seriously consider giving this a try, it will basically solve all your follicular problems.

As usual these photos are by the wonderful Kita!

My face looks funny in this one but I like it?

(Wearing 1950s novelty print day dress from House of Maryanne vintage, tights from H&M Kids via my mum, vintage green princess coat from Zwzzy, black t-bar ballet flats from Trademe, cane basket bag from Two Squirrels Vintage, and opshopped mustard woolen beret)

Goodbye Saigon

So I went to Vietnam, it was fun. I had university holidays coming up, and when I mentioned it to my parents, who live in Ho Chi Minh City, they suggested I met them in Singapore in a few days. So... I did. It was a really rushed trip, which lead to some delays stemming from a problem with my Vietnam visa. The problem being I didn't have one. But after some canceled flights and some begging and pleading and frantic taxi rides to the embassy and large wads of cash exchanged, I ended up in Ho Chi Minh City safely once more. Relatively safely. I had a bit of classic food poisoning, and also infected bedbug bites and the flu, which lead to a sinus infection and me losing my voice completely too. Which is fun in a country where you don't speak the language to begin with. But thankfully Vietnamese pharmacies are extremely liberal with their medications, and endowed upon me a huge pile of medications that would require actual medical assessment in NZ. It was still an excellent trip, even though I wasn't up to as much as usual.


I can always manage a drink though. The prices in Vietnam are RIDICULOUS. Thirty cents for a can of beer? Nine dollars for a litre of Gordon's? Two dollars for an amaretto sour? Don't mind if I do! My suitcase was utterly stuffed on the way home, with bottles of gin wrapped in dresses.


My mum had prepared for my arrival with this charming 5-litre cask of disgusting wine.




Excellent decor at the Reunification Palace.





I LOVE PACKING. I think a good future career for me would be a personal packer for the rich and famous. This was my initial travel wardrobe, although I managed to acquire much more on my sojourn, including some beautiful tailored pieces. We found an a m a z i n g fabric market, inside Tan Dinh market. They pretty much had every sort of fabric and trimming you could ever want, and this is where Mum and I bought fabrics to get dresses and things made at the tailor. Printed 100% cottons were around $1-$3 per metre, with velvet and linen and lace being a little more expensive. I also got an amazing lace collar for 30 cents. I also unearthed some second-hand stalls at another market, where donated clothing from China and Australia is imported and resold, where I got three awesome, possibly hideous 80s dresses. 'Possibly hideous' could describe everything I want to wear lately. I left Wellington with almost nothing in my suitcase, and came back with 10 dresses, which was actually a terrible idea because Jack just moved in with me and now I have to share my little clothes rail with him. I've had to put some of my dresses in a suitcase and store them away for a while! I will post outfit photos with some of my new things soon. But not right now. I am too sick to do much. Apparently I have asthma now, which is great fun.