The way we wore on Home Services

Jan

The way we wore

posted by admin in Window Cleaning

During the first visit of a reigning monarch to New Zealand, young Queen Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, are touring the country, and the Bowan boys are demonstrating sheep shearing in McLean Park, Napier.
Black woollen singlets are tucked into loose tweed trousers, paired with sacking moccasins.
And there they are, captured in a photograph, talking to the royal couple; the Duke of Edinburgh in a sharp suit and tie, the Queen in a crisp cream collared dress, three strands of pearls around her neck, white peep toe shoes and a puffy white hat on her regal head.
%26quot;Shes got this look,%26quot; says Bronwyn Labrum, co-editor of a new book, Looking Flash Clothing in Aotearoa New Zealand. %26quot;Shes looking down at her feet, and can probably smell the lanolin. There is a wonderful contrast between her clean white shoes and the classic New Zealand outfit of the agricultural man or shearer.%26quot;
The black and white photograph, which speaks of a moment in history when class, country and colonial angst clashed, is the cover of Looking Flash. The book of essays documents changes in New Zealand fashion, from Maori cloaks to colonial dresses through to the shrinking swimsuit, World War II glamour and the cheeky black singlet.
%26quot;Clothes are a lens into the society of the time,%26quot; says Labrum, who is a senior lecturer in the school of visual and material culture at Massey University in Wellington. %26quot;There is this whole ambivalence to fashion in New Zealand, we dont want to stand out.%26quot;
Although names like those of local fashion designers Karen Walker and Trelise Cooper are familiar to many, New Zealand has not always been known for its sense of fashion, much less style.
%26quot;Weve had this reputation for being dowdy and Karen Walker has once said there is a Saturday morning feeling to our clothing,%26quot; says Labrum. She says %26quot;our dark, quirky, different take on things%26quot; comes from being an isolated country.
Kiwis looked to the northern hemisphere from the colonial days. %26quot;There was a lot of formality in 19th century dressing,%26quot; says Labrum. %26quot;However, in New Zealand it was almost a necessity to be more casual. They didnt have the balls and formals like they did in the old country. In isolated rural areas, there wasnt the need for formal dress.%26quot;
Fashions evolved from the 1840s, from the Victorian era with several changes in silhouettes and fabrics, with the introduction of bustles, and in the early 20th century, a relaxing and lengthening of the silhouette with Edwardian fashions. Kiwi fashions became less formal, and the environment and outdoors lifestyle played an important role, says Labrum. Working outdoors, taming the land in forestry, farming and other outdoor labourer also required less structured garments.
The 1920s and 30s brought more freedom for women, and garments became less structured, with the flapper silhouette. World War II brought wide shoulder pads, curled iron hair, and wedge platform shoes, and the 1950s featured big skirts with the cinched waist, that %26quot;archetypal US glamorous housewife look%26quot; says Labrum. The 1960s and 70s brought Mary Quant mod and futuristic streetwear, %26quot;and the last two decades of the twentieth century is so diversified, you cant really pin it down to one look,%26quot; says Labrum. %26quot;In the early 20th century, everyone wants to be a designer, and everyone who is anyone wants to have a fashion label.%26quot;
FASHIONABLE TIMES
When Gaye Watson, owner of One Three One Fashions, first moved to Hamilton from Wellington 30 years ago, the differences were marked. %26quot;In Wellington, with government and business in the central city, there were all these beautifully dressed women and men in suits. When I arrived here in summer and got dressed up and went to town, it was hot, and everyone was wearing sundresses, jandals and shorts. I felt so out of place.%26quot; Watson says fashion in New Zealand has changed with the times. %26quot;You could go back to the era of (the film) The Piano, with all the corsages and voluminous dresses, styles which came from England and overseas. They immigrated from cold countries, and all of a sudden they were in New Zealand, with all these extra unnecessary layers. They realised they didnt need all that fabric. Then came the 1920s, the glamorous flapper era, and the frugal 1930s and the 1940s, and after the war.
%26quot;My mother never went to town on a Friday without her suit, gloves and a hat. There were beautiful fashions, mainly from Europe, which were expensive. People didnt have as many clothes back then. One good outfit which they had to take care of. My mum would come home and change into her home clothes.%26quot;
As children, Watson and her sisters, growing up in Invercargill, were kept well groomed, neat and tidy by their mother. %26quot;It was an era where people cared about how they dressed. I remember my mother had these tongs and she would put them in the coal embers and use them to curl our hair. I remember that smell of singed hair too! It was very important to dress up for Sunday school and things like that.%26quot;
Watson grew up without television until the age of 20, and but was inspired by overseas fashion magazines. %26quot;There was this wonderful magazine called Seventeen. A girl in my class, her parents travelled to the States and brought it back for her. We would all gather around and got all these ideas.%26quot;
She says fashions have changed significantly since the 1960s, becoming much more casual and dressed-down. %26quot;There has been a huge influence from television and travel,%26quot; says Watson. %26quot;Its such a pity that it has become so informal. People are reticent to dress up. In the past, you would never wear denim to a funeral or wedding, but now you see people wear jeans not suits.%26quot; She says, in some circles, particularly among the horse racing set, dressing up for special occasions and races is still de rigueur. More tailored dressing, from dresses to jackets, is coming back into vogue among fashion designers. %26quot;We have some very beautiful beaded silk chiffon dresses in our window at the moment, and cars have almost been running off the street,%26quot; says Watson, who brought her Pembroke St shop almost 25 years ago, in 1983.
%26quot;Now Hamiltonians are more inclined to dress up than before and there are more stores to choose from. I find I have a lot of clients who now never buy fashion overseas. New Zealand fashion is right up there.%26quot; The influx of moderate priced fashion retailers, from Warehouse Clothing 20 years ago, to the modern day Glassons, makes clothing more affordable. Watson says while people no longer have just one %26quot;good outfit,%26quot; the cheaper fashions available mean there is less emphasis on stylish smart dressing nowadays, especially among young people. She thinks those values could be taught by making school uniforms compulsory. %26quot;When I was in school, we had to kneel on the floor and our headmistress would come along and your skirt had to be on the floor,%26quot; says Watson. %26quot;Your hair had to be neat. Its all about respecting your clothes. Throw-away clothes are a dime a dozen now.%26quot;
AUSTERE WEDDINGS
WhenPamela Anderson, 80, got married, it wasnt in a white bikini on a yacht off St Tropez. When the Hamilton woman with the same name as the Baywatch star married, just after World War II, the choices of bridal wear were quite austere due to war rationing. %26quot;I wore a navy blue suit,%26quot; says Anderson. %26quot;My sister married during the war in a dark blue suit too. Very few people had white weddings then. It was difficult to get nice things unless you were very well-off. But I had the most beautiful high heels, in navy blue suede, with a criss-cross strap at the back. You could wear them nowadays.%26quot; Anderson sits in her home, overlooking sparkling Lake Rotorua in the heart of Hamilton, dressed neat as a pin in slacks and a pretty patterned top.
She remembers the late 40s, after the war ended. %26quot;There was the `New Look brought in by Christian Dior, and dresses were fitted with full skirts and petticoats. I remember buying two frocks, in fine wool, which were identical but in different colours blue and cerise with fitting bodices and full skirts. These two frocks I wore again and again, with jackets, shawls, scarves and different shoes.%26quot;
English by birth, she immigrated to New Zealand in 1954, and found the availability of clothing between London and Auckland quite different. %26quot;I used to think it was really behind, I couldnt even find pantihose to fit my size 10 feet,%26quot; says Anderson. Her sleeveless frocks and leather slave sandals from London, all the rage there, were frowned on by her new boss. %26quot;I thought they were the bees knees, but they were deemed not suitable.%26quot; Anderson worked for radio station 1ZB. She later worked as a shopping reporter in Palmerston North and Wanganui.
Her older sister Pauline had a shop in Matamata called Fashion Casuals.
A forward-thinking fashionista for her time, Anderson enjoyed wearing slacks, but says in the 1930s, seeing women in pants was shocking. %26quot;I remember seeing a woman walking towards me in slacks. This was the 1930s and I was a girl, but it was a big shock. My mother was always very progressive, she told me about the 1920s, when the `little boy look was in, and women wore no bras and flattened their busts.%26quot; As daywear changed, so did beachwear, especially in New Zealand, with its fine beaches and weather. %26quot;I have a photograph from the 1950s or 60s, swimming at Cheltenham, near Devonport, and coming out of the water. It had a tight top, was waisted with a ruched bottom, and was white with little blue embroideries on it. It was an all-in-one. In the early 60s I bought a two-piece and thought it was very daring. It was quite skimpy, although not by todays standards.%26quot; Nowadays, Anderson doesnt look to England or overseas, if she wants something stylish. %26quot;You can buy things here, and get better things here now.%26quot;
BLACK SINGLETS
In her chapter on the black singlet in New Zealand culture, Stephanie Gibson, history curator at Te Papa, ticks all the black boxes, from characters Fred Dagg to Wal from Footrot Flats. By the 1970s, the black singlet was shorthand for the %26quot;archetypal Kiwi bloke a strong, independent, no-nonsense, hard-working man.%26quot; It also became a garment used for satire by people such as Billy T James and John Clarke.
Black singlets are still a popular garment for shearers and farmers, says John Haddad, who has been running Karam %26amp; John Haddad Menswear with his brother in Otorohanga for 42 years.
%26quot;We sell as many wool bush singlets as when we first started in 1965,%26quot; says John Haddad. %26quot;They have been going for a long time.%26quot; Manawatu Knitting Mill in Palmerston North has been making the black woollen singlets for more than a century, designed extra long to protect the kidneys from the cold.
%26quot;You could have any colour you liked, as long as it was black,%26quot; laughs Haddad. %26quot;Thats where Henry Ford got his idea from. I think the Kiwis came up with it before he did.%26quot;
Although fine knits and thermal merino fabrics are now also popular, there is nothing that holds body warmth in wet and sweaty conditions like the black woollen singlet.
%26quot;The original authentic style has no sleeves, with room in the shoulders and not tight under the arms,%26quot; says Haddad. %26quot;If you are a working person shearing or fleecing or doing agricultural work you are in a position where you are putting stress on your shoulders, and these guys get very aggravated very quickly if their shoulders are sore. The biggest thing about the wool, if you sweat, the wool doesnt get cold. There is nothing else in the world that does that. The biggest threat to a shearer is a chill in the back.%26quot;
Haddad says you cant pigeonhole black singlet wearers by age or job. %26quot;It crosses over its not wool for older guys and fine knits for young guys. Its for different occupations.%26quot;
He says that, for a time, girls used to wear the long singlets as a dress, but most black singlet buyers tend to be blokes.
Haddad says the black singlet is classic kiwiana. %26quot;Its part of the image of this country, its iconic. It used to be the Swanni and the black bush shirt, but this has changed. There is a lot more on the catwalk nowadays.%26quot;
Waitomo identity and businessman, Billy Black, is known for his black singlets. He wears them nearly every day and loves the reactions he gets. %26quot;If Im wearing a black singlet, everyone picks up on it. New Zealanders still appreciate it.%26quot; Black says he is flying the flag for black singlet wearers, and has worn them since he was a lad growing up on a farm near Kawhia, and when he worked around the world in the 1990s as a professional shearer.
He reckons the black singlet brings out Kiwi pride.
%26quot;They wear them at the Olympics, and the word black All Blacks, the black boat conjures up a lot,%26quot; says Black.
Now he is taking the black singlet to new heights. %26quot;We had a local contest of Dancing with the Stars here, and we had to do the waltz and the cha-cha. I turned my black singlet into a set of tails for the waltz outfit, and for the cha-cha, cut a v in the chest and put pink sparkles around the sleeve and the v of the vest. People couldnt believe their eyes.%26quot;
For some, adding such a feminine touch to a decidedly masculine fashion item might seem like sacrilege, but its all part of the evolving nature of New Zealand fashion. %26quot;I had one with a collar on it made, so I can go into nightclubs in Auckland,%26quot; says Black. %26quot;If you wear it with black gumboots, its a fashion statement.%26quot;