Tag Archives: Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion

Unveiled: the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in miniature

30 April 2012 – 4.55pm

A year ago, we launched the Te Papa Wedding Photo Gallery. We did so in conjunction with the news that the V&A’s sumptuous exhibition of 200 years of wedding fashion was coming to our shores. Both announcements were timed to coincide with the much-anticipated marriage of Prince William to Catherine Middleton – an event that sent much of the world into a wedding-obsessed frenzy.

Post-wedding we were constantly asked if we were ‘getting Kate’s gown?’  Well, we would have loved to have borrowed her Alexander McQueen gown, but alas it was not available  - and believe me we really did try. However, we recently acquired the next best thing – Prince William and Catherine their wedding day, rendered in miniature by eight year old Brodie Domb.

And so with a little bit of pomp and ceremony, I am happy to ‘unveil’ the happy couple on their wedding day in celebration of the Duke and Duchess’s first  anniversary.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Catherine on their wedding day. Peg Dolls made by Brodie Domb. Gift of Brodie Domb, 2011. © Te Papa.

Prince William might look a little more like Harry with his crop of reddy brown hair, but he looks super smart in his uniform, and Kate looks a picture in her long-sleeved gown and beaming smile. As with the Prince, young Brodie has taken some artistic licence with Kate – perhaps like some commentators she thought that Kate should have worn a fancier tiara and put her hair up. Either way, they are a great little addition to our collection of DIY Royal memorabilia.

The happy couple are currently on display at Te Papa on Level 2 in a case dedicated to children’s toys and activities.  For some more peg doll inspiration visit Te Papa’s Collection Online.

By Claire Regnault | Posted in Exhibitions, History | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Unveiled: Wedding Dress of the Week

20 April 2012 – 8.57am

This week marks the conclusion of Wedding Dress of the Week, as Unveiled: 200 years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London finishes at Te Papa on Sunday.

My final wedding dress pick is one of the most admired dresses not actually in the exhibition - that is except in photographic form. It’s the splendid white cotton organdie and poplin gown that adorns the cover of curator Edwina Ehrman’s accompanying book, Wedding Dress: 300 Years of Bridal Fashions.

Wedding Dress: 300 Years of Bridal Fashions. The cover features an exquisite photograph by John French of a Hardy Amies gown, 1953.

The gown was designed by leading British designer Hardy Amies, and wistfully photographed by John French (1907-1966), who has been described as ‘the man who brought a new glamour to fashion photography’ in the 1950s. When you view his archive you certainly can see why. (Thankfully following French’s untimely death, his wife Vere Dunning had the foresight to gift his archive to the V&A.)

Edwina had long admired John French’s ‘poised but very innovative fashion photographs’ and had been aware of this stunning photograph of Myrtle Crawford modelling a Hardy Amies wedding dress for some time. As such, it was a natural candidate for the cover of the book.

The gown was not originally made for a bride, but for a fashion show organised by the Cotton Board, a short-lived Manchester-based pressure group dedicated to the promotion of cotton in fashion. The Cotton Board regularly commissioned evening and cocktail gowns from leading English and French designers for promotional parades. Their aim was to demonstrate that cotton could be just as glamorous as silk or rayon. This obviously applied to bridal wear as well, for Amies designed this wedding dress for ‘This Year of Cotton’, a parade held at the Hyde Park Hotel, London on May 29 in 1953.

Last week we learned that the Cotton Board and Hardy Amies were successful in inspiring at least one bride to choose cotton for her wedding dress. Not only did the bride choose white cotton organdie, she had an exact copy of Hardy Amies’ dress made. The bride was Suzanne Cotter of Blenheim, New Zealand, who married Walter Lascelles Hill of the influential Christchurch based wool-buying and scouring firm Walter Hill & Sons.

Suzanne discovered a photograph of the dress in a magazine, and took it to Mrs Pooley, a popular Christchurch dressmaker who specialised in bridal wear and ball gowns.

Suzanne Hill (nee Cotter) wearing Mrs Pooley’s skillful copy of Hardy Amies’ design in 1954. Photograph courtesy of the Hill family.

It has to be said, that Mrs Pooley did both the bride and Hardy Amies proud as this wedding photograph of Suzanne shows. Even the photograph, while set in a suburban garden with a telegraph pole in the background, bears a hint of French’s stylish studio shot.

In the 1980s Suzanne’s wedding dress received a second outing at her son Nicholas’ wedding. The gown was worn by Suzanne’s future daughter-in-law Cindy (nee Heard) at their Hamner Springs wedding. In the heady 80s, when shoulder pads and pouf were in, Amies’ design and Mrs Pooley’s workmanship proved timeless.

Newly weds, Nick and Cindy Hill. Cindy wears her mother-in-law’s gown. Photograph courtesy of the Hill family.

Imagine Suzanne and her family’s surprise when they first saw the cover of Edwina’s book!

While we have been delighted to find such a wonderful copy of Hardy Amies’ dress on this side of the world – proof of the impact of international magazines – back in England another exciting discovery has been made.  When Edwina chose the John French image for the book’s cover, she did not dream that the dress itself could possibly still exist - we’ve all been on those fruitless curatorial hunts.  Recent detective work, however, has revealed that the original gown not only exists, but is in good condition and just as stunning in real life as in French’s photograph.

‘The volume of the skirt is amazing – it is big, big, big and the size of the waist quite tiny’.

Edwina Ehrman

After the Cotton Board fizzled out in the late 1960s, their collection of designer garments, including Hardy Amies’ cotton organdie wedding gown, made their way into the collection of Manchester City Galleries. Fittingly for a city famed for its textile industries, the gallery boasts one of Britain’s best costume collections. Edwina hopes that V&A will be able to borrow the gown for their showing of the exhibition in 2014.

‘Wedding Dress of the Week’ is posted in association with Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London which is on display at Te Papa until 22 April.

Claire Regnault – Senior Curator History

By Claire Regnault | Posted in Exhibitions, Fashion, History, Photography | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Unveiled: Wedding Dress of the Week

13 April 2012 – 10.01am

During Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London there has been much gasping and musing over the number of teeny tiny waists on display, and those elegant instruments of torture, corsets. I, however, have been captivated by sleeves – dropped, ruched, puffed and frilled. The creators of 19th century fashion certainly had an inventive approach to sleeves.

The sleeves that have particularly piqued my interest are from this week’s wedding gown. The embroidered muslin gown below is believed to have been worn by  Mary-Anne-Grace Quin who married Herbert Mayo on 3 November 1834 in London. The dress is described as having ’large imbecile sleeves’. Imbecile sleeves?

Embroidered muslin wedding dress, lined with silk, British, 1834. Probably worn by Mary -Anne-Grace Quin who married Herbert Mayo on 3 November 1834 in London.
Given by Miss Gaster
V&A: T.63-1973
©Victoria and Albert Museum / V&A Images

While I had heard of  ’Lamb-O-Mutton’ and ‘Bishop’ sleeves I had never heard of the ‘Imbecile sleeve’. Neither had my colleagues. What did such a term reference? We looked at the gown intensely. Was it a reference to the twisted nature of the sleeve? Were imbeciles once-upon-a-time forced to wear some sort of large sleeved garment, a big sleeved straight-jacket of sorts? Well no.

The Oxford English dictionary cuts to the chase on its definition of  ’imbecile’. Noun – ‘a stupid person’. Adjective – ‘idiotic’. This is  exactly what a number of detractors thought of the women who indulged in big sleeved fashion. The detractors had a point, especially when  sleeves became so large that women had to turn sideways in order to get through doors – a sight much lampooned in men’s magazines. In today’s parlance, imbecile sleeve wearers were quite simply ’fashion victims’.

Worn in conjunction with a bell skirt, the size of the sleeves and skirt aided the visual illusion of the all important teeny tiny waist. Oversized sleeves were fashionable from the mid-1820s through to the mid 1830s,  at which point their dimensions were tamed. But slender sleeves also had their ‘prejudicial’ problems.

Silk wedding dress, British, 1857. Worn by Margaret Scott Lang for her marriage to Henry Scott in London in 1857. Given by Miss C. M. Higgs V&A:T.10A, C-1970 ©Victoria and Albert Museum / V&A Images

 In March 1836 Townsend’s Monthly Selection of Parisian Costumes advised its readers that:

The war of extermination which has been raging these two months between BOUFFANT SLEEVES and TIGHT SLEEVES has not ceased… The extremely wide sleeves are inconvenient and ridiculous, whist close sleeves… are prejudicial to the shoulders by contracting them. The wisest plan therefore is to adopt all that is really useful of each, giving tight sleeves the ornaments which usually belong to the bouffant sleeves… ruches, garnitures, ruffles, manchettes or bows; in fact all that can give them variety and novelty. *

After a few decades of stream-lined  sleeves, the big sleeve returned in a vengeance in the 1890s, when designers revitalised the unpleasantly named ‘Leg-O-Mutton’ sleeve (‘Gigot’ in French).

This 1894 wedding gown from Te Papa’s collection aptly illustrates the Leg-O-Mutton trend. It is made from a pin-stripped blue silk.

Wedding dress, 1894, Wales. Maker unknown. Gift of Miss C Rothwell, 1982. Te Papa.

In order to keep the pouf or the puff in such voluminous sleeves, additional forms of support were employed, including large down-filled pads, whalebone strips stitched into sleeves and even wire ‘sleeve bustles’. The latter certainly were not built for comfort.

Sleeve bustle, c 1890. Private Collection. http://www.the-gatherings-antique-vintage.net

* Quoted in Lucy Johnston’s gorgeous book Nineteenth Century Fashion In Detail, published by the V&A which is available from the Te Papa Store.

By Claire Regnault | Posted in Exhibitions, Fashion, History | Also tagged , , | Comments (1)

Upcoming lecture: War Brides

11 April 2012 – 11.15am

In conjunction with the exhibition Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria & Albert Museum, Dr Gabrielle Fortune will present an illustrated lecture on how wartime austerity impacted on wedding fashion at Te Papa this Sunday at 2pm.

Specifically, she will be looking at the  wedding dresses of women who married New Zealand servicemen and travelled to the far side of the world to set up home. Between 1942 and 1950, Kiwi servicemen returning from Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific, and Canada brought home thousands of new brides, representing dozens of nationalities.

Claire Dunlop and Pilot Officer Allen Dunlop on their wedding day, 16 September 1944. Image courtesy of Claire Dunlop.

Although these women from different countries had quite different wartime experiences, most had a story to tell about their wedding dress: how they made the best of available clothing, and how they incorporated national icons or symbols into their dress, cake decorations, or bouquets.

Fortune explores an era when clothing coupons dictated fashion – brides had to choose whether to borrow an outfit, wear military uniform, or splurge precious coupons on a dress.

Gabrielle Fortune is a Research Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Auckland. Her research interests include the war service of New Zealanders in the 20th century, veterans, and war commemoration. Her PhD thesis examined the history of war brides coming to New Zealand.

Lecture: Soundings Theatre, Level 2, Te Papa, 2-3pm Sunday 15 April. Admission free.

1946 Wedding dress from the exhibition Unveiled. This dress was made by Ella Dolling from a light weight upholstery fabric for Elizabeth King. Elizabeth did not have enough coupons to purchase dress fabric, so opted for a suitable alternative. Collection of Victoria and Albert Museum, Given by Mrs Gay Oliver Barrett.

By Claire Regnault | Posted in Events, Exhibitions, Fashion, History | Also tagged , , , | Comments (3)

Unveiled: Wedding Dress of the Week

6 April 2012 – 9.24am

With the mornings crispy and the evenings increasingly darker, winter is distinctly on it way. This week’s wedding gown from Te Papa’s collection is perfect for the winter bride.

Carosa

Wedding gown by Carosa, c. 1950. Collection of Te Papa. Gifted by Mary-Annette Hay, 2007.

This stunning medieval-style gown was designed by Italian high fashion house Carosa, and was worn by New Zealand’s ‘Queen of Wool’, Mary-Annette Burgess, for her marriage to Donald Hay in 1953.

At the time Mary-Annette was working for the New Zealand Wool Board as Promotions Officer, a position she held from 1948 to 1956. Her mission was to ‘take the wonder of wool to the nation’. She did this through a series of spectacular productions for which she scripted a series of dramatised stories starring the Wool Board’s enviable collection of post-war designer wool garments. Mary-Annette Hay lived what she preached. She wore designer wool garments at every opportunity, including on her wedding day. As she once said ‘I saw wool, I wore wool, I thought wool and only wool’.

Promotional poster from the 2007 Te Papa exhibition ‘Queen of Wool’. In the photograph Mary-Annette Hay wears a gown by Balmain.

After Mary-Annette and Donald announced their engagement, the media began to speculate about the nature of her wedding dress. The Wool Board allowed her to wear the only wedding dress in the collection – the Carosa gown. For her ’going away’, she wore a suit by British designer Hardy Amies.

The house of Carosa was established in 1947 by Princess Giovanna Caracciolo Ginetti, who attracted some of Italy’s most talented designers, including Patrick de Barantzen, Pino Lancetti, and Angelo Tarlazzi. In the 1950s, when the country’s fashion industry was emerging on the international stage, Carosa became a major influence on Italian fashion. Highly decorated Italian gowns became particularly popular with American film stars and, as a result, had a major influence on American designers for Hollywood.

The luxurious woollen fabric and the gown’s exquisite cord-work embroidery were trademarks of Italian-designed garments after World War II.  Embroidery, in particular, had long been an Italian craft, and was practised with great skill at this time.

Back view of Mary-Annette Hay’s wedding dress by Carosa.

In 2007 Mary-Annette Hay gifted her collection of designer woollen garments to Te Papa, along with archival material relating to her career in wool. To find out more about Mary-Annette Hay and her collection of designer woollen garments click here to watch an episode from Tales from Te Papa.

Mary-Annette Hay is still involved with the promotion of wool as an Honorary Ambassador for the Campaign for Wool. You can hear a 2011 radio interview with Mary-Annette Hay and Kim Hill from Radio NZ National here.

Wedding Dress of the Week is posted in association with Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria and Albert, London, which is on display at Te Papa until 22 April 2012.

By Claire Regnault | Posted in Exhibitions | Also tagged , , | Comments (2)

Unveiled: Wedding Dress of the Week

30 March 2012 – 8.06am

Last Friday evening I found myself sitting at the judges table at the ZM Bride of the Century competition, as 19 gorgeous brides vied for a second honeymoon courtesy of Cook Island Tourism. In keeping with the theme of the competition, I have chosen a 21st century wedding gown this week. It is a flirty little wedding dress – just four frothy tiers of tulle – designed by Alber Elbaz for the fashion house Lanvin.

The gown is from Elbaz’s Resort Collection (Spring, 2008), which included four non-traditional wedding dresses in which Elbaz ‘reinterpreted some of his hits—bubbles, tiers of tulle, skimmy sheaths’ (Nicole Phleps, Style.com).  Each version of the tiered tulle gown is individualised with different over-sized necklace. The gown in Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the V&A, London features a bold gold paste necklace, making it a somewhat more dramatic gown than the one illustrated below.

Wedding dress from Lanvin’s 2008 Resort Collection from Style.com. The wedding gown in the exhibition features a more dramatic necklace.

While Elbaz’s Resort Collection was well received by the fashion media, this particular little wedding dress shot to greater fame through the power of cinema. The dress was featured in the 2008 film Sex and the City: the movie, the plot of which revolved around Carrie Bradshaw’s forthcoming wedding to Mr Big (played by Sarah Jessica Parker and Christopher Noth respectively). One of the most celebrated scenes in the film features Carrie modelling a range of diverse wedding dresses for an American Vogue fashion shoot. In dizzying succession she poses in Vera Wang, Carolina Herrera, Christian Lacroix, Lanvin, Dior, Oscar de la Renta and Vivienne Westwood.

Each gown presents a different possibility of ‘Carrie the Bride’. The Lanvin dress is most often heralded as transforming the aging Carrie back into a carefree young woman.

Sarah Jessica Parker who plays Carrie Bradshaw, models a dress by Lanvin for the Vogue wedding dress scene. Her version of the Lanvin Resort dress featured a necklace of over-sized pearls. Film still from Sex and the City, directed by Michael Patrick King, 2008 (Newline Cinema).

The scene was styled by the real American Vogue team, many of whom play themselves in the film, including  flamboyant editor-at-large, André Leon Talley who can be currently seen on the small screen as a judge on America’s Next Top Model. Patrick Demarchelier, one of fashion’s most revered photographers, is behind the camera.

On the big day, Carrie does not head for the aisle in the little Lanvin, but opts for a grand Vivienne Westwood gown – a decision that left one online fan wondering if things would have worked out better if Carrie had worn the Lanvin  (check out Love Lanvin: a blog dedicated to Lanvin and Alber Elbaz).

Edwina Ehrman, curator of Unveiled, selected the Lanvin gown to illustrate the power of film and more crucially in the 21st century, of the internet. The high fashion scene prompted numerous online discussions on the merits of each dress, resulting in free and far reaching publicity for each of the six designers – publicity which translated into sales.  When Vivienne Westwood designed a limited edition gown similar to the Carrie Gown, and put it on Net-A-Porter, an online retailer, it sold out within day despite its £4,530 price tag.

Lanvin ceramic figure.

Lanvin Mannequin Bride by FRANZ. Each season Lanvin and FRANZ produce six new designs, based on the fashion house’s key silhouettes. They are released in editions of 800.

‘Wedding Dress of the Week’ is posted in conjunction with Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the V&A, London which is on display at Te Papa until 22 April 2012.

By Claire Regnault | Posted in Exhibitions, Fashion, History | Also tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Unveiled: Wedding Dress of the Week

23 March 2012 – 8.19am

This week’s wedding dress from Te Papa’s collection is not an extravagant affair, but an exercise in simplicity. It is a homemade wedding dress made by Elizabeth Clark, the eldest daughter of a mason from Adelaide.

Elizabeth Clark married William Millar in Melbourne, Australia on the 25 March 1872. News of their marriage was recorded in the Family Notices of The Argus on Wednesday 27 March, by which time the newly weds were well on their way to a new life in New Zealand via sailing ship. They had departed the port of Melbourne the day after their wedding, and settled in Dunedin.

Elizabeth chose a soft sheer cotton voile for her dress – a sensible choice for an unbearably hot Melbourne summer. On the 9th March 1872 a reporter for The Chronicle wrote an impassioned article about the unparalleled temperatures being experienced in the region – ‘Each morning the sun has risen like a ball of fire’ he exclaimed. Melburnians were suffering from temperatures of 100 to 106 degrees in the shade, oppressive, sleepless nights and venomous swarms of mosquitoes. ‘For the sake of humanity’ he hoped that the weather man’s prediction that the heat would last to the end of the month would prove false.

Elizabeth Clark’s hand-sewn wedding dress, 1872. Cotton voile. Gift of Mrs Mary Crone, 2009. Te Papa.

In contrast to the image of a blazing ball of fire and oppressive heat described by The Chronicle, Elizabeth’s prim, buttoned up white dress, presents a picture coolness and propriety. Rather than a fashionable city dress – ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ was Australia’s undisputed leader of style - with a flat front and bustle, it has a country feel, evocative of a pleasant summer’s day walking through long grass, picking flowers. The cotton features a woven stripe and  printed pattern of small flower sprigs in green and yellow.

Elizabeth Clark chose a cotton voile for her wedding dress. It features a print of sprigs of flowers and leaves.

Elizabeth stitched the bodice and the skirt completely by hand, using running stitches for joining seams, back-stitches for the pleats, bodice seams and in places where more strength was required, and overcast stitches for finishing seam allowances.   The hem is finished with yellow braided wool tape which picks up on the yellow flowers.

On close investigation this labour of love appears much worn. It features numerous little darns and mends.

Sunday 25 March 2012 marks the 14oth anniversary of Elizabeth and William’s wedding – an excuse to raise a toast.

Wedding Dress of the Week is posted in association with Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London which is on display at Te Papa until 22 April 2012.

By Claire Regnault | Posted in Exhibitions, Fashion, History | Also tagged , , | Comments (3)

Students enjoying the Unveiled education workshops

20 March 2012 – 2.14pm
Students at an Unveiled workshop

Students from He Huarahi Tamariki in Te Papa’s education room, creating paper wedding fashions in the fast paced project runway style education workshop.

The Unveiled education workshops have given Secondary School Fashion and Textiles classes the opportunity to learn about the changes in wedding fashion over the last 200 years. Students have enjoyed studying and sketching the historic and contemporary garments, and they have loved the chance to view them up-close.

Following a tour of the exhibition, the students are taken to the education room for a hands-on workshop, led by our team of educators. In a Project Runway inspired challenge, the students create and model their own wedding garments by working in small design teams. The results have been impressive!

After the visit many students have written us to pass on their feedback, here are two of our favourite comments…

‘In my opinion the Unveiled exhibition was the most amazing, spectacular exhibition I have ever been to. The detail in the clothes really stunned me and I was inspired’.   Mohammad from Wellington High School.

 ‘I really enjoyed the trip, it gave me a lot of ideas for what I want to make this year. The best part was making our own outfit out of paper I had so much fun. I really liked the exhibition and want to take mum before it closes!’  Jack from Wellington High School.

The exhibition closes 22 April. There are only a few places left for teachers to book their students. If you are interested in booking please contact Andrew Watt the Education Coordinator by emailing: reservations@tepapa.govt.nz

By gabby lawton | Posted in Education, Exhibitions, Fashion, Kids, Textiles | Comments (1)

Unveiled: Wedding Dress of the Week

16 March 2012 – 7.43am

Following a Te Papa Art After Dark session on the little details that matter (hats, shoes, jewellery, fabric and a well dressed man), I am on the couch awaiting my Thursday night telly treat – Project Runway. This week the battling designers are being asked to ‘join forces with art students to create artwork that will lend inspiration to garments’.

In keeping with the spirit of Project Runway’s theme, this week’s Wedding Dress is the result of a designer’s collaboration with an art student. Rather than a dress it is a coat, but what a coat!

‘Rajputana’ Wool Coat by Bellville Sassoon, London, 1970. V&A: T.26-2006. Given by David Sassoon.

Entitled ‘Rajputana’, it is from Bellville Sassoon’s Indian-inspired Winter collection of 1970/71, and was featured in the November issue of British Vogue.

'Rajputana' coat as featured in the pages of British Vogue, November 1970. Modelled by Maudie James, photographed by Barry Lategan.

‘Rajputana’ coat as featured in the pages of British Vogue, November 1970. Modelled by Maudie James, photographed by Barry Lategan.

The coat was designed by Richard Cawley (b. 1947), an assistant designer at Bellville Sassoon, a London fashion house founded by Belinda Bellville and David Sassoon in 1953. Cawley collaborated with Andrew Whittle, a student at the Royal College of Art Illustration School, on the design of the floral pattern and border. They found inspiration in the V&A’s collection of Indian artefacts.

Painting, mid to late 17th century (made), Opaque watercolour and gold on paper. V&A IS.48:11/B-1956

Andrew Whittle meticulously hand-painted the pattern onto the wool crepe coat once it was constructed. If you are able to attend Unveiled, make sure you take a good close look at the paint work, especially around the seams - it is so skillfully done. From a distance it can easily be mistaken for embroidery.

Following the success of this coat – it was one of the collection’s most popular designs -  Whittle and Cawley went on to collaborate on more hand-painted garments.

The coat was worn by Sara Donaldson-Hudson on her wedding day. Sara’s fashion conscious mother, Dorothy, had spotted the coat in Vogue, and convinced her daughter that it was a fashionable and appropriate choice for her upcoming registry office wedding. Dorothy, a mother with firm views, had declared that her daughter was not to wear white on the grounds that her fiance Nicholas Haydon was a divorcee. Sara wore the coat with an orange shift dress and matching satin boots from Chelsea Clobber (note the Vogue model is wearing boots painted with the same pattern as the coat). As mother-of-the-bride, Dorothy wore an orange jacket and dress ensemble that coordinated perfectly with her daughter’s outfit. Striking a pose, she beams with absolute pride from the wedding photos.

Wedding Dress of the Week is posted in conjunction with the exhibition Unveiled: 200 Years of Wedding Fashion from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London which is on display at Te Papa until 22 April.

By Claire Regnault | Posted in Exhibitions, Fashion, History | Also tagged , , , | Comments (4)

Unveiled: Wedding Dress of the Week

9 March 2012 – 9.00am

This week I am deviating from my own rules, as this Friday’s Wedding Dress is from neither the V&A’s or Te Papa’s collection. It is from Vinka Lucas’ Wedding Empire!

The marvellous Vinka Lucas is the topic of Lucy Hammond’s Unveiled lecture on Sunday 18 March at 11am. Vinka, pictured below, is one of New Zealand fashion history’s most idiosyncratic and extravagant personalities.

Vinka Lucas.

Vinka trained in dressmaking and design as a teenager in her home country of Croatia, and immigrated to New Zealand in 1951. Vinka was working hard to save her fare to return to her home country in order to start her own fashion business when she met and fell in love with David Lucas. Her travel plans soon made way for wedding bells, and Vinka turned her attention toward making the gown-of-all-gowns – her own wedding gown.  Vinka’s gown featured 500 metres of hand-pleated tulle and Chantilly lace, the weight of which required curtain wire as support. In 1980 she laughingly described her wedding gown to the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly as ‘the greatest monster I have ever created’.

Vinka Lucas on her wedding day. Photograph Belwood Studios, Auckland, Courtesy of Vinka Brides.

Following their wedding, the newly-weds settled in Hamilton. From the moment the Croatian-born designer opened the doors of her first Hamilton boutique –  Maree de Maru – in the 1960s, New Zealand brides were offered a fashion experience like no other. As the NZ Women’s Weekly commented ‘Waikato society had never seen anyone quite like the extravagant Vinka – or her designs – and business blossomed’. Success saw the couple relocate to Auckland in the late 1960s. Her clientele came to include glamorous women who had a taste for the exotic and wanted to stand-out from the crowd. Naturally, this included celebrities, several Miss New Zealands and the young Paula Ryan, who was New Zealand’s 1969 entrant in the Rose of Tralee pageant.

Promotional campaign for Maree de Maru.

Vinka established a range of labels for different occasions, including Maree de Maru, Vinka Lucas After Five, Vinka Lucas Couture, and for the bride-to-be Vinka Brides. The latter continues to operate today under the creative direction of the Lucas’s daughter, Anita Turner-Williams.

In the 1960s, Vinka and David, who was an entrepreneur at heart, developed a unique bridal service. The Lucas’ developed a nation wide pattern service and a magazine, New Zealand Bride: the Authentic Guide to the New Zealand Wedding - a ‘reference book’ for ‘brides and their families to help them plan their wedding and new home’. Naturally, the pattern service and magazine starred Vinka’s designs.

New Zealand Bride: The Authentic Guide to the New Zealand Wedding was published annually as a ‘reference book’ for brides and their families, by Lucas-Althman. The cover features a gown called ‘Champtalisa’ made from Italian crocheted lace. It is by Vinka Lucas.

In her illustrated talk, Lucy will delves into the world of Vinka Brides, and showcase some of Vinka’s most striking wedding designs from her extensive career.

Lucy Hammonds is the Curator of Design Collections at Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery, Napier. She has a special interest in New Zealand fashion design, and was co-author of The Dress Circle – New Zealand Fashion Design since 1940 (Random House, 2010).

By Claire Regnault | Posted in Events, Exhibitions, Fashion, History | Also tagged , , , | Comments (3)
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