Vintage New Zealand Fashion Labels 2.0

Almost exactly a year ago I made this post, with pictures of some of my favourite made-in-NZ labels on my vintage garments. It has proven to be one of our most viewed posts, mostly hits from people googling the names of labels, which I do all the time, trying to find information on them. I get a bit sad sometimes when I think about all the manufacturers who have just disappeared from the face of the country, and when I look them up all there seems to be is archived Trade Me listings from years ago. I decided to do a 2.0 of that post, which last time inspired a few people to do the same thing, as I've acquired a few more nice locally-made garments since then. Please link me if you do anything like this! I love labels, and I always get so excited when I spot a good one.

Also if you have any 1950s or 1960s NZ-made dresses (or any clothes or shoes, really) that you would like to sell, please get in contact with me at georgianess at gmail dot com.

Last time I posted about a great 1950s floral dress I have by California Cottons, and I have received a few emails from people about this label, because dresses by them are SO great. These are three of the best dresses I own. The first is a beautiful cap-sleeved blue velvet number I paid $17 for at Recycle, the second is my birthday dress, and the third I got on Trade Me, although it is sorta cheating because the label doesn't specify where it was made. As far as fellow fan Holly and I can ascertain, the maker has no real connection with California. It seems like most of these dresses were made in the UK, and it must've been a pretty upmarket label as the dresses SO nicely made with wonderful linings, built-in petticoats and hand-stitched detailing.

Jantzen is another big-name international label that was manufactured under license in New Zealand in the 1940s and 1950s, and I believe still is.

A couple of my absolute favourites - my Horrockses 1950s cotton dresses. The first one was manufactured under license in New Zealand by California Productions, and the second is made by Travis Casuals but using a quintessential floral striped Horrockses fabric, and has the same label as my Horrockses apron I opshopped last year. Both these dresses are, like my California Cottons, made to an exceptionally high standard. Camelia also has a California Productions Horrockses dress which she posted about last year, and there is a truly superb one on the website of Te Papa, our national museum.


California Productions also manufactured this adorable Miss Hit Parade woolen peter pan collar 1960s dress that I opshopped in Petone last weekend. It is way too small for my generous bosom, but so adorable. This is the only reference I could find to that label, but I did waste a lot of time browsing that website, which archives the newspapers from the area my family is from. So many pictures of relatives from across the 20th century!


The only info I could find about Suzy Gowns, the label on this great black tafetta 1950s skirt that the seller told me her mum wore a lot at the beginning of the 1950s, was an ad from a 1953 Upper Hutt newspaper for a situation vacant at the factory.

I got this Care Free Fashions rose and lace and gingham border-print day dress from Recycle recently. It has an awesome sailor collar as well, which is admittedly a bit twee even on me.


This Roydon 1950s rose printed dress has a special place in my heart, because I have a photo of my great aunt Rosalie wearing a dress of a very similar style when she was my age. Both she and her sister, my grandma, were of very similar builds to me, and every time I go vintage shopping with my mum she sighs over dresses and says they are just like ones that Julie and Rosalie used to wear. I so so wish they'd kept them all, but they are a notoriously un-sentimental bunch. My grandma donated her beautiful lace full-skirted wedding dress from 1956 to the Salvation Army, which makes me super sad as it would've fit me. But enough of that, let's focus on the cute dresses I do have that aren't lost to the decades!


The best 70s party dress by Charlie Girl.


These 1950s or early 1960s dresses by Another Beejay Garment, Kendells and Ladylook dresses were all from the same Trade Me seller. These were the things she was getting rid of when she moved, so I would die to get my hands on the stuff she kept.


Another 1950s cotton day dress by Florida that proves NZ must've had some weird obsession with the US in that era.

In the Flowers

I got this amazing 1950s cotton day dress with a big purple floral print on Trade Me the other day, because I have no self-control. It has been entirely stitched by hand with the neatest, tiniest little stitches ever. Even though it's massively seasonally inappropriate I wore it today.

 

  Idk what these poses are. Too much sav.



Worn with a 50s black cashmere cardigan that I've had for ages, rose pin from my friend Alex ages ago, pink belt off another dress, opshopped t-bar heels that I think are originally from Farmers, and opshopped 80s sunglasses that I got yesterday in Petone.

Also, this is hopefully the last time you'll ever see me with this grotty haircut. Growing out my fringe ("bangs") was a terrible decision, but now they are so long I can't just trim them back to the way they were, so I am getting a free haircut later this week from a student hairdresser, thank god.

Taranaki Hardcore

We went to Taranaki last week and it was the best. I am irrationally scared that writing about how great it was will replace my actual memory of how great it was, but damn, it was great. Jack's parents live on a beautiful verdant market garden on the beach, so all there is to do is go on walks and eat and drink and read by the fire and read in the hammock and go opshopping, and because his family are so nice it's like staying in a cosy well-decorated hotel where all the staff are your best friends. Sighhhh.

While I was there I also had the pleasure of meeting Jack's lovely grandma, who is a bit of a master knitter. To my delight she let me pore through her box of 1940s knitting patterns, and she is currently knitting me the cardigan on the right with some pale blue wool I got for cheap on Trade Me!

I totally should've bought the Chauvanist Pig board game, although I do not regret leaving behind the mug o' condoms. I did find lots of other great things in opshops, though. I don't have proper photos of any of them yet so here are some Instagram repeats:



Perfect and super comfy red 1960s mary janes which are NZ made and were barely worn when I got them! Plus a rather warm teal mohair Scottish-made cape, then the perfect 1970s pink striped tee worn over a 1990s spotted dress.

Velvet Teen

Wearing a 1950s floral velvet dress, Datter ring and necklace, vintage bangle, Melissa flocked wedges via Recycle Boutique and vintage belt from Two Squirrels.

I got this beautiful rose-print 1950s or 1960s velvet dress from the same Trade Me seller I got this dress from a few weeks ago. She is selling off a good portion of her vintage collection, and I have gladly taken four of them off her hands so far. This is definitely my favourite so far, and maybe even one of my favourite vintage dresses ever. I am trying to move my wardrobe towards being a little more seasonally versatile, so I feel sensible velvet dresses with three-quarter sleeves are a good idea for Wellington. My shoes are new too - the second-hand-but-modern kind of new. I got them from Recycle Boutique the other day, mainly because they reminded me of my long-time internet friend Gabs (who doesn't have a blog for some reason) who always wears full-skirted 1950s dresses with huge badass mary jane wedges. These shoes make me so tall I don't have to constantly be gazing upward to look people in the eye, and I can actually reach the microwave in our house. Magic.

Also pictured: I am wearing eyeliner haha, continuing to attempt to become a makeup-wearing person. My boss (who is probably reading this, hi Fi!) is a total makeup guru and recommended me Maybelline gel eyeliner because my chronic shakey hands mean liquid eyeliner is out of the question. It turned out to be awesome and easy to apply, and I am pleased to report I have not just drawn a zigzag across my eyelid this time. Also pictured: ugh sorry about my part, idk what my hair is doing. It is not meant to be like that. I kind of hate my hair and want to cut it off right now. Also: my lovely aunties gave me this beautiful Datter ring for my 21st and I could not be happier with it. Also: my mum sent me this photo of my dad holding me when I was a baby and he is just really, really handsome.

Sponsorship 'n' shit

I have always had mixed feelings about sponsored/care of/advertising posts on the blog. Christie and I have turned down lots of offers from companies who don't really fit into our aesthetic or we're just not that into, because it seems ridiculously disingenuous to promote something you don't even like on this very personal platform. Boohoo contacted me a few weeks ago wondering if I'd like to do a product review, and I immediately thought I'd politely decline. New-new (as opposed to old-new) clothes don't generally appeal to me massively, but I had a squiz through the 'new items' bit and came across this floral brocadey dress and fell in love a bit. 

It really, really appealed to me because I guess I try to look a little bit more ~profesh~ at work than I did slobbing around as a student. I am luck that my workplace has a much more casual environment than many, but some of my clothes are just not quite there in terms of work-appropriateness. As I'm sure many other vintage lovers experience, a lot of my clothes have flaws that I don't really care about - stains, little repairs, loose threads, wonky hems and faded fabrics. Although I don't mind these at all in everyday wear, I do like to smarten up a little for work. I also find most work-appropriate clothing kinda bland, except stuff from Cue and Orla Kiely but I really can't afford that. (Side note: if anyone knows of any blogs that incorporate vintage into officewear, please let me know!)

So I thought this dress bridged a good gap - very vintage-looking, with its multicoloured shimmery brocade fabric, but still 'smart' enough that I can wear it to the office and not feel weirdly self-conscious. The dress also has a great scoop back and cap sleeves, and the skirt holds its shape well because of the stiffness of the fabric. I'm wearing it with an amazing embroidered 1950s woolen cardigan that I got today from Emporium Vintage, old tights, and these amazing Chloe mary jane flats that I found at Recycle Boutique. They are the most excellent quality shoes I've worn in a while, and when I took them up to the counter they turned out to be half price too. What a win.

So, yeah. I decided to give it a go, the whole advertising-y thing. I am really, really interested in how you all feel about sponsored posts on blogs, and I would love to get some dialogue going. I definitely prefer blogs with a more personal tone rather than a more advertising-y tone. I find it a little discouraging/hard to relate to when an entire outfit is c/o and every post contains something that was sent for review, but the odd bit of advertising or free stuff doesn't bother me at all. It's hard to turn down something that is free and nice, such as this dress. However, I would much rather be honest here than get sent tonnes of free stuff and make readers feel alienated in the process. This blog is not a source of income for me - although I know for many bloggers theirs are, and that's totes okay, just really not my thing. It's more of a way to connect with people and chat about the semiotics of this little world and the way we dress ourselves without too much corporate intrusion - I hope? The whole concept of blogging as a bottom-up way to affect the market is so problematic, though, and I don't want to lapse into that. I guess it comes down to that I don't want my tone or the framing of my posts to be even slightly altered by the hope that companies will see me as marketable. Some people are just really inherently attractive and have saleable images, but I think I would struggle to come across as one of those people.

Soo... thoughts?