At first glance, Home Sewn exhibition volunteer Heather Clarke seemed to be wearing a white jacket over a scribble-flower print cotton dress. But look closer and ... is the jacket zipped into the dress? How else to explain a flat seam down the front attaching white to scribble flowers?
Clarke good-naturedly showed me the secret: she'd sewn a panel of the dress fabric down the centre of the jacket, so it matched, and also to give the jacket a bit of interest when worn with other clothes. The two pieces weren't attached at all. Very clever way to zhoosh up a jacket.
It isn't only the stationary models who are illustrating the message of the New Zealand Fashion Museum's pop-up exhibition in Britomart: home sewers follow their own styles with flair. These days, people make their own clothes as a statement of identity - because they have "no desire to look readymade", as the museum's director, Doris de Pont, puts it - rather than because it's cheaper. When it comes to sewing, what was once a necessity is now a luxury.
Among the 42 garments on display is a strapless 1950s ball dress of daring cocktail length, with asymmetric decolletage by Naomi "Byllee" McDonald, mother of choreographer Mary-Jane O'Reilly. It shares a podium with a 2011 wedding-guest dress made by 94-year-old Elvera L'Estrange for her daughter, and a hula-girl print 1980 sunfrock, shown backwards as worn by its seamstress (and Fashion Museum trustee) Dianne Ludwig. The exhibition eschews grand explanations; it is like rummaging through an attic dress-up box, while your grandmother chats about who sewed what and why.
The earliest gown on display - an early 1930s bias cut dinner dress - is very of-its-era, but the long floatiness of the crepe de chine and the small floral print means it could be mistaken for a 1990s dress built to contrast with a pair of Doc Martens. (Another exhibition Fashion Treasures, $12 until October 7 at Highwic House in Epsom, curated by Angela Lassig, starts where Home Sewn leaves off, showing garments from the 1920s back to the early 1800s.)
