From a 1920s gold sequin jacket gifted by a baking-powder heiress to a pair of Ann Demeulemeester shoes chased down to the very last day of a closing-down sale, this wardrobe is a lesson in style with staying power. A great-grandmother’s ostrich feather boa, an aunt’s sheepskin blazer with royal-wedding connections, a French designer’s protective silk jacket and a Christmas-morning Dior bag all sit alongside more recent finds—each garment kept not just for how it looks, but for who gave it, wore it, or walked beside her in it.
Sequin Jacket
You might well ask: what has a recipe book got to do with fashion? In 1961 our family moved to Christchurch, NZ and our next door neighbours were George and Dorothy Edmonds. George was the son of Thomas Edmonds, who in 1879 made the first batch of the now famous baking powder in the back of his tiny grocery store in Christchurch. In 1908 came the Edmonds Cookery Book which is in its umpteenth edition today. I still use mine. My mother became friendly with Dorothy, who, deciding that she was ‘too old for sequins’, gifted Mum her ‘Made in France’ gold jacket from the 1920s.
I was not very fussed about the jacket at that time (I was around 17) as it was ‘old-fashioned’, but some years later when Mum offered it to me, I realised its unique charm and value. Over 50 years and two countries down the track, I still wear this now vintage piece and enjoy telling of its origins in the cookery book family. Most recently, the sparkles had an outing to a Brutalist themed, gay wedding; thankfully the sequins show no signs of rust from the sudden rain shower we encountered! Their only issue is the need to flip them over, one by one, after each wearing, so that they lie smoothly again – a painful task of perfectionism!
Sheepskin Blazer
I have no idea when my paternal aunt, Coila, acquired this woolly blazer, but she certainly bought it in England when working there as a nurse in the mid-twentieth century. The manufacturer, Owen Barry, still operates from its beginnings in Somerset over 75 years ago – run by the same family for five generations. The leather used is a by-product of the food industry and, conscious of the environment, they ‘use everything but the squeak’! The blazer’s label declares a ‘Lifetime Guarantee’: already it has outlived my aunt and been mine for some 25 years!
My aunt worked as a nurse in London and at some stage there, became a ‘theatre nurse’ where she apparently encountered members of the British Royal Family! When sorting out her household and belongings after her death in 1999, we discovered her invitation to Princess Margaret’s wedding and in my imagination I see her there in her sheepskin – suitably regal – and wonder about her experience of the event. My father was a wool broker, nuts about sheep, so wearing my sheepskin, I think of them both. I often wish my sheepskin could talk!
Ostrich Feather Boa
Feather boas originated in Europe in the 19th century, but I have little idea about the provenance of the one in my possession other than that it was once my maternal great-grandmother’s. She, Mary, emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand with her family in the late 1870s. She married a local saw-miller in 1883. I know I was very young when I met her and was at once in awe of her presence and style – to me she looked like England’s Queen Mary! That’s Mary in the photo: when I met her, she was always in a long skirt: my mother said she regarded girls who showed too much flesh as ‘trash’!
Mary died in 1953, aged 88. Her daughter, my maternal grandmother, also a woman of great style and a vast wardrobe of clothes that I would gaze at for hours, opted to hold on to Mary’s boa as subsequently did my mother. I never saw either of them wear it, but each regarded it with a noticeable reverence, and clearly I have been similarly impacted! I don’t wear the boa beyond showing it off on odd occasions. I take it out of its storage space every so often – I was horrified recently when it shed some feathers – wonder what to do with it, but it always goes back, a buried treasure.
Fanny Karst Jacket
In 2013 I became aware of the concept or movement called Advanced Style, created by photographer Ari Seth Cohen in honour specifically of his stylish grandmother and flowing on to include colourful members of the senior set in New York City. I already considered NYC something of a second home, so in 2015 it was exciting to connect with members of the Advanced Style gang, familiar to me from Ari’s 2014 documentary. I also met Fanny Karst, a young French designer living in NYC. Fanny famously collaborated with Ari in creating the T-shirt: Old is the New Black. (More on that later!)
Fanny also combined traditional aspects of Savile Row tailoring in creating custom made silk dresses and jackets. When I visited her tiny atelier – in photo – aside from buying another of her slogan T-shirts, I tried on a printed silk jacket that she had specially selected for me. Fanny pointed out the tiny bird on the left front, ‘located over the heart – for protection’. Of course, the jacket came home with me and 11 years later, my feathered protector is still on the alert! One of my most treasured pieces.
Black Shoes
On my first brief visit to Melbourne before moving permanently from New Zealand, somehow I managed to find myself in the city’s most iconic store: Georges, 162 Collins Street. Opening in 1880, Georges was a department store of unparalleled class, offering exclusive goods and goodies – I had never seen such treasures! When I moved to Melbourne, I regularly visited Georges. It was a sad day when the original store closed in 1995. It reopened under a new regime in 1998, but closed the following year: a huge failure, with the only positive for me being the final sales.
During the last days of Georges’ second coming, the prices of everything plummeted daily: I had had my eye on a pair of Ann Demeulemeester shoes. The original price was $1500: completely beyond my price point! However, long a shoe fetishist, I continued obsessively checking the price and on the very last day, like Cinderella, the shoes fitted both my feet and my budget! I still wear them, 26 years later and in an eerie coincidence, just this week I read in American musician/writer Patti Smith’s memoir of her close friendship with Ann Demeulemeester!
Red Zip-Up
Some 14 years ago, my work life took on a whole new direction: the world of fashion and retail. Always interested in clothes and shopping, my previous involvement there had been holiday or part-time only. By chance, one of the doyennes of Melbourne’s fashion scene lived in my apartment block: she just happened to have a friend who needed someone to assist with her vintage clothing business! Thus I met Mary Lipshut, owner of ML Vintage and well known in Melbourne ‘high society’. Her collection was vast, exclusive: ‘virgin vintage’, by famous designers all sealed away for 30 years due to the tricky shipping and storage logistics related to imports in 1970 Melbourne.
The red jacket is a sample by Meredith, a company created in 1962 by Mary and her sister Edith. There were many Meredith stores largely focused on quality knitwear, coats etc. In 2016, the business was restructured but still exists. ML Vintage had some early Meredith samples, including this red wool and rabbit top. It was expensive and Mary, ever with an eye for ‘top dollar’, wasn’t about to reduce it for staff! However, she reneged during her last weeks in business in 2014. Wearing the ‘red rabbit’ I recall the incredible, crazy, six years of life with Mary and those times I did actually “see red”!
Bag
When I first came to Melbourne, during the festive season, it was almost a rule of thumb to visit the CBD and gaze at the elaborate window displays of Myer and Georges. Today there’s only Myer maintaining the tradition for – as noted previously – Georges has gone. In 1980 I had been in Melbourne just over a year when, with my then boyfriend, I had my first encounter with Georges’ Christmas windows. Such luxury! Such style! Such temptation – in particular the Christian Dior evening bag glittering at the front of one window. The price – $118 – was a lot back then and way beyond my budget.
Christmas Day rolled around along with a celebratory lunch and a pile of gifts. I was feeling lucky to be in Australia – very much the ‘lucky country’ for me at that time. I opened a superbly wrapped present (Georges did a great wrap!) and there was the coveted bag, right down to the gold and black tones I had admired! It is a classic. Timeless style. It continues to endure the tests of time and wear: unlike the relationship, as you may have guessed! Nothing to regret…
Coat/s
I think I was amongst the first customers of WORLD, a clothing brand established in NZ in 1989. I still wish I had kept the amazing red pants that were my very first purchase in the Auckland store; I had so many compliments as I walked out of the store and down the street in them. The brand continues to produce clothes, accessories and objets d’art all remarkable for being quirky, eye-catching, even irreverent.
In 2015 on holiday with my brother and his wife, Hildegard, in Christchurch, I was intent on having a coat from WORLD’s new collection. Hildegard enjoyed shopping so together we hit Ballantynes, the city’s iconic department store where WORLD was installed temporarily after their store was destroyed in the disastrous 2011 earthquake. Success! There was the coat and even better: there was one for each of us. We walked out together to many admiring glances. Very sadly and unexpectedly, Hildegard passed away early in 2026. This winter I wear my coat with special memories of our shopping trip and friendship…
