Leather coat & cloche

In spite of her provocative personal style – dark tresses, black lips, black wardrobe and bohemian lifestyle – the owner of this outfit, Judith Baragwanath, was a sought after fashion model and girl about town. She was also the inspiration for Kate Sylvester’s 2010 collection Diamond Dogs. "We got our kicks parading up and down the main drag every Friday night during the 60s and 70s," she says. "In those days the street was alive with late night shoppers, tearaways, runaways, show-offs, hot rodders, bikie gangs (for a bit of rough) and cops on the beat. We’d rendezvous outside 246, which was, at the time, Auckland’s tallest building. A skyscraper no less! There were always protest marches and if we felt so inclined we’d jump in and join the noisy fray." Read more about wearing the colour black in the New Zealand Fashion Museum publication Black: The history of black in fashion, society and culture in New Zealand

Details

Credit: Judith Baragwanath
Copyright: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence
Garment type: Coat, cloche
Material: Leather, taffeta, wool, feathers, diamanté clasp
Colour: Black
Label: Gypsy 3 (coat), Tweenies (cloche)
Date: 1970