Traditionally, the new year is a time for reflection and review and making resolutions to do better. We at the New Zealand Fashion Museum are no different and strive for continuous improvement. To this end, we ask you to give us some feedback on how we are doing so far. If you could spare 10 minutes of your time to answer 10 survey questions before the end of this week, we would really appreciate it.
Survey respondents go into the draw to win one of our first birthday silk kerchiefs.
Our first exhibition for 2015 opens next month at Silo Park as part of Auckland's Fashion in the City Festival.
A Darker Eden: Fashion from Dunedin celebrates the creative context that is unique to Dunedin. Some cities are darker than others – more mysterious, more romantic and, perhaps, more creative. Dunedin has that reputation and has used it to tell its story. With its neo-gothic and colonial architecture, four-seasons-in-one-day weather and harbour and hills setting, the city has long attracted writers, artists, musicians, poets and fashion designers. Creativity and non-conformity are part of the city's life force, cultivated at Otago Polytechnic and the University of Otago and nurtured by the rich local creative community.
A Darker Eden features three fashion luminaries of the south – NOM*d, Mild Red and Tanya Carlson. It also introduces the Auckland audience to 20 Dunedin alumni who are currently making their mark in fashion – including Company of Strangers, twentysevennames, Maaike, Vaughan Geeson and Mushama & Me. With one gallery space is specifically curated for Dunedin's iconic iD Fashion Week, the exhibition gives an exciting overview of the Dunedin scene.
Entry by koha [voluntary donation]. Put it in your diary and tell your friends.
Image credit: iD Dunedin Fashion Week.
We know many of you love what we do, so here is a great opportunity to get involved, meet new people and contribute to the New Zealand Fashion Museum.
We are looking for enthusiastic and reliable people to host visitors to our upcoming exhibition A Darker Eden: Fashion from Dunedin. Held at Silo Park next month, the exhibition is part of the Fashion in the City and the Auckland Fringe Festivals.
Volunteers at last year's HELLO exhibition will tell you what a beautiful and busy location Silo 6 is and what a rewarding and enjoyable experience they had. Our hosts always work in pairs and a full training session focusing on information about the exhibiton (garments and stories behind the displays) and your role as a host will be provided. Parking is available if you are unable to use public transport to get to the venue.
Contact Doris de Pont for more information.
We have two pop-up photography studios scheduled for February – at MTG Hawke's Bay on 1 February and at The Darker Eden exhibition on 28 February.
Bring along your New Zealand-made fashion items – vintage or more recent labels, to be photographed for inclusion in the New Zealand Fashion Museum online collection.
With 15,000 kilometres of coastline and a population residing no more than 130 km from the shore, it is no wonder that New Zealand culture is so closely connected to the margins of the sea.
Our relationship with the coast and its influence on our lifestyle will be considered in our upcoming summer exhibition, At the Beach. The changing norms of society and how we spend our leisure time, will be told through what we wore and so explore our history at the beach.
While we will, of course, include the story of the ever shrinking swimsuit, the exhibition will extend beyond swimwear to include beachwear such as sundresses, Hawaiian shirts and other garments associated with activities on and off the water, for both men and women.
We would like to enlist your help to locate pictorial and material evidence to help us with our research for this exhibition. We are looking for:
Your contributions will add to our knowledge of what we looked like 'at the beach' and your personal stories will animate and enliven that history. We can't wait to see what turns up. Email Dianne Ludwig, exhibition co-curator, with for more information.
HELP US REACH OUT - SHARE THIS NEWSLETTER WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY.
credit: Photo of Pamela Clark by Ron Clark. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1207-1192
