Images of the modern girl of the 1920s arrived in New Zealand along with American jazz music and the glamour of Hollywood cinema. The sleek flapper dresses skimmed rather
 than hugged the body and when worn with
 the bobbed hairstyles of the day represented a new freedom for women. The original owner of this dress, Josephine McGuire, was a married woman with three children. When she was 37 she established a dress shop named The Elite in Trafalgar Street, Nelson. We see her fashion sense in the 1925 photo of Josephine with her husband Edward and their three children Jack, Kevin and Leonie. 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.