Collection item
Black velvet dress with silver screen-printing
Zora made use of the talents of local Christchurch fashion and textile merchants for specialised work, like the ‘fungus’ pattern printed on this black velveteen dress. "That one was cotton velveteen with a red lining. And I used to have a job to keep the front up there; it used to pop down from time to time. Sometimes I’d use boning on it, but just interfacing on the back there, it had to be all pared back so that it didn’t get too thick in there. It was a very effective dress this one, I used to wear this one a lot. That [printed pattern] was put on by Pam Maling, who was a fabric printer; Pam Maling and Robyn Royds [of Spectrum] in Christchurch used to do this beautiful fabric printing, and they only used to do it on their own clothing, but as something special they said they’d do something for me, so this is what they did for me on this dress. I called it my fungus frock. It was their printing they put on; I said 'you do what you like down there'." Listen to an interview with Zora Price talking about fashion in 1970s Christchurch.
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