Day dress with double rever

Anita Arlov bought this Cinnamon dress with she was a teenager in the 1970s. The decade comprised her formative years and her interest in fashion and shopping bloomed as she grew. During Anita’s last years of high school she began to explore the city’s fashion retailers in search of ball outfits, and her interest grew when she took up a job at top department store Ballantynes while she was at university. She was familiar with emerging retail trends – op shops, vintage clothing, markets – as well as department stores and high-end boutiques. Her wardrobe of the decade made use of all parts of the retail sphere of the 1970s. Cinnamon was a youth label introduced in the 1970s by Maurice Mihotich, owner of Miss Deb. Initially, Miss Deb was totally youth-oriented, influenced in the 1960s by the London fashion scene, flower power and hippy culture and, in the 1970s, by disco and psychedelia. As the business expanded, the focus became broader. Miss Deb developed a more sophisticated image and Cinnamon was introduced to cater for the trendy, younger market. Read more about 1970s fashion in the New Zealand Fashion Museum publication The Age of Aquarius: A 70s revolution in fashionListen to an interview with Anita Arlov talking about fashion in 1970s Christchurch.  

Details

Credit: Loan courtesy of Anita Arlov
Copyright: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence
Garment type: Day dress
Material: Jersey knit
Features: Self fabric belt with plastic tortoise shell clasp
Colour: Milky coffee
Purchase location: Christchurch
Label: Cinnamon
Date: Circa 1976