Designer Isabel Haworth opened Hadny 5 at 12 Swanson Street, in premises that Playdate magazine called a "quaint cellar-like setting". The magazine described her garments as "very much in, without being over gimmicky". To begin with, Hadny 5 garments were sewn in house by a small group of machinists at the back of the shop to create a busy vibe. But by 1966 she was producing more than 60 model garments a week and she had a workroom of machinists and knitters, and was employing outworkers too.

The exact era of this dress is not known, as the owner Nathalie Gregory found this at the Central Flea Market in 2024. However, the A-line hostess gown style silhouette, and ruffled lace flounces at the neckline and cuffs indicates that it is from the early 1970s at the latest. Hadny 5 eventually closed in the mid 1980s before Isabel and her family moved to Sydney. 

This dress also features construction of a layer of polyester organza flatlined with an acetate lining; in its time this dress may have been washed at a high temperature, causing the cotton thread and synthetic lining to shrink at different rates which has created the wrinkling seen through the centre back.

The NZFM photographed this dress at our Popup photography session in October 2024 which was part of our Hui Auaha o Aotearoa Open Day.