Stories
Rosaria Hall
Growing up in Ireland, Rosaria Hall and her five sisters were taught the basics of sewing by their mother who was a dressmaker. While her siblings preferred to play outside, Rosaria was captivated and the time spent learning with her mother was the foundation of Rosaria’s life-long love of clothing and set her up for her own successful career in fashion.
Rosaria Hall (nee Ryan) grew up in Bantry Bay, a seaside town near Cork in Ireland. Her dressmaker mother ensured the Ryan family were very well-dressed, and their wardrobes were supplemented by “the most amazing clothes” sent to the family by an aunt who lived in New York. Her aunt ran a St Vincent de Paul shop and, alongside more practical garments, the parcels would include ball dresses and wedding dresses that were perfect for dress-up games.
Rosaria progressed from making clothes for her dolls to designing costumes for the plays and fashion parades staged for her family and neighbours. Her creations had a fantastical element but she also unpicked garments to re-make clothes that were more fashionable or a better fit.
Sadly when Rosaria was 16 years old, her mother passed away. Rosaria and her younger sister went to London to stay with family. Rosaria describes arriving in London in the early 1960s as love at first sight. “The vibrancy and energy of the place was infectious,” she wrote in Kevin Hill’s book Out of Fashion. “The fashion revolution was in full swing and creativity was overflowing.”
Instead of enrolling in school, Rosaria and her sister immediately found work. There were plenty of jobs to choose from. One of the better ones, Rosaria recalls, was working in a shoe polish factory. It was close to home, which saved on transport costs, and for a shilling there was a hot, three-course lunch.
But Rosaria knew that she wanted to work in fashion. She signed up for a nightclass in tailoring, and also started working in a sales position at the department store, Whiteleys.
In 1966, Rosaria was shopping in another department store, Selfridges, when she was approached by staff offering her a position at the soon to be opened Miss Selfridge — a young fashion offshoot of the famous London department store. Her move to Miss Selfridge mirrored the changing fashion retail scene in the 1960s — from traditional and conservative to young and experimental.
Miss Selfridge was “at the centre of the happenings”, frequented by some of the most influential people in the fashion and music scenes at the time, including the model Twiggy and the designer Zandra Rhodes. Rosaria was introduced to many new designers, whose garments she frequently wore. “Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell created the most beautiful cut moss crepe dresses that made you feel like a million dollars.”
In the late 1960s, she met and married Alan Hall, a New Zealander on a working holiday in London. Intrigued by the thought of living in New Zealand, Rosaria agreed to leave London. They spent four months travelling through Europe, the Greek Islands and North Africa before sailing to New Zealand.
“Looking back it’s fair to say we stood out a bit — Alan in his patchwork flares, purple t-shirt and snakeskin boots and me in velvet dungarees, multi-coloured snakeskin wedge shoes, red suede fringe jacket, dark lipstick and ‘Mary Quant’ eyes.”
The couple were determined to settle in Christchurch and Alan’s parents offered to buy them an orchard. But they had another type of business in mind. They were keen to set up the kind of boutique they had frequented in London — a store that sold records and clothes but was also a place for like-minded people to gather. Rosaria found a shop on the corner of Victoria and Colombo Streets that was marked for demolition. It had cheap rent and a large back room that could be used as a workroom.
Rosaria and Alan Hall in their clothing and music store, Renaissance, on the corner of Victoria and Colombo Streets. Photo by The Christchurch Star, 25 January 1971. Courtesy of Allied Press and Christchurch City Libraries.
Rosaria’s first challenge was to source the fabric for her designs, a challenge in New Zealand at the time due to import restrictions. “It was in a very old drapery in Sydenham called Goldings that I struck gold. I came across a forgotten lot of moss crepe buried in a corner.” It reminded her of Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell’s moss crepe dresses and became the basis of her first collection.
Rosaria worked with Alan’s aunt, who was a skilled machinist, to sew her first range, which was arranged alongside Alan’s vast record collection in their new boutique, Renaissance.
“From the day we opened we were a popular place. For the first few weeks we were always running out of stock.” They made velvet flares, chamois jackets and long flowing dresses. There was a range of fringed garments for men. Rosaria’s clothes were popular with artists, writers and other creatives, and she quickly found a group of like-minded friends.
Rosaria told Thursday magazine in 1971 that she found New Zealand clothes very expensive. “People don’t know the value of material. Gingham sells for 50c a yard. But I see it in the shops made up in smocks and hot pants for $35. I sell my gingham sets for $12.”
In 1973, the building was demolished to make way for the Town Hall. Rosaria and Alan moved Renaissance to a new space on Gloucester Street. She was busy raising her son, while constantly searching for new and exciting ideas for her clothes. She recalls a range of t-shirts and A-line dresses designed from t-shirt fabric that she sourced from Lane Walker Rudkin. Noting that t-shirts were only available to buy in black or white, she saw an opportunity for more colour. “I would spend nights dyeing the fabric in wonderful off-beat colours. I embellished these designs with beautiful screen-printed satin by Adrianne Lye that was then appliqued onto the garments.” It was an exciting time where a shortage of materials meant there was a lot of creative freedom. “The best thing was there was nobody to tell you that you were doing it wrong because everything was new.”
Two years later, they moved again to an upstairs space which was decorated dark blue to reflect the popularity of denim and khaki. Rosaria designed bell-bottom jeans for men and women, which were made by the Christchurch denim manufacturer, Peter Dynes.
In 1975, Rosaria’s father died and she returned home to Ireland to visit family. She was close with her family and considered staying but after visiting Paris and Milan, Rosaria decided to return to Christchurch with magazines and fabrics, and a new focus.
On her return Rosaria opened a new boutique, Escalade, in the heart of the city, and fitted it out with Italian glass and chrome. Escalade garments were designed with the cold Christchurch winters in mind. Rosaria made wool velour ankle length coats, raincoats made from Italian fabric and wool crepe pleated dresses with a white collar. Now a firm part of the Christchurch creative scene, Rosaria enlisted the well-known engineer John Britten to model in her show wearing a towering pair of stainless steel stilettos that he made during a brief foray into fashion design. Other friends included Martin and Celia Donnithorne who owned the boutique Lunch, which sold Martin’s jeans and knitwear.
Rosaria’s second child was born in 1976, so once again she was juggling running a business with a newborn baby. “None of this would have been possible without the great team working with me — machinists, cutters, hand sewers and a workroom supervisor.”
Rosaria Hall and her staff in the workroom. Image © Rosaria Hall.
By the early 1980s, Rosaria was wholesaling her designs in boutiques across New Zealand. She was visiting one of her stockists in Wellington, Val Svendsen of Memsahib, when she met the restaurateur Remiro Bresolin. Rosaria and Alan divorced in 1983, and for several years Rosaria travelled between Christchurch and Wellington as the new relationship developed.
Rosaria Hall and Remiro Bresolin. Photo from Fashion Quarterly magazine, 1988.
Her business continued to grow and in 1985 Rosaria was one of ten designers (alongside Marilyn Sainty, Patrick Steel and Barbara Lee) selected for a showcase in Melbourne and Sydney. Called the ‘New Zealand Fashion Experience’, the event was backed by the New Zealand Department of Trade and Industry, Air New Zealand and merchant bankers Fay Richwhite. Although it was not immediately commercially successful, being part of the event helped to establish a new customer base.
In 1988, Rosaria showed her designs in the Canterbury Designers Collection fashion show, organised by Pieter Stewart. Other Christchurch designers included Brigid Brock, Gaye Bartlett, John Juriss, Nita Henry, Ailie Miller, Sharon Semmens, Robert Gormack, Petra McCorquodale, Judith Malcom, Mark Van Roosmalen and Martin Trusttrum.
The Canterbury Designers Collection fashion event organised by Pieter Stewart (second left), with participating designers Gaye Bartlett, Brigid Brock and Rosaria Hall, 1988. Rosaria's designs include a long-stemmed bridal dress modelled by Kirsteen Price. Photos © Fashion Quarterly magazine.
Eventually, Rosaria and her children moved to Wellington, but her workroom remained in Christchurch. In 1988, she and Remiro opened what she described as a ‘designer house ’, Bresolini, in the building that also housed Remiro’s Italian restaurant, Il Cassino.
The Bresolini store in Wellington. Photo from Fashion Quarterly magazine, 1988. Image © Rosaria Hall.
Rosaria’s designs (sold under the labels Rosaria Hall, Rosatti, and a lingerie label La Notte) were displayed alongside a range of imported accessories, homeware and furniture. Later that year, she opened a second Bresolini store in Auckland.
The Rosaria Hall and Rosatti winter collections, 1989.
Rosaria's business survived the economic impact of the sharemarket crash in 1987, but despite record sales, four years later it was put into receivership. Debtors who were slow to pay, a fire in a shop and staff sickness led to the closure. “They grew too fast,” she explains. After selling the Christchurch factory, Rosaria re-launched a smaller, more nimble version of her business in 1992.
Rosaria photographed by Euan Sarginson for Fashion Quarterly, Spring 1992.
Throughout Rosaria remained influenced by European design and was known for her use of quality fabrics, such as Italian linen, fine wool, cashmere, Swiss cotton gabardine and silk taffeta. “I design for real people, not models”, she told Fashion Quarterly in 1989. “That’s the feeling I want people to have when they come to Bresolini. It’s not meant to intimidate people but to raise their spirits.”
Rosaria and Remiro closed Bresolini and the Rosaria Hall label in 2006.
Text by Kelly Dix. Banner image: Designs from Rosaria Hall and Rosatti summer collections, 1989/1990. Published October 2026.
