"The Dress Circle" Story Nita Henry

The story of New Zealand’s fashion design didn't begin in the late 1990s when four designers were sent to the London catwalks and created a stir with their stylish dark garments. Contrary to popular opinion, its history is in fact a long and rich one, and no one tells it better than the team of Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, Claire Regnault and Lucy Hammonds, all three of whom are experts in the field, and who spent over three years tracking down our overlooked and in some cases entirely forgotten fashion pioneers and heroes. The treasure-trove of fabulous frocks, coats, ball-gowns and bijou pieces they bring back into the light are stunning in their creativity, giving the lie to the notion that we've always been a nation of bad dressers. The stories they tell of dedication, passion, of triumph and of disaster are part of our rich history.

The Dress Circle inserts seven decades of history into the family tree of New Zealand fashion design in a landmark book celebrating both the achievements of New Zealand fashion designers from the recent past and the high-profile success of the contemporary generation.

In over 400 fully illustrated pages, authors Lucy Hammonds, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins and Claire Regnault reveal the wealth of stories that underpin the development of New Zealand's unique fashion design history. They showcase the talents and undeniable flair of a wide range ofNew Zealand fashion designers, from the well-known to those who have slipped out of the public eye.

At the same time The Dress Circle explores the key social shifts that empowered change in fashion, offering a new view of a vital and exciting branch of New Zealand design culture.

This book provides a wealth of insight into the world of fashion in New Zealand, from a time when only the very wealthy wore "designer labels" to the current decade when talented designers and business people took New Zealand fashion to the world.

This book should be well-read by anyone intending to make a career in fashion, or who has a love of fashion, particularly when it's home-grown.