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Overview
This is a very good example of 1980s women's fashionwear made completely from leather. It was made at a time when such a specialist fashion industry was viable in New Zealand.
Fashion designer Kim Fraser was passionate about working with leather. She could make just about anything from safari shorts to boob tubes. She recalls that leather was so precious that she used patchwork techniques so that nothing was wasted. She worked with leather from 1986 until 1989, when her market finally dried up as a result of the stock market crash of late 1987.
This outfit was bought by Pauline Crimmins who collected fashionable leather clothing. The material (bovine leather) was prepared by Astley tannery, a significant and long-lasting Auckland business (1888-2008).
Pauline wasa fashion designer, qualifying through the School of Fashion at Wellington Polytechnic (now Massey University) andworked for the House of Raymonde then independently under her own label 'Pauline's', whenshe owned a fashion shop in Kilbirnie. At that time (1973) she also beganmaking theatrical costumes, principally for the Company of Musical Players and for several Boy Scout 'Gang Shows'. Shecontinued to make costumesand establishedCreative Show Off Costume Hire in Wellington in 1996.