Dress, child's

item details

NameDress, child's

ProductionWinnie O'Hara; dressmaker; circa 1950s; New Zealand

Classificationdresses

Materialscotton, velvet

Techniquesmachine sewing

DimensionsCentre back: 560mm (length)

Registration NumberGH017189

Credit lineGift of Shelley Venimore (née O'Brien), 2011

Overview

Town dress

This dress is part of an extraordinary collection of 21 children's dresses and home-made dress-ups worn in the 1950s and 60s by the O'Brien children – Shelley, Maureen, and David. The dresses represent popular girls' fashion from this period, and include a range of home-made garments, and garments made in New Zealand and USA.

The collection embodies the story of the three children growing up in Tinui, a rural community near Castlepoint in the Wairarapa, with all the rituals, triumphs, hardships, and joys of a rural life.

Shelley wore this particular dress first as a town dress then for school. She remembers wearing it as much as possible and wanted her grandmother, Grandma Winifred O'Hara, to make her another one. Winifred did most of the sewing, making a town dress and a school dress for each girl every year.