item details
Overview
This marching girl's uniform is a good example of a distinctive element in New Zealand's dress and sporting culture.
Since the 1920s, New Zealand girls and young women have marched in precision formation in striking outfits. From the mid 1940s to the 1970s, marching became a major sport in which thousands of girls and young women marched in parades, competitions, and civic receptions for visiting royalty and dignitaries.
This particular dress was worn by Diane Chamberlain in about 1955 when she was a junior member of the Glengowan marching team in Tahunanui, Nelson. She wore a cap, white gloves, and white sandshoes with socks (senior girls wore ankle boots). Junior teams were made up of girls between the ages of 12 and 15, and Midget teams between 8 and 11 years of age. From 1957 onwards, junior teams were able to compete at a national level.
During competition, marching teams were judged not only on the preicion of their movements and ability to move as one, but also on their costumes. Although ‘Snappy uniforms, varying from shorts and blouses to short, pleated frocks, crossed by team ribbons’ were viewed as adding ‘colour and gaiety’ to marching events, (1) at competition level, the teams’ uniforms were judged 'not according to their elaborateness, but for neatness, cleanliness, simplicity, fit – and uniformity. Skirt length, tunic length, sock length, hat angle, all come in for the judges' critical glance’. (2)
References
1. ‘Girls on March at Carlaw Park’, Auckland Star, 24 March 1945, p. 14.
2. Quoted in Charlotte MacDonald, ‘Moving in Unison, Dressing in Uniform: Stepping Out in Style with March Teams’ in B. Labrum et al, Looking Flash: Clothing in Aotearoa New Zealand, AUP, 2007, p. 196