Wedding dress

This cream satin dress was worn by Mabel Elizabeth Hill at her wedding to Mr John McIndoe in 1898.

This wedding gown, which comprises a bodice and skirt, features a V-shaped neckline with a lace insert and lace panel detailing also over the shoulders, sleeves, and chest. The edge of the short sleeves features a stylised flower detailing in long stitch. Part of the back of the bodice has been removed, so it is no longer whole.

A repeating pattern is featured on the lower half of the bodice, and worked over this pattern are gold, pink, bronze, and clear beads. The cream satin skirt has a central lace panel in the middle in a loose V shape. Circular detailing up the sides of the lace panel have gold, pink, bronze and clear beads worked over the top. The hem of the skirt features long stitched flowers.

Mabel is a recognised New Zealand painter. At the age of 14 she began studying art at the Wellington School of Design, and remained a teacher at the school until 1897. There she met and was heavily influenced by the Scottish painter J M Nairn. After an artistic career that saw her exhibiting throughout New Zealand, as well as painting and living all over the world, Hill received King George VI’s Coronation Medal in 1937. Her portrait of Nairn is in Te Papa’s collection, along with a sketchbook and a number of bookplates.

(Dictionary of New Zealand Biography)