Fashion beauty survives city bustle
An Auckland walking tour with a difference reveals the slipped petticoat of the old lady’s fashion past
Despite Auckland’s current chaos of road works and diversions the city retains its own sophistication, beauty, and fashion history.
Many memories of Auckland’s fashion past have been long forgotten, but thanks to the New Zealand Fashion Museum (NZFM), walking the streets of Auckland has never been so informative, collaborative, or empowering for those interested in the industry.
A recent multi-media, week-long, exhibition called Walk the Walk: A History of Fashion in the City was based at the fashion sanctuary Smith & Caughey’s, says Doris de Pont, NZFM founder and exhibition curator.
The exhibition was designed to dovetail with the Heart of the City Auckland – Four Days of Fashion.
Layers of fashion history were revealed through many elements allowing plenty for people to engage in, says Doris.
Most insightful were the walking tours that furthered the stories of the garments held at the Lippincott Room in Smith & Caughey’s.
Tour participants reminisced over the once flourishing businesses, buildings, and careers that laid the foundation for making Auckland the fashion capital that it has become.
Everything that was on display within the Lippincott Room exhibition was somehow connected with a building within a kilometre radius of Smith & Caughey’s and, unintentionally, celebrated how many women were involved within the fashion industry.
“It is telling an important story about how clothes are made, and particularly in this time of fast fashion and cheap imports, it’s quite good to just give a historical context to that…” Doris says about the inspiration for this exhibition.
Doris was the perfect tour guide for such an event. Rich in knowledge, enthusiasm, and exquisite taste, there was no better lady chosen to conduct the walking tours around Auckland city, and she engaged and enthralled many participants.
Doris is not quick to take credit for all her vast knowledge though; she credits the 18 months of extensive research and generous sharing of the fashion history that contributed to the exhibition and walking tours.
Strutting your stuff around Auckland city has never been more captivating with the walking tours making fashion history fun and ever so classy.
