N.Z. Landscape Colours In Wool Fashions

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30389, 13 March 1964, Page 2

N.Z. Landscape Colours In Wool Fashions

From the finest chiffon-weights to the heaviest of bulky knits, versatile wool was presented as the unsurpassable leader in fabrics for modem living, when the New 7 Zealand Wool Board held its 1964 fashion parade at the Civic Theatre last evening. This is the first time the board’s annual contest collection has been taken on tour outside Wellington. In each centre visited the parade is shown in association with the local “Wool Week.

Nearly 100 garments, including gold medal award winners, were worn by 10 of the Dominion’s top models in the most attractive parade seen in Christchurch. The compere was Mrs Barbara Permezel, of Melbourne, who was also one of the contest judges.

Using a background of six New Zealand landscape paintings, on loan from the Kelleher Art Trust. Mrs Permezel put the spotlight on colour, which she said was the most exciting ingredient of fashion. Each group of garments, for casual, day, cocktail or evening wear, she presented in tonal ranges from the pictures, which had been taken, in turn, from the colours in the New Zealand countryside. “Kea Hut.” Mount Sefton, by A. A. Deans—a painting which won first prize in the Kelleher art contest in 1962 —was used to present a hazygrey wool jersey jumper suit, a pair of men’s dark-grey slacks and chasm-blue wool shirt. The off-white, browns and golds of the picture were picked up in a white hostess skirt worn with a brown-gold top and an old gold necklace: the snowy peaks were symbolised in an all-white town ensemble; the icy blue of the sky in a wool-knit suit. Symbolic of the blue-grey ■toning of Mount Sefton was a fine-wool evening gown lavishly beaded round the deep neckline in sparkling blue-white crystallines. Colours in the range blackolive, rata red, bark brown, many shades of blue, subtle greens and vivid golds familiar in the country’s landscape, appeared in wool fashions for winter, 1964. Another feature was, “The Young Outlook,” prompted by the exuberance of youth and its insistence on change. These were ‘‘get-up-and-go” clothes which brought tremendous applause from the capacity audience. Here there was a trim nautical blue knit suit, a ‘‘hootnaamy” black pinafore dress over an emerald green sweater with matching green “camelot” socks; a red wool teen-age shift dress; a snugfitting red “cat suit”; dark green wool stretch pants and a “Beatle” suit for the modern young man complete with wig, the no-rever. cutaway jacket and skin-tight pants. Very few “haute couture” garments were shown. The emphasis was on wearability —-on styles designed by New Zealand manufacturers to meet the needs of New Zealanders of all ages for all occasions. Pride of the show was the supreme award winner, a white chiffon wool. Empirestyle evening gown with a filmy black rose at the high waistline. This gown showed wool at its finest and demonstrated how gracefully it could be draped in the hands

of a skilled designer. It was worn by Miss Elaine Miscall. “Miss New Zealand. 1963.“ and runner-up in last year’s “Miss World” contest, who was one of the models. Another eye-catching evening frock was in shocking pink cut on princess lines. It had a wide V-decollete heavily beaded in jet at the neckline and worn with a short bolero entirely beaded in jet. Mrs Permezel herself wore an evening gown of lilac wool as fine as silk georgette. It featured a floating panel from the left shoulder and an opalescent

bead motif at the high waistline. Mood music was played throughout the presentation by Doug. Caldwell’s orchestraThe show was officially opened by the Deputy-Mayor (Mr H. P. Smith). Mr C. H. Bethell, a member of the Wool Board, spoke on the importance of wool in the economy of New Zealand and thanked Canterbury organisations which had assisted in presenting the fashion parade in Christchurch. He specially thanked the coordinating committee of the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers and the Country Women’s Institutes, and the Country Girls’ Clubs. During the evening a woolwinding contest, compered by Mr T. Kincaid, ’ was won by two Canterbury farmers’ wives, Mesdames D. McKay and E. Henderson.