Priscilla has a secret, and she told it to Stella: Oh my! How deliciously juicy! Did Stella keep it a secret? Oh no! The very first opportunity she had, she turned around and told it to me: Naughty Stella! I’m never telling you a secret! * This is all, of course, terrible slander on the part of poor Stella’s character, as she’s actually the soul of discretion and I’d trust her with any secret. But I do think the photos are hilarious!
One of my favourite things about the photoshoot at the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Museum was the opportunity to showcase my tea gown: it’s hardly been worn since I made it. The tea gown was perfect for representing Mansfield’s mother. Annie Beauchamp was an ambitious Wellington society hostess, and what could better represent the social aspirations and impractical elegance of the late Victorian society woman than a tea gown? I absolutely love the photographs of Liz in the tea gown. I feel they perfectly capture the slightly repressed, claustrophobic energy that I always imagine Annie having when I read Mansfield’s semi-autobiographical stories. Well before I knew anything of Mansfield’s life I pictured Annie as a woman who, had she lived today, would have had a quite interesting career. Living in the 19th century she took the only acceptable path of marriage and motherhood, and then focused her energy on social climbing and on frenetically trying to create a ‘perfect life’ to try to hold back the constant suspicion that she was actually quite unhappy. In the …
I have been such a busy little bee social butterfly lately*! In addition to the photoshoot at the Katherine Mansfield Museum, I had a dress up high tea with friends The dress up theme was supposed to be tea gowns, but I realised too late that my tea gown needed to be all ready for the photoshoot, so I wore the Watteau in Paradise dress and pretended it was tea gown. It was a good choice, because it meant the wonderful Sadie who gave it to me finally got to see me in it. There is something so lovely about sitting down to the ritual of afternoon tea: trying to pick the tea trio that best coordinates with your outfit and mood, choosing your beverage (I went with blooming tea), and then working your way through all the delicacies on the tea tray. There were finger sandwiches, savoury tarts, tiny little quiches, scones with passionflower and raspberry jam, darling little cupcakes, custard tarts, and macarons: heaven! We were celebrating all sorts of things: birthdays and …
