Some of you asked about the apron that I made for the Katherine Mansfield photoshoot, so I thought I’d share a little construction info, and some photos. My main inspiration was this apron (the one on the right) from the Girls Own Paper: The low tying apron, either with a waist tie, or on its own as the only tie, was a particular vogue seen from 1900-1910.  It kept the focus on the back-emphasis of the S-curve, even in a practical garment, and kept the slightly narrower flat-fronted aprons fashionable at the time (again, to highlight  the S-curve) well wrapped around the skirts, so they stayed protected even without a large volume of fabric. Beka (the model) is playing Alice, the maid in the Beauchamp (Mansfield) household.  Alice did cooking, and household chores, so her apron would need to be quite practical – not quite the frilly convection of the fashion plate.  However, there is a fantastic scene in By the Bay describing Alice’s  (rather outre) outfit, and I get the feeling Alice might have …

Katherine Mansfield was one of my earliest introductions to New Zealand – we read some of her short stories (The Garden Party and At the Bay) in high school, and that, combined with learning poi dancing in primary school, was all I really knew or thought of New Zealand as a child or teen. So when I moved to NZ, of course I was interested to visit the museum that has been made from the house she was born in. For the last year I’ve been privileged to be involved with the museum – giving a talk about fashion and Mansfield last year, and lending items for exhibitions. Last weekend I got to do a photoshoot at the Katherine Mansfield House & Garden  museum: dressing two models up as characters from her life & writings, and posing scenes in the house.  We imagined the shoot as Mansfield remembering her childhood and thinking up stories and writing up little sketches – a mix of reality and fantasy, memories and plots. There was, of course, an official …