A couple of years ago I got a facebook message from the lovely Sadie. She’d found a 1960s Hawaiian dress at an op shop. Would I like it? Oh sure, the 1960s did lots of Hawaiian stuff – it might be fun.
Nope, turns out, it’s actually Hawaiian! As in, the fabric is by a Hawaiian fabric company (who knew? There were, and are, still fabric companies in Hawaii!), and the dress is made from a Patterns Pasifica (a short lived 1960s-70s Hawaiian pattern company) design.
Sadly, the dress is not from a Patterns Pacifica pattern that I own (my Mum bought me half a dozen when I was a teenager, and I’m gutted that I didn’t take better care of them), but it’s from that I’ve wanted to own for ages, because it’s very 18th century inspired, with those 1960s Watteau pleats.
So obviously I was VERY excited about the dress!
And it fits me! (more or less. It would help if I was 4 inches shorter and half a size smaller – as it was, I had to let out the hem as much as it would possibly go, and add a bias hem facing).
Unfortunately there aren’t very many opportunities to wear a mad Hawaiian evening gown in Wellington, but I was SO in love with the dress that when I was heading home to Hawaii in 2012 I convinced my parents that the theme of their 30th wedding anniversary should be ‘1960s Tiki Lounge’, complete with mocktails and pineapple hedgehog hors d’oeuvres, so I could wear the dress to that.
I’d show you pictures of the event but my little sister will kill me if any of the photos of her in a bright blue and orange micro-mini muumuu go public.
When we planned our Vanuatu holiday I was determined that I’d finally get proper photos.
Vanuatu was the perfect place to wear it and take pictures: I was definitely the most glamorous guest at the resort, and the staff loved it that I dressed for dinner.
It’s a bit sad that so few people do dress up. Most people were going to dinner in tank tops and ripped shorts, despite the spectacular setting with formal candlelit dining right on the beach. And since it was so hot, you wanted to change outfits three times a day anyway, so why not put on something a little fabulous?
The gorgeous handbag, btw, is by my sister, it’s handpainted leather and the lining has monkeys and if you ask nicely enough, you can probably buy your own from her!
Mr D did quite a good job with photos, don’t you think?
I only have one regret about the photos. After we’d taken a lot and I’d declared that we were done, we walked back to our fare, and I noticed the light and snapped this photo of Mr D as a test:
Obviously it was VERY exciting, and we needed to take more of me down that path!
Nope. Mr D threw a grumpy and said I’d said we were done, so we were DONE and refused to get any more. Bah humbug. What a poohead.
