Life's a Beach...

Glory Days Creative Director, Rose Jackson, throws in the towel and heads to the beach in our latest Telegram...

​New Zealand is finally heading towards summer after a long wet winter and I for one am more than ready to throw off my coat and hat and get into the sea, stat!

​The New Zealand Fashion Museum and the New Zealand Maritime Museum must have had the same feeling as they have just launched their collaborative exhibition, At The Beach. 

I popped along to the opening party the other night and was overwhelmed with the breadth and depth of the collection that has been curated by the NZFM. And one of the most magical things about this exhibition is that all of the items were made or designed in New Zealand and donated by members of the public.

You can view more images of the opening evening here on our Facebook page. In general, I'm not a bossy type but I do insist that everyone head along to this, and as it's free you have no excuses!

The exhibition highlights not only the changes in garment technology and the fashion industry, but also the cultural changes in our society over the last 100 years.

If you are looking for more information on these shifting cultural and sartorial sands, in our very first issue of Glory Days (check out our digital archives here if you haven't seen them before!) I penned an article on the history of bathing beauties and their beach costumes which you can read below...

Another lady who knows her nautical stuff is Amber Butchart. Fashion historian, part of the coolest DJ duo in the world, The Broken Hearts and one of my personal style icons, Amber recently published a book called Nautical Chic which we reviewed in our latest issue of Glory Days.

Photo credits here

Readers of Glory Days would have noted on our review page that we also featured a beautiful silk scarf giveaway from Simon James Cathcart. I discovered SJC after falling into an Internet hole one night and coming up for air two hours later totally in love with his brand. ​

SJC is a "style collective of menswear experts and enthusiasts ranging from heritage workwear to tailoring". I particularly felt the Sailor's Dream Neckerchief would work well in our seaside themed Glory Days page, so I got in touch with Simon and cheekily asked for one to be sent down from Londontown to be given away.

I completely adore his philosophy on garment construction, cut, fit and fabric which I will share in a later Telegram but in the meantime you can read more about the Sailor's Dream and how you can go in the draw to win this below...

Hi Simon! I love your Sailor's Dream Neckerchief, is that your own design or did on of the people in your collective create it? And was the fabric printed locally?
Ah well like all good things it is made from a bit of this and that, a little bit from a 1940's kids tee shirt, a piece from 30's matchbox lid, you know...

My friend and SJC moderator Florien Kremer helped me put that together, he's also worked on the gang jackets, our labels and tee shirts too.  He is an extremely gifted graphic artist who loves vintage apparel.  So for me its a no brainer to connect a project with a like-minded artist or tradesperson.
  
You've hand-rolled the edges on the neckerchief?  That is such a luxury these days, was the work done in London or abroad?
Hong Kong. Motherland of silk. I did actually visit a Byzantine silk factory in Lebanon, but my mule just gave up after 3500 meters.  The amount of dirty looks it gave me was unbelievable. 

Seriously though, two things I believe in, support any economy that needs it, the poorer the better, and where possible go to the source.  You want Donegal tweed you go to Donegal.  So with the silk it had to be China.  And this is a cool young company run by two sisters who inherited the company from their parents.  They know what they're doing. And when I proposed the job they rushed at it. 

​So, yes, it is a 30 momme Georgette silk, the colours are deep to aid the shine and handle but there was no way that after all that went into that neckerchief  that I wouldn't pay the extra to hand roll the edges.  You've noticed the thread on the hems is in contrasting silk threads to help them pop?  We did a 40's western one too which is really nice.