Dressmaking : how a clothing practice made girls in New Zealand, 1945 to 1965 : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
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2018
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Massey University
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Abstract
This thesis looks at domestic dressmaking to understand what the practice meant for
practitioners beyond making garments. It focuses on New Zealand girls in the period
from 1945 to 1965, when dressmaking was understood as a universal part of the
female experience at home and school. Despite this assumption of ubiquity, little
work has been done to document how dressmaking happened in homes and in
schools and, more importantly, how it affected girls. The critical framework
combines feminist historical and sociological thinking — including Bourdieu’s
theories of habitus and cultural reproduction — with fashion studies, cultural studies,
material culture and object studies. The methodology reflects this interdisciplinary
approach by layering personal recollections gathered in 15 oral history interviews,
with documentary evidence, image research, and object studies.
This thesis argues that dressmaking offers a new lens through which to view female
experience in New Zealand at that time. Dressmaking not only shaped appearance: it
affected the allocation of space and time within households; it established and
reinforced shopping behaviours; it created inter-generational bonds as women shared
their skills within family groups; it maintained relationships within extended family
groups as a source of hand-me-down clothing; and it offered the possibility of paid
employment either within or outside the home. Beyond the home, dressmaking was
part of girls’ school experience, used to prepare them for a prescribed femininity, but
perceived as second-rate subject because of the strong association with domesticity.
Dressmaking also offered girls and women a means of engaging with change — in
fashions, fabrics, patterns, and tools. Memory, place, objects, and people combined
to influence dressmaking practice. For some, dressmaking became ingrained as part
of their identity and can be understood as habitus. The thesis shows how
dressmaking shaped girls’ identities as much as dressmaking was used to shape
garments.
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Keywords
Dressmaking, Study and teaching, History, Girls, Education, Social life and customs, 20th century, History, New Zealand, Women