Tiered & flounced lace dress

This dress is labelled Chique by Marnella. Designed for their winter 1982 collection, the dress was purchased from TradeMe in 2018 to be worn as a wedding dress. Fiona Ralph recalls: "I could tell the $50 dress had potential, and as soon as I tried it on I knew it was the one. I decided to lengthen it and remove the sleeves, and team it with an Auckland City Mission hat." Fiona thought it was a random 1980s dress until she saw it on the New Zealand Fashion Museum story about Marnella. "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the dress in the original photograph - it was full length and styled with almost the same pillbox hat. It must have been shortened at some point, then restored to its former glory by me (minus the sleeves and sash, sorry Marnella!)."

Details

Credit: Garment loan courtesy of Fiona Ralph
Copyright: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence
Credit: Image courtesy of the Harrison family.
Copyright: Image © Marnella
Credit: Image courtesy of Fiona Ralph
Credit: Image courtesy of Fiona Ralph
Copyright: Image © Fiona Ralph
Designer: Monique Harrison (dress), Jan Beech (hat)
Manufacturing location: Pukekohe, Auckland
Garment type: Dress
Material: Lace
Colour: White
Label: Chique by Marnella (dress), Antoinette Louise Millinery (hat)
Date: 1982