| Brief Description |
This cocktail length dress (a) is made of black crepe with gold thread horizontal stripes and an elaborate heavy gold machine-embroidered pattern sewn onto separate black crepe strips attached to the front and around the hem.
The dress is fully lined with black nylon fabric and the hem of the lining is edged with lace. The dress has three-quarter sleeves, a round neck, a fitted bodice and a gathered skirt. The back has a zip running half way down the skirt. The belt (b) is a long narrow strip of the patterned fabric with a hook and eye and dome.
This dress was purchased in the 1960s by Annette Main, a former Mayor of Whanganui, from Michael Mattar, a fashion designer and dressmaker who lived and worked in Taumarunui his whole life. He opened Michael Mattar Haute Couture in the town's main street in 1963 and became nationally famous when he won the supreme award at the New Zealand Fashion Showcase in 1968.
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