In March 1948, Mary Annette Burgess, a vivacious 23 year old, with a
diploma in art and training in the theatre, settled into her office at
the Wellington headquarters of the New Zealand Wool Board. She had just
been appointed to the position of Promotions Officer. Her office was as
expected, except for the presence of a wardrobe – a wardrobe whose doors
opened to reveal a collection of exquisite couture garments by
designers most New Zealand women could only dream of. Each garment was
fashioned from wool, the fibre Mary Annette had just been engaged to
promote.
The garments, which included an elegant, finely pleated woollen
evening gown and tailored jacket by the House of Dorville, had been sent
to the New Zealand Wool Board by the London office of the International
Wool Secretariat (IWS). For a young woman who came of age during the
war-time rationing, and whose work clothes comprised a single suit, the
wardrobe exuded other-worldly luxury. Best of all, the clothes fitted
the slender Promotions Officer like a glove. Over the following eight
years, Mary Annette would work with the IWS to replenish the wardrobe
many times over.
Mary Annette’s tenure at the Wool Board coincided with
‘the golden age of couture’. Spanning the years 1947 to 1957, the decade
witnessed the expansion of London’s couture industry, and the rebirth
of war-torn Paris as the world’s fashion capital. During this period,
the IWS worked closely with organisations such as Incorporated Society
of London Fashion Designers and Chambre Syndicale de la Couture
Parisienne, to promote wool as a fashion fabric without equal.
When Mary Annette took up her new position, the IWS had just
marked its tenth anniversary. Its core aims were to promote wool and
facilitate research. Its formation reflected an international trend
towards the collective marketing and promotion of agricultural
products[i], and an acute awareness of the emerging threat of new
synthetic fibres.
The
IWS was just gaining momentum when Britain declared war on Germany in
September 1939. Following the outbreak of war, ‘Wool Control’ came into
force in Britain, and the IWS had to place their publicity plans on
hold, and re-direct their research efforts into developing wool-based
products for the military.[ii]
However, before the call came to stop encouraging consumer demand for
wool, the IWS had agreed to supply the Wool Council (the NZ Wool Board’s
predecessor) with a collection of high-fashion garments and fabrics for
display at the New Zealand Centennial Exhibition. [iii]
The Centennial Exhibition opened in November 1939 and ran through
to 4 May 1940. In January 1940, the Wool Council presented the IWS’s
collection of international garments at a dance and fashion parade at
the Exhibition Cabaret,
[iv] along with a film focusing on the importance of wool throughout the Empire.[v]
An attending journalist from the Evening Post wrote that on seeing the garments:
… guests realised, perhaps for the first
time, the loveliness of the new woollen materials, which included sheer
voiles in wool, wool lame with golden sheen, vivid floral voiles, and
delaines of silken effect, wool taffetas and the finest of wool laces.
[vi]
The accompanying commentary was delivered by Mrs Ina Allen, the
Wool Council’s first Publicity Officer. In keeping with the IWS’s
messaging, Mrs Allen focused on the ‘new role’ that wool played in
fashion as a result of ‘exhaustive research’. Woollen garments, she
extolled no longer needed to be ‘heavy and stodgy.’ They could now be as
‘soft and sheer as silk, light and washable as cotton, non-creasing and
unshrinkable’.
[vii]
The garments ranged from practical men’s trousers by DAKS to a ‘dove grey and pink beaded model’ by Elsa Schiaparelli,[viiii] whom the IWS celebrated as ‘the first Paris designer to use wool in the evening’.[ix] By
the time Schiaparelli’s gown was on parade in New Zealand, however, the
couturier had turned her talents to designing air-raid shelter trouser
suits.[x]The
crippling impact of war was being felt by many of Europe’s fashion
houses, as staff, including heads such as Marcel Rochas, were mobilized.
Following the success of the parades at the Centennial Exhibition,
the National Patriotic Fund Board invited the Wool Council to tour the
show nationally to raise funds for the war effort.[xi]
While the Wool Council financed the tour, the Patriotic Fund were
charged with organising the venues and publicity. Mrs Allen and her
three models toured the country for three months with 50 garments,
extolling the virtues of wool to audiences in over 20 cities and towns.[xii]The
tour ended with a four day event, ‘Wool into Fashion’, held at
Wellington’s D.I.C. Lord Galway, in his opening address stressed the
importance of New Zealand’s wool exports after the war, stating that he
believed ‘that the sky is bright for the future of the wool industry’.[xiii]
Following the D.I.C finale, the Wool Council decided to keep Mrs
Allen on as Publicity Officer, believing that although ‘factories were
working under pressure on Army orders’ that the work would ease up in
four to six months and that the Wool Council should keep up with
promotions over the next 12 months.[xiv]
At the end of 1945, however, the now Wool Board cancelled Mrs Allen’s
contract. Aware that they needed to safeguard and further the ‘position
of wool and wool fabrics’ in the post-war period, the Board no longer
felt that she was providing value for money.[xv]
