How confidently these six young women stand and sit or lean, with legs astride or casually crossed. How unabashed they are about meeting the camera's gaze. At first glance, I thought they might be about to mount horses and go off riding, and I took the sheepskin for a straw bale. But their shoes don't look quite sturdy enough for stirrups. If that is a stable, it looks empty. These women are clearly wearing these splendid knickerbockers simply because the garments are comfortable and practical and rational. What should we think about their bold, striped ties? The watch chains? Their long, loose hair? Those clasped hands?
I came across the picture while trying to find out about clothing in the nineteenth-century Pacific, and was immediately intrigued. All I can tell you is that it was first published in the Weekly Press, a weekly edition of a Christchurch newspaper called The Press which had pages of photographs from around New Zealand and also overseas, and is titled (by the library, I think) and that it was taken by a man called William Golder in Waipawa. My immediate instinct was to follow that up, and I identified him quickly enough as a Scottish settler-poet with an interest in photography. And then I stopped myself. What was I doing, pursuing the man who took this picture, distracting myself from what I really care about - its anonymous subjects?
Many thanks to Christchurch City Libraries - Ngā Kete Wānanga-o-Ōtautahi - for permission to use this photograph. You can find out more about New Zealand's dress reform movement and see a picture of the famous 'knickerbocker wedding' here.
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