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by Kelly Dix, Online Engagement Manager, Digital NZ

Thousands of garments carefully preserved in wardrobes and museum collections are connected by a fashion design competition that started in the 1960s as a charity fundraiser. Its success led it to become an annual event for both amateur and professional designers, and compulsory television viewing for many New Zealanders. Designers Trish Gregory, Patrick Steel and Denise L’Estrange are just some of the designers who made their names at the awards.

The competition began on 29 July 1964 as the Wills Gold Rose Award for Design, sponsored by the tobacco company W.D. & H.O. Wills. It was organised by the New Zealand Modelling Association and compered by the association’s president and senior tutor in Clothing and Textiles at Wellington Polytechnic, Jeannie Gandar. The following year, the event name changed to Benson & Hedges — directly promoting the W.D. & H.O. Wills cigarette brand.

Charity fundraiser parades were regular events at the time and models (often known as mannequins) played a key role volunteering their time on the catwalk and behind the scenes as the main organisers. From 1961 to 1964 the Fashion Spectacular and Golden Shears Awards, organised by the New Zealand Professional Mannequins Association, were held as charity fundraisers in Auckland. But they were short-lived. The Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards dominated fashion design competitions for the next three decades.

Twelve designers entered the first awards at the Majestic Cabaret in Wellington. There were two categories — Daywear and Eveningwear — and the winners received a ‘Golden Rose’ Trophy. The Daywear section was won by established designer Joan Todd of Salon Fantasia. Her winning design was a “dashing” cape-back jacket and shift dress made in a bright cranberry loose-weave, nubbly Australian wool. The Eveningwear award was won by 24-year-old William (Bill) McEvoy whose Firebird evening gown was a “high-collared, narrow evening coat of vivid pink wool, which the model opened to reveal the newest of lines — a V-fronted skimmer with three-tiered back”. Another of his designs — a gold leather dress and heavy guipure lace jacket — was also commended by the judges.

William McEvoy’s garments were modelled in the awards in 1964 by Josephine Brodie, a Wellington-born model who became the Modelling Association president in 1970. Josephine’s experience as a fashion show commentator for department stores in New Zealand and Australia, led her to the role of compere of the Benson & Hedges Awards until she moved to Australia at the end of 1979.

Both of the 1964 Golden Rose winning garments were made from wool, leading to the long-term involvement of the New Zealand Wool Board in the Benson & Hedges Awards. From 1965 there was a new category — the Wool Board Award — for the best wool garment, and in 1977 the Woolgrowers’ Award for Handcrafted Wool Fashion was introduced to recognise hand-spun and hand-knitted wool garments.

A win at the Benson & Hedges Awards was life-changing. Taumarunui designer Michael Mattar attracted clientele from across the Waikato region, but his success at the 1968 awards gave him a new, national audience. He won the Wool Board Award and the Formal Eveningwear section for a gold wool crepe dress, and the trophy for a new category — Creative Design — for black velvet evening culottes and cape with a cyclamen-rose sash.

Many amateur dressmakers and home sewers also became household names after their designs were showcased in the awards. Cecilie Geary, who wrote the fashion commentaries for the Benson & Hedges Awards from 1982 to 1998, describes them as egalitarian — “professional designer or amateur dressmaker, anyone with a flair for fashion could enter”.

Garment manufacturers also entered their designs with the hope of increasing exposure of their brands, eventually creating a need for separate awards. In 1982 Isabel Harris from Thornton Hall won the After-Five High Fashion Award with a black velvet cape and knickerbockers ensemble, and there were also manufacturers’ awards for Sportswear, Casual Daywear, High Fashion Daywear, and the Wool Award.

Other new categories introduced during the 1970s included a Young Designer Award, a Gown of the Year Award, Women’s Sportswear, and two menswear categories for casual and formal wear.

The awards had a huge influence on New Zealand fashion. They were broadcast on national television, reported on in newspapers, and from the mid-1970s the Modelling Association took the show on tour. In small towns across New Zealand, people would dress up for the evening and watch the designs modelled in their local hall or theatre.

After the 1979 event, Josephine Brodie left New Zealand for a new role as a fashion coordinator in Sydney. Former model and fashion parade compere, Maysie Bestall-Cohen, took over organisation of the competition. Like Josephine, Maysie had a long history with the awards , including modelling Annie Bonza’s ‘Flame dress’ which won the Eveningwear category in 1971.

Maysie re-launched the show in 1982 with a spectacular show being held for the first time in Auckland. Recognising the high quality of entries, she introduced a Highlights Parade before the main show. It wasn’t part of the televised event, but gave designers who weren’t selected as finalists a chance to view their garments on the catwalk.

The 1982 show was memorable for designer and Benson & Hedges Awards model Susanna Williams who was backstage changing outfits when her name was called out as the winner of the Young Designer of the Year Award. A first-time entrant, her design — a four-piece navy blue silk party ensemble that included a swishy skirt and bouffant-sleeved blouse — was modelled by former beauty queen Delyse Nottle.

In 1984 the awards were produced for a live television audience, rather than being filmed for a delayed broadcast. Held at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington, the awards were one of the largest television outside broadcasts at the time.

The 1980s and early 1990s saw huge changes for New Zealand’s fashion industry as the government removed subsidies that protected the sector, and also opened up the economy to global trade. Faced with competition from cheaper, overseas made clothes, the sector focused on promoting fashion as a high-end export. This was reflected in the Benson & Hedges Awards with winners mixing international glamour and traditional materials such as wool and leather.

The end of tobacco sponsorship of the Awards in 1995 was mitigated with short-term funding from the Health Sponsorship Council and a new name for the event — the Smokefree Fashion Design Awards. However, at the end of that period, Maysie was unable to find a replacement sponsor so the final awards event was held in 1998. More than 300 designers entered the competition, producing experimental garments that ventured into the realm of wearable art.

From 1964’s “find of the competition” William McEvoy to the Young Designer Award winner Vaughan Geeson in 1998, success at the Benson & Hedges Awards led to name recognition, new opportunities, and often a much-needed confidence boost. The national exposure received by the Awards also contributed to conversation about fashion as a serious business, with commentators reflecting annually on the state of the fashion industry in New Zealand and its ability to compete on the international stage.