The dramatic silhouette of this elegant ensemble, with its tiny waist separating a generous bust and bottom – a shape achieved through constrictive undergarments – reflects the height of fashion in the early 1900s.

Mrs Celia Hall (1846-1934) wore the outfit in 1906 when her eldest son, Frederick, married Frances Elizabeth Harris in Masterton. Made by her daughter, Esther Hall (1883-1962), using a sewing machine and finished by hand, the cotton ensemble conceals boning and a pink-striped satin lining in the jacket.

The jacket’s leg-of-mutton sleeves, pleats and bow at the back, sit above a flat-fronted skirt, creating a highly structured, idealised feminine form. Just a short few years later, a radical shift took place with simpler, more relaxed styles coming into vogue.

While she was no doubt a proud mother of the groom, Celia Hall was also a nurse and businesswomen. She ran a nursing home in Aramoho and, just before the 1906 wedding, established a private hospital in Palmerston North.

Celia Hall’s great-granddaughter, Helen Woller, donated the wedding outfit along with documents that help tell this fascinating story of female enterprise.

Jacket and Skirt Ensemble, 1906  
Maker Esther Hall (later Starck)   
Cotton with satin lining   
Donated by Mrs Helen Woller  
WRM 2015.55.7  
Photographed by Kathy Greensides
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