Renowned artist Joanna Margaret Paul (1945–2003) wore this hand-printed silk dress to her wedding at the Whanganui Quaker Settlement in February 2003.

The ankle-length brown silk dress was designed and printed by Fanny Buss in the 1970s and features a rounded inset yoke, stand-up collar, and full-length set-in sleeves. A zip extends down the centre back from collar to hips. The fabric is richly decorated with Buss’s handmade block-print motifs: burgundy patterns on the collar and yoke, and repeating designs in two shades of blue across the body accented with horizontal stripes of the burgundy block pattern.

A key figure in Whanganui’s creative and cultural life from 1984 until her death, Paul worked across media: painting, drawing, poetry, film, and photography. She was one of the most gifted New Zealand artists of her generation. Buss studied at the Canterbury College of Art alongside Rita Angus, and was a printmaker, writer and book illustrator, as well as textile designer. She developed a thriving cooperative fashion label in Christchurch from her background in textile printing and design that sustained three generations of her family and was a unique part of New Zealand’s fashion design history.

By Trish Nugent-Lyne, Pou Tiaki/Collections & Curatorial Lead at Whanganui Regional Museum.

Dress, 1970s
Made by Fanny Buss label (Christchurch, about 1953-1991)
Made from silk and ink
Gift of Charlotte Paul, 2025
WRM 2025.4.3
Photographed by Kathy Greensides

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