This elegant sleeveless cocktail dress captures the glamour of the early 1960s. Its shorter hemline, fitted bodice, and lavish embellishment also signifies sophistication.

The design incorporates a blue silk base with white lace overlay. Aspects of the lace are highlighted with sparkling sequins, grey and clear glass bugle beads and pearl beads. Pleats at the hips add subtle structure.

Rosalie Thomson (born Burbush, later Gwilliam) designed this dress for her colleague, Marton Primary School teacher Judith Sanders (later Baddeley). Thomson was inspired by her gown ‘Mona Lisa’, which won third place in the 1962 Gown of the Year Competition.

Thomson regularly entered national fashion competitions, including the Gown of the Year and its successors—the Benson and Hedges and Smokefree Fashion Design Awards—almost every year from then until the late 1990s. Her intricate craftsmanship and forward-thinking style earned her widespread recognition. Twenty-six of her garments were collected by Eden Hore, a cattle farmer from Naseby, Central Otago, who assembled an extraordinary collection of New Zealand high-fashion garments from the 1970s and 1980s, and which are now cared for by the Central Otago District Council.

Cocktail dress, 1963
Designed and made by Rosalie Thomson (later Gwilliam, 1938 – 2014)
Made from silk, cotton lace and sequins
Gift of Judith Baddeley, 2022
WRM 2022.23
Photographed by Kathy Greensides

View the full-length image