A Fashion Education
Clothes are the first thing you see when you walk into Dianne Ludwig’s house. Boxes of them frame the short hallway, waiting to be unpacked and sorted. In the living room is a rack of vintagewear: a Liberty floral housecoat, an embroidered cream cape-dress in near-perfect condition. On the deck you’ll find wooden clothes horses draped with freshly washed woollen jumpers, drying in the crisp autumn sun. The spare room lost its double bed a while ago, replaced with racks heaving with evening gowns, summer dresses, blouses, pairs of trousers, silky slips layered 10 to a hanger. Originally everything was supposed to fit into one wall of built-in storage shelves in Ludwig’s 100-square-metre home in Auckland’s Freemans Bay, but those are now stuffed to overflowing with shirts and jeans and woollens. There are more clothes still at the bach she and her husband own in Mangawhai. When asked exactly how many items of second-hand clothing she has, Ludwig’s voice drops to a mock-whisper. “I hate to think,” she says, before guessing at somewhere around 1000.
In theory, all of these clothes, discovered in op shops and Trade Me listings and estate sales, or gifted from private collections, are stock to be sold through Ludwig’s Instagram shop, Welcome Back Slow Fashion. In reality, Ludwig sees each piece as a small treasure, valuing them as much for their history as their profit potential. A pair of New Zealand made vintage
