Uniforms to Victoriana

Now a Victorian tailor, the former storeman is at home on a treadle sewing machine and has become a dab hand at making waistcoats, tail coats, and plus fours (the latter are apparently very popular amongst the vintage car set).

Partner Chantel Jones spent 15 years in banking, but had made clothes for herself and her children, so was up for the challenge of learning to create elaborate Victorian gowns, shirts and corsets.

This massive lifestyle and career change came about after the two Aucklanders visited Oamaru for the first time in 2005 and were immediately seduced by the idyllic harbour setting and historic buildings. Within 24 hours of setting foot in the town, they’d decided to sell up their North Shore home and shift south.

Chantel says friends were more than a little shocked. “They said we were nuts. We’d talked about leaving Auckland, but only intended being two hours away, not 1200 kilometres.”

Undeterred, the couple sought advice from the Trade Me community about the logistics of moving to Oamaru and finding work, and complete strangers offered them a place to stay when they arrived.

“Oamaru people are like that; there’s something about this place.”

The pair found part-time work and got into the tailoring game after helping set up the Oamaru Textile Exchange, a sales outlet for local craftspeople and textile artists in the town’s historic precinct.

Many of the business people in the historic quarter wear period clothing to work and there’s also demand for it from those attending Oamaru’s annual Victorian fete.

In their bid for authenticity, Chantel and Mike run up garments on their collection of about 18 antique sewing machines.

“Mike’s daily machine is a treadle, mine is an old black Singer Electric from the 1940s. We do have an overlocker, but when we make clothing for the bookbinder, he stipulates no overlocking.”

Mike likes his treadle machine because “It goes at my speed”.

He says he’s always been a bit of a DIY type and, with all the Victorian tailoring manuals available both in book form and on the internet, there is no shortage of information about construction techniques.

“I built my own car from scratch, and clothing is the same concept: you have a pattern, or a set of instructions that tell you how to draft a pattern, and it goes from there. “

The pair recently branched out into doing period clothing from other eras, such as the 1920s, and Chantel says it is enormously satisfying seeing the reaction of customers donning their costumes for the first time.

“They prance around and say ‘Wow, this is really cool’. It just changes people’s personality; when you dress up, it’s like you become someone else.”

Two years ago the couple took over Tiger Lily’s vintage clothing store and they have also learned to operate a loom in order to weave pure wool tweed and herringbone fabric which is hard to source locally.

They both wear Victorian garb to work and Chantel often forgets she’s in costume. “A tourist bus will go past and everybody will wave and I’ll think ‘Oh, I’m all dressed up.’”

The period influence continues at home, an old villa that would have been well outside their price range in Auckland.

“We don’t have a microwave or a dishwasher. We’re trying to go back to a simple way of life. I don’t wear Victorian clothing at home, but I’m sure it will come.” The only downside to Oamaru is its distance from Auckland, where Chantel’s grandchildren live. But, she says, there are plenty of compensations.

“We don’t get up in the morning and go ‘Oh, we’ve got to go to work’. You’re doing it for yourself. And you use a different set of brain cells, it’s creative; it’s a completely different way of living.”