Jane Groufsky is a curator of social history at Auckland Museum, and curated the exhibition Our Game: A Century of Netball in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Ask any woman who grew up in New Zealand and she probably has a (fond or otherwise) memory of playing school netball. It’s our most popular sport for women and girls, with 2024 marking the 100-year anniversary of Netball New Zealand – the organisation that pushed for it to become so.
To celebrate the milestone, Netball New Zealand teamed up with Auckland Museum for an exhibition that uncovers and celebrates this history. As the game has changed, so too have the uniforms evolved.
Below are some of the outfits over time that have helped – or hindered – players on and off the court in Aotearoa.
In 1906 the women of the A and B teams from St Luke’s Presbyterian Church of Remuera played in their regular clothing, with a colored fabric armband to distinguish their team affiliation. The outfit appears formal by today’s standards yet was considered practical everyday attire at the time, although still indicative of a particular social class.
Remuera was an affluent suburb then as it is now, and these middle-class daughters of prosperous businessmen could afford good quality, respectable clothing. A high-necked white cotton shirt, known as a shirtwaister, was paired with a long skirt. The latter was probably made from wool: a practical and easily accessible material which would have withstood the occasional tumble taken by the women playing on a rough paddock.
The hair – voluminous and piled on top of the head – was an Antipodean take on the “Gibson Girl” style popular in the USA, named for illustrations by artist Charles Dana Gibson. Hats of this era increased in size to accommodate the coiffure, and the matching team hats seen here would have been worn by the players throughout the game.
Although the exact date of the establishment of netball in New Zealand is unclear, records show that some form of the game was being played at Wanganui High School in 1897. Schools, the YWCA and church groups like the one shown here were crucial to the early development of the sport. And while it had its origins in basketball, it was a women’s game through-and-through – even the basket would have been repurposed from the laundry, nursery or school room, strung up between two poles for the game and then returned to domestic use after.
By 1938, netball’s popularity had developed sufficiently to merit the first international test, held between New Zealand and Australia. The New Zealand Basketball Association (netball was known as basketball here until 1970) purchased blazers for players to wear over their uniforms, a smart new look for the new national side.
Made by Petone Woollen Mills and embroidered on the pocket with the NZBBA logo of a Kiwi on a globe, these blazers were good quality garments that the players were proud to wear while representing their country. As expensive items at the time, they had to be returned to the organisation once back in New Zealand for others to wear.
The concept of black as our national sports “colour” had emerged at the end of the 19th century, and in 1920 New Zealand’s first Olympic team wore black uniforms with an embroidered silver fern. By 1938 this combination was well established, with the fern featuring on the tunic worn by the netballers as their playing uniform. Together with the kiwi on the blazer, the fern formed part of the growing visual language being used to identify Aotearoa on the world stage. New Zealanders drew on symbols from the natural world to create a unique identity distinct from the British Empire, and the emergence of national sports teams formed part of this broader move towards individuality.
The 1938 playing tunic represented a new development in dedicated activewear. Based on the gym tunic, it was a liberating garment compared to its antecedents – worn without a corset or other restrictive undergarments, it could fit any shape or size of body and provided greater freedom of movement. A degree of formality on the court was maintained by the long-sleeved shirt and tie worn underneath, and the tunic remained standard for much of the 20th century.
1975 saw New Zealand compete at the 4th World Tournament (now known as the World Cup) on home ground in Auckland. The dress seen above is a dramatic departure from the business-like blazer and skirt that had previously made up the team’s formal uniform.
This dress was made by Australian brand Osti Fashions under license in Christchurch. An Osti dress represented the new world of off-the-rack fashion. The 1970s was a transitional period during which women started purchasing ready-made garments instead of sewing clothes at home. Consumers in this era were enamoured with clothing made from newly developed synthetic fibres which were easy to wash and didn’t need ironing, and these became a selling point – the label of this dress proudly notes it is made by Arnel, a trade name for triacetate.
The bold pattern of the poppy dress has given it a somewhat infamous place in New Zealand netball history. Yvonne Willering, 1975 player and later a coach of the Silver Ferns, recalls that when they first saw the dresses they assumed only the managers would be wearing them. She was slightly horrified to learn they were for the whole team, commenting retrospectively, “I have no problems with it – I think it’s not bad looking at all – but now, you’ve got to visualise 18 people walking into a room wearing this!”
Yet she says they still wore the dresses with pride, because they had earned the right to wear them. Yvonne kept her dress all these years and has loaned it to Auckland Museum for the exhibition.
By the 1970s the wool tunic had been replaced by the pleated wrap skirt and polo shirt as the uniform of the national team. This must have been a relief to players competing in the 34-degree heat of Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago during the 1979 world tournament.
Another relatively recent development was the use of Velcro to fasten the skirts, but this proved to be somewhat hazardous – captain Lyn Parker’s skirt was ripped off in their final game against the home team (luckily, she had brought a spare).
The silver fern moved to the skirt and the polo shirts featured Adidas’ trefoil logo, which had been introduced in 1972. The fitted style and broad collar of the polo shirt are typical of 1970s fashions. Eventually, sponsorship agreements with brands like Adidas and Canterbury Clothing Company would become crucial to the expansion of the sport in Aotearoa.
Nineteen teams competed in the round-robin tournament and the result was a three-way tie between Australia, New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobago, making it New Zealand’s second World Cup win.
1999 saw the switch to the now-iconic black dress worn by the Silver Ferns. With its sleeveless style and stretch polyester fabric, the uniform had finally evolved into a form that accommodated the physical demands of this fast-paced game.
The dress received a refresh for the 2023 World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa. Netball New Zealand called on two designers who were part of their community: Maia Gibbs, the son of former Silver Ferns captain and coach Leigh Gibbs, and Henare Brooking, nephew of Netball New Zealand President Tina Karaitiana.
Both tā moko artists from Te Tairawhiti, their dress, named Manawa Rau, incorporated designs which connected the current players to the legacy of those who had come before. Every part of the design was deliberate and considered, with Gibbs saying, “We are tā moko, we move in a Māori space where everything has meaning, everything is inclusive.”
Five Patiki (flounder) designs down the spine of the dress represented each of the Silver Fern teams who had won the World Cup in the past, and the Niho Taniwha (teeth) pattern represented the dynamic and explosive style of netball played in Aotearoa.
As the game evolved to reflect changing social attitudes towards women’s physicality, so did the playing uniform. Fashions which may appear at first glance dated and constrictive to a modern eye were integral to this wider process of liberation.
See these garments up close and learn more about the history of netball in Aotearoa, visit Our Game: A Century of Netball in Aotearoa New Zealand, at Auckland Museum until February 18.
With thanks to Margaret Henley
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