Rosalie Todd’s evergreen sartorial spirit
If you spot a woman riding a Penny Farthing in leg-of-mutton sleeves with frilly knickerbockers, she’s likely wearing a design by North Canterbury fashion luminary Rosalie Todd. Metropol editor Nina Tucker steps inside Rosalie’s sartorial mind in celebration of herArt in Fashion exhibition.
“I am no legend in the fashion world of North Canterbury,” Rosalie tells me, while her exhibition at Rangiora’s Chamber Gallery lures lovers of the sartorial and artistic. Walls decorated in exclusive one-off designs – Rosalie swore against ever making the same thing twice – the exhibition curates her decades of distinctive couture and use of sumptuous fabric.
Now in her 80s, Rosalie saw an invitation to exhibit her work as a final opportunity and ode to her craft. “Why not?” she says.
Like the 2026 Met Gala, which celebrates the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition ‘Costume Art’, and corresponding gala dress code ‘Fashion is Art’, Rosalie’s exhibition underpins the same narrative: fashion is an art form. At Chamber Gallery, from now until 9 July, Art in Fashion explores a lifetime dedicated to creating new, interesting, and completely wearable garments. “Art,” she says, “is about being creative.” Bespoke, custom. As a designer, Rosalie sings the same tune as the world’s best. “The Met Ball is costume and theatre. Designers dress actresses and celebrities in one-off gowns to attract attention.”
To Rosalie, “one-off means exclusivity. I do not wish to make multiples of a garment in many colours and sizes as shops demand.” She crafted one-of-a-kind wardrobes for clients, stocked her pieces in a Christchurch shop, and showcased two fashion parades in the early 2000s – Rosalie was guided by her heart and morals more than money. “My sewing was not a business but a hobby. I did not earn my income to live on,” she explains. “I was not ‘out there’ to sell myself.” For 26 years, Rosalie taught secondary school home economics to secure a stable wage and supplement her other passions.
It’s satisfaction that sets her sartorial heart alight – like building an entire wardrobe for a Queensland woman to wear in period fashion competitions across Aotearoa and Australia, which are judged on being authentic to the historic context of the vehicle of the day (mode of transport) being driven. The brief? A wardrobe from the late Victorian era. “I made a jacket, two walking skirts, two shirts, a waistcoat and knickerbockers for a lady to wear in competitions on her Penny Farthing. It was an interesting challenge,” Rosalie says with vigour. “I sew for myself and have sewn for others. I enjoy drafting the patterns and sewing the garments. It gives me great satisfaction.”
Rosalie was always drawn to new experiences and travel opportunities – perhaps it was the inspiration Rosalie found abroad that continued to inform her creativity in design. Rosalie explored everywhere from South America, to Moldova in Eastern Europe as part of the Volunteer Service Abroad organisation supporting sustainable, community-led development and volunteerism. “Returning home, I said ‘what next? I decided to enroll in a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion Design, with all the 18-year-olds. I had an amazing three years of study and fashion practicals, graduating with distinction,” Rosalie recalls. “Students were expected to enter the National DePont Fashion competition as part of the course. I won the lingerie sections.”
A life in fashion that kept on giving.
Visit Rosalie’s exhibition before 9 July at Chamber Gallery, 141 Percival Street, Rangiora.
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Quick fire questions:
Your favourite fabric to work with?
Silk, cotton and wool.
The best garment you ever created?
An emerald green coat-dress in silk for a family wedding, a black silk ‘opera coat’ shot with gold, purple and green, and a black pinafore with an ‘Urban Landscape’ appliqued around the hem. I made it during lockdown.
Your lifelong muse?
Anyone who designs and makes wearable, elegant clothing.
The fashion trend you can’t stand (or hope never comes back into fashion)?
1960s hot pants!
One thing every designer or budding designer should know?
That it’s hard work getting a satisfactory result that the wearer is happy with. Designers need to understand how to fit the client to their needs while keeping it a fashionable, elegant, well-made garment.
