page_title: Trilby Yates
section_title: Founding
hierarchical_section_title: Trilby Yates / Founding
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Auckland Town Hall taken from Queen Street with the statue of Sir George Grey in the foreground. Greys Avenue can be seen on the right of the Town Hall. Photograph taken by William A Price. Inscriptions: Inscribed - Photographer's title on negative -bottom centre: Grey's statue and Town Hall. Auckland. 105E [?]. William Archer Price lived and practised in Queen Street, Northcote, 1909-1910. Source: New Zealand Post Office directories Quantity: 1 b&amp;w original negative(s). Physical Description: Dry plate glass negative 4.5 x 6.5 inches View of Auckland Town Hall, Auckland and statue of Sir George Grey. Price, William Archer, 1866-1948 :Collection of post card negatives. Ref: 1/2-000166-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. natlib.govt.nz/records/23236198
context_page_description: Trilby Yates was a pioneering New Zealand fashion label. Founded by sisters Trilby and Julia Yates, it operated from the 1920s to the 1950s. Along with Ninette Gowns and Bobby Angus, it is considered one of the founders of New Zealand fashion design. The careers of designers Nancy Hudson and Hall Ludlow began at the label, and it is credited with introducing New Zealanders to trousers as fashionable wear for women.
context_section_description: The label was founded by sisters Trilby and Julia Yates in the mid-1920s. Trilby, who was the older by nine years, had trained as a milliner at The Bon Marché, an emporium founded in Auckland in 1904. By 1923, the business was operating as a hat shop opposite the Auckland Town Hall at 374 Queen Street, under the name "Trilby Yates: the Ladies' Paradise".  Trilby was a skilled milliner, described as being able to "take a tea towel and make a hat out of it". Julia, by contrast, could barely sew, but had business skills and connections with artistic friends such as the dancer Freda Stark and the filmmaker Robert Steele.
caption: The Auckland Town Hall, c. 1910. The row of shops to the left would later become the first premises of Trilby Yates.
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