The decades of the 1950s and 60s continue to exert a powerful fascination,
and in New Zealand, these postwar years have been remembered in popular culture
as a golden age. But what was life really like? “Real Modern” tells a
vibrant and varied story of this compelling era through images and, above all,
objects–the things that New Zealanders acquired and desired, that they used at
school, work, or play, and that they wore and saw from the country to the
suburbs to the city. In hundreds of gorgeous new photographs from the Museum of
New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and collections nationwide, readers will encounter
not only much-loved vintage and retro memorabilia and mid-century design
classics, but also ordinary, surprising, and unique objects. Each is accompanied
by lively, expert, and informative descriptive text that links these pieces to
the people who owned and used them, and to New Zealand's wider social,
political, and cultural history.
Author Biography: Bronwyn Labrum is an associate
professor in the School of Design at Massey University, Wellington, and was
formerly curator of history and textiles at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa
Tongarewa. She has written widely about New Zealand's cultural and social
history, museums and material culture, and has a long-standing interest in the
mid-20th century and its objects.