What you said

Weasked for it

Last week we launched our new fashion section – a two-page spread of harmless (we thought) shirt dresses at awide range of price points.

We asked you to write in with your views. And... that’s what happened.

Goodnight Nurse

You asked readers to write in and tell you what they thought about the shirt dresses in your fashion section. Apart from the $899 one,

I thought they were all awful and terribly unflattering. The one on the second page reminded me of the uniform I had to wear during my nursing training in the 70s! Helen Carver, Dannevirke

I’ll showyou shirty

You got me shirty!

Josie Steenhart promotes 10 shirt dresses – average price $320 each? The prices ranged from $899 to $43 (on sale?).

Can the poor old ordinary reader afford $900 bucks for a shirty dress? Methinks not.

Shite shirty fashion is timeless and expensive.

Ed replies: Natalie, I’msorry our shirts got you shirty. The goal was to provide something for everyone which is why four of the 10 dresses cost less than $100. Even the expensive ones are really there as inspiration, sometimes you can get an idea from an expensive dress and find something similar for a fraction of the price.

Yes but what about the rest of us?

You asked for feedback on the returned fashion pages, and I’mvery happy to provide it.

I never cared for the fashion pages because they never cared about me. I see that this hasn’t changed.

Josie Steenhart writes that the shirt dress ‘‘suits and flatters all shapes and sizes’’ – and yet, every single one of the 10 dresses pictured will not fit anyone who wears over a size 16. You know who wears a size 16 and up? Half of NZ’s women. So do fat people not count? Do we not deserve nice clothing? Please do better.

Ed replies: Fair point, Joanna. While most of the dresses featured are available in size 16, there are none in sizes beyond that. And you’re right, that does exclude many women in New Zealand who absolutely deserve to wear nice, glamorous, wonderful clothes. We will endeavour in future to include clothing for the size 16-plus woman (though you might need to wait a couple of issues as these pages are done in advance.)

Humphrys’ Boarding House, Te Wairoa, after the eruption of Mt Tarawera, June 10 1886.

At about 2am on June 10, 1886, tourists staying at the Terrace Hotel (also known as Humphreys’ Boarding House) in Te Wairoa went outside to watch Mt Tarawera erupting. As ash, mud and red-hot scoria rained down, they took shelter in Joseph McRae’s Rotomahana Hotel, thinking their last hours had come. Edwin Bainbridge, 21, wrote: ‘‘This is the most awful moment of my life. I cannot tell when I may be called upon to meet my God. I am thankful that I find his strength sufficient for me. We are under the heavy falls of volcano…’’ He was interrupted by part of the building caving in, and was found crushed by a fallen balcony. Others who sheltered in the hotel survived, as did those who took refuge in guide Sophia Hinerangi’s whare. Many Ma¯ori living in less robust dwellings around the shores of Lake Tarawera perished.