Bibs, skorts and other netball nostalgia 🏐
+ a chat with Luciane Buchanan, and the return of The Ensemble Edit
This week’s letter is free for all, thanks to Clinicians
Team sports have never been my thing but like most girls growing up in Aotearoa in the 90s, I had a brief stint playing primary school netball.
We played Saturday mornings at Henderson’s Te Pai courts, where I flitted between wing attack and wing defence, aka the short girl positions, while wearing a black t-shirt, black A-line wrap skirt with a yellow stripe at the hem and a yellow and black bib that was about five sizes too big for me. I distinctly remember shopping with mum for the required full black undies to wear underneath.
That hideous uniform is a core childhood memory, as was the trauma of being forced to play a game that I was bad at (I didn’t last long, but had aunties who were proper netballers that we’d sometimes go along and watch and cheer — I enjoyed the camaraderie of being at the courts, more than playing on them).
Netball touches on so many things that Ensemble loves to celebrate and explore: community, women, women's sport, health and body image and, for many, girlhood lessons of confidence through teamwork.
New Zealand might (still) be rugby mad, but netball is our much cooler sporting fascination. The uniforms are a better too… So when I saw that Auckland Museum was hosting an exhibition celebrating 100 years of 'our game', I knew we had to do something.
This week, curator Jane Groufsky shares some of the outfits over time that have helped, or hindered, players on and off the court - click here for her unique social, sporting and sartorial history of Aotearoa.
This week’s newsletter is free for all, including The Ensemble Edit - the return of things we’ve seen, saved and shared. Keep scrolling to the end for that!
The last time actor Luciane Buchanan danced, cried and raged
The last DM/text you sent? "Ugh she pisses me off. But there's no one like her," to my girl Lauryn discussing Beyoncé and her tour/visuals conspiracies. HAHA so classic.
The New Zealand-born Tongan star of Netflix’s The Night Agent on legal weed, Costa Rican getaways, skinny-dipping and more.
Feeling bloated? Now is the time to focus on your gut health
Created in partnership with Clinicians
Clinicians naturopath Jane Cronin provides some easy-to-digest answers to some of the most common questions around what causes bloating and how we can best support ourselves through it - click here for her advice.
The Ensemble Edit
Things that Zoe has seen, saved and shared.
📻 Ensemble contributor Yawynne Yem DM’d me about Rose Gray’s new album Louder, Please and I’m so glad she did; it’s unbothered, transcendent, hedonistic fun. I’ve never heard of Rose (she dates babygirl Harris Dickinson) but it’s already on repeat.
🩲 I was gifted a voucher to buy some things from Australian underwear brand Nala, and I have to say: their knickers are the most comfortable I’ve worn (I got the ‘bio butter’ and ‘better than cotton’ undies).
🥛 Genius headline, about a genius topic: Milk is for freaks by one of my favourite writers, Allison P. Davis.
😒 Another favourite writer, Doreen St. Félix, on the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni lawsuits and “the Collapse of the Hollywood #MeToo Era”. Quite bleak!
📖 We were in awe of Ali Mau’s incredible and important #MeToo work at Stuff; it’s a real shame they haven’t continued to invest in that level of reporting. I’m excited about Ali’s memoir being released in April, titled No Words For This.
🧺 Friend and supporter of Ensemble Sammy Saxton-Beer shared this local family-run business on Instagram: Launder, a pick up and delivery laundry service with very cool branding.
🌼 Meadowlark’s daisy jewellery is adorable and I really want the daisy chain bracelet (quite into bangles rn).
🍷 I heard that a wine bar is opening in the Westmere shops, where the fruit shop used to be. Really hope the rumour is true! If you’ve got any intel, let me know…
🥐 This might be kind of old, but I just saw the Sonnie x Daily Bread t-shirt collab featuring treats from the bakery; they should make this in adult size.
