Fran Robertson - Decorator of People and Things
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Caftans, cats, crutches, and crafts! From advertising campaigns to private parties, TVCs to the rugby sevens, Fran has worked on them all.
Catch me making weird things for weird people, complaining about the patriarchy, chatting about disability issues, and unsuccessfully trying to keep the furballs I live with away from my work
My birthday outfit this year was a hodge podge of things I've been making for other projects, but they worked out well together!
We went to the Dropout Improv Live show, but because the accessible seating at the Aotea Centre is right up the back, I didn't feel bad having giant tall hair full a handful of balloons, which I'd painted to match the resin balloons I'd made for the jewellery set (which perfectly match another outfit I'm working on, but didn't have time to finish before my birthday, so stay tuned for random celebration vibes in a month or so I guess π
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The confetti / sprinkles print fabric I made this kaftan out of was an end-of-roll piece I got from SPOTLIGHT years ago as a back up option for another project, and I love how easy it is to style because of all the colours there are to pull out of the print - Orange is always my first choice, because it's my favourite colour to wear, but I left it trim-free specifically so I wouldn't be tied to any one colourway.
I was also lucky enough to find out that I've got a surgery date for my hysterectomy (almost 20 years to the day since a freshly 16 year old Fran first cried at a Doctor to just take it all out) so next week ya gal is going to be freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and it's been such a long time coming. I've had nothing but pain and suffering from this useless organ, for well over half my life, so FINALLY being able to get it gone and get on with things is going to be a game changer for me. I'll still be (broadly) sick and sore and broken, but I can't wait to see how much less sick and sore and broken I'm going to feel without this traitor in my midst.
30/07/2026
This outfit I called 'Strawberry Fields of Daisies' and it's an ode to my lawn in summer - We live just across the road from a strawberry farm, so the local birds fertilise our yard with strawberry seeds and we wind up with little clusters of strawberry plants and daisies popping up everywhere in summertime. It's frankly rather delightful, and one of my favourite things about living in MΔngere β€οΈπ
I made the components for this jewellery set over a few months - any time I had leftover red resin from another project it would become strawberries - as I wanted it to have that slightly eclectic 1940s novelty fruit jewellery vibe with clusters of leaves and fruit and flowers.
Bangle stacks are a forever favourite accessory of mine, because any opportunity for colour coordination is my jam - The pink and white ones I made myself, and the red and green ones are Splendette | Vintage Jewellery
It won't come as a surprise to anyone that my handbag collection is truly out of hand, but this sweet little vintage embellished strawberry bag doesn't get nearly enough love, so I'm pleased I 'rediscovered' it trying to find a good match for this outfit!
Headpiece wise, I wanted this one to feel like a strawberry plant rather than just a flower crown with strawberries in it, so most of the fruit are hanging loose and have plenty of movement, giving me heaps of options for how to position it and style my hair around it, and there are both strawberry flowers and daisies in the mix.
I shared a reel a few weeks ago about the making of my friend Michelle Davis outfit for the Goblin's Masque, a costume ball hosted by Costumier's NZ to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Labyrinth film, and this is the second part of that - The outfit I made for Michelle's husband Blair π
I had a blast with this one too, so thanks again to Blair and Michelle for letting me go a little rogue and turn them into the dark Fae pairing of my dreams, with myth and and legend woven into each detail β€οΈ
This combo has been rattling around my head for a wee while, so I'm pleased I managed to make something kinda cute out of all the components β€οΈ
Haven't talked heaps about why the switch to kaftans, other than to say that my body is unreliable at the moment, but this vid is kind of the first really tangible example of what I mean - Making something to fit me perfectly one day, and then two days later it being significantly too big to wear without adjustments π
This is not a huge drama when it's just a belt and I can add more eyelets to it easily to make it fit, but making a whole outfit only for none of it to fit days later when I go to wear it is why flexible free-size clothing has become my go-to, because I want to be able to wear whatever I feel like regardless of how horrifically swollen or bloated I am that day, courtesy of my messed up meatsuit π
23/07/2026
When you are the kind of person who makes anything but content, it's only fair that you'd entirely forget to take photos of this outfit all at once, but have enough video to make a whole reel about it.
This one I've called 'That Fern's a real fun guy' because when your name is audibly very close to a real name like Fern, particularly in the classic kiwi accent, I'd say about one in five people I meet wander away from our interactions thinking my name is Fern.
And, ya know, any opportunity for a fun guy / fungi joke.
Getting the headpiece for this one right was a fun challenge, as I really wanted it to look like somewhere the ferns and fungi in the print might grow, so I collected all kinds of ferns leftover from a number of recent projects, along with some terrain moss to build a forest floor base.
I also sculpted mushrooms in polymer clay to match all the different mushrooms in the print of the kaftan, so a whole heap didn't make it onto this headpiece but they'll likely appear in something else one day soon.
The jewellery set I made to go with this outfit is an absolute delight - There are two kinds of glass mushroom beads so they kind of gently clink which is a fun noise for someone who loves a good clickety-clack jewellery sound (see: giant bangle stacks; heavy earrings that clack against big bead necklaces)
It's the The Food Show this weekend, so obviously I will be going along and gorging myself on cheese and buying a bunch of snacks, as I do every year, but I need some help deciding which food-themed outfit to wear this time!
1. Just the salad for me, thanks!
2. The hungriest caterpillar.
3. Dinner by the seaside.
What do we reckon team?
There's something pretty magical about finding toadstools in the undergrowth as you're walking through the trees, and it's so easy to understand how they got tied into fairy lore because their little spotty caps just suddenly appear from one day to the next... Unless, of course, you are making them from clay, by hand, in which case they definitely don't just magically appear and you have to sit and carve their little gills one by one to make sure they look legit, because you are nothing if not a little pedantic about matching, and the ones on the fabric have their little gills clearly visible π
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I spend so much of my time focusing on the overall result of how something will look that it's sometimes quite nice to take a bit of time to get really caught up in the details and disappear off with the fairies into that hyperfocus that us neurodivergent folk know all too well π
Have you been making anything fun lately? I wanna see!
18/07/2026
Called this outfit 'Branching Out', because it sounds silly, but wearing dark colours is a little out of my comfort zone! The print was too gorgeous to pass up when I found it on the clearance rack at good ol' SPOTLIGHT though, so here we are, and I kind of love it π€·πΌββοΈ
Found this excellent 1970s medieval revival belt at an opshop in Hamilton a few weeks ago and knew it would be perfect with the tones in this print, especially since the jewellery bits I made primarily had that same antique brassy colour.
I had also picked up a roll of this gorgeous brown fringe from my local emporium to trim a dress for my mum for her birthday, and then wound up deciding that maybe a fringed dress for a lady with dogs in her life might not be practical...so unfortunately I just had to use it for myself on this, a true tragedy for the ages (sorry mum π
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I wanted the jewellery set I made for this to be a kind of eclectic mix of textures, and reference the print without being an exact match. It's a little outside of the style of jewellery I usually make or collect, but in the spirit of branching out I used a whole load of mixed metal charms and things from my stash that collectively felt like going for a walk outside on an autumn day.
In an effort to challenge myself a little lately, I've been trying to make headpieces without flowers in them, which has given me so many different directions to go in with materials, but I do still love a foliage moment and this fabric felt like the perfect print to inspire a flower-free foliage situation.
I'd also wanted to try and sculpt something that would wrap around my hair in an interesting way, since I like my wearing my hair tall which can make hats and things a bit tricky, so I think this one came together pretty well πππͺΎππ
Been trying to stretch some creative muscles by making headpieces without flowers in them, because there are fewer places to hide without massive blooms to fill gaps or tiny blossoms to cover mistakes, and this autumnal print with bare branches and colourful falling leaves was the perfect inspiration to make something distinctly non-floral!
Fabric was another clearance end of roll bargain from Spotlight, fringe was from my local Emporium, and everything else was harvested from my stash of collected treasures and leftovers from various customer orders πͺΎππππ
As I've mentioned in the past, I can make pretty much anything but content, so if you are looking for some fabulous nonsense then you know who to call π
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