Before social media and the age of influencers, grabbing a coffee and the Sunday paper was an adrenaline-filled moment to see if you'd made the cut. Photo: Supplied
By Carolyn Enting*
Remember when having your photo appear in the society pages was akin to making it?
These were the days before social media and the age of influencers and if you'd been snapped by the likes of photographer Norrie Montgomery, then grabbing a coffee and the Sunday paper was an adrenaline-filled moment to see if you'd made the cut.
"People used to buy the paper and if they were in it, they'd buy multiple copies and put it up on the wall," recalls former About Town social commentator Amanda Nicolle.
It was "a water cooler situation" and a buzz to get the Sunday paper and open it, broadcaster and podcaster Petra Bagust says.
"So many people would have brunch and check out the Sunday paper for the social pages. It was a bit of a ritual ... who's in? And what's the goss? Because we didn't have social media to scroll, so that was the one place we could go and see a bit of glamour."
Bagust was on the Rolodex of A-listers who frequently appeared in the Auckland society pages along with the likes of Colin Mathura-Jeffree, Aja Rock, Nicky Watson, Kate Hawkesby, Gilda Kirkpatrick and Sally Ridge. And she recalls making a good effort to represent at events, especially Fashion Week.
Petra Bagust regularly popped up in the social pages. Photo: Supplied
"You've got your hair and make-up, outfit, accessories and shoes. You're trying to think about it all. What are you wearing? How do you look? Because you're going out and it might be reported," she says.
"I think when you were putting that much energy in, the social pages was payment for all the effort in some ways."
Social history
Society pages have been a thing since the 1830s, taking off in 1880s New York, and are still a thing today, even with the advent of social media.
A heyday in New Zealand history was undoubtedly the early- to mid-noughties with About Town in the Sunday Star-Times, Scene (which later became Spy) in the Herald on Sunday, and RSVP in The Dominion Post, as well as pages in Fashion Quarterly and Auckland's Metro magazine. (Although making it into Metro had the opposite appeal, as it captured people in awkward moments like mid-scowl or eating, like capturing model and television personality Colin Mathura-Jeffree struggling to eat squid in the Gucci box at Ellerslie.)
Hot property
Metro aside, the power of an appearance in the Sunday papers meant the social commentators and photographers were also hot property.
Nicolle, who worked with photographer Kevin Stent for the Sunday Star-Times on the Wellington beat, recalls people throwing themselves in front of the camera and following them around.
"Once we were at a big business event and Kevin was about to take a photo when a person thrust themselves into the picture and said, 'there isn't going to be any photo without me'. Kevin just put his camera on the ground and said, 'sorry, there's no photo without me'."
Montgomery, who everyone knows as Norrie, has also got used to this behaviour. "People are constantly putting themselves in front of Norrie," Mathura-Jeffree says. "It's like a crash of rhinoceroses in front of him and it's quite aggressive."
Montgomery has snapped the social circuit for 20 plus years for the Sunday Star-Times' About Town and the Herald on Sunday's Spy, where his images still appear.
The first party he shot for About Town was Sir Owen Glenn's 60th birthday party at the Loaded Hog in Auckland's Viaduct. It was his first taste of meeting socialites in Auckland. He remembers thinking "this is a laugh and I'm getting paid for it" and has been doing it ever since, even though he now mainly shoots parties for PR and private clients.
"I didn't always pick on people who were well-known. I liked to get people who had made an effort. I'd home in on them, get the photograph, and they'd be absolutely stoked," Montgomery says.
The Colin factor
Mathura-Jeffree's is one face that has appeared frequently over the years. Montgomery recalls the picture desk contacting him to say, 'we've just had somebody saying Colin Mathura-Jeffree wasn't in Spy this week', you know, sarcastically. So, I got back to the guy and said 'I'm glad you pointed that out. I will make sure that never happens again, that he's not in Spy'," says Montgomery.
Regular social pages star Colin Mathura-Jeffree. Photo: Norrie Montgomery
"Colin was great and would be the life and the soul of the party. He's got a real good energy and he's great with people."
Photographer Carmen Bird, who shot the society pages for About Town and Woman's Day, confirms "everyone likes Colin". The Herald on Sunday once wrote that if you wanted to get your photo in the society pages, get photographed with Mathura-Jeffree. For a hot minute this led to him being frequently accosted at events to "get a photo with Norrie".
A woman even grabbed him as he was reaching for a glass of champagne, swinging him into the waiter. "All of it went flying and then we all froze. It was such a chaotic mess and then she looked up at me and said, 'hurry up'. I was horrified," Mathura-Jeffree recalls.
Good for business
The society pages have also oiled the wheels of business. "In many ways it launched people's careers," Nicolle says. "We went to designer events and fashion parades and people got to know the name behind the designer. Everyone was interested in what everybody was doing. It was a very busy and vibrant scene."
Mathura-Jeffree confirms he has got some great gigs out of attending events. "The most important thing about the social pages is understanding what it's about and it's actually about business," he says.
Colin Mathura-Jeffree's birthday bash was a whole social pages affair. Photo: Supplied
PR companies also quickly cottoned on that the social pages were a great publicity opportunity for clients.
Still relevant or naff?
Recently, a cute thing happened to Bagust. Her mum left the newspaper folded on her bed and she was in the social pages. "I was like, 'oh, this brings back memories'."
When asked about their relevance in 2024, she muses that as the title of social media suggests, everybody has a social page today - it's "the democratisation of social pages" because there is a photo wall at almost every event now, not just the Oscars.
"In the past the event was the main ticket and there were the social pages sort of swirling in the background, and they were this wonderful augmentation to it," she says.
"Now it feels like the events are put on literally for the social media, like the whole orientation is towards the photographs and who will be there, where will they put those photos. And you've got 25 Norries if you've got 25 guests, and that's your ideal - that everybody posts."
Montgomery agrees the society pages "have had their heyday", though they remain relevant because seeing yourself in printed media today is still a thing.
These days people take photos of their photo in the paper and do a zoom around on their phone to share on social media. Sure, everyone is posting their own photos at events, but these have been curated by a third party, which still means something.
* Carolyn Enting is a freelance lifestyle and fashion writer.