OPINION New Zealand used to be a country of vibrant synthetic striped polyprop . Then we got boring – and discovered merino. Originally published by the Spinoff It’s full of holes now, and getting saggy, but Emily Lane refuses to get rid of her favourite zip-up polyprop jumper.
“I got it before I went overseas for my PhD, so it’s at least a quarter century old,” she says fondly. “It’s falling to bits because I’ve had it so long.” She insists on keeping the decrepit garment because she can’t find anything that would aptly replace it.
Browse any New Zealand outdoor retailer – and Lane has – and it’s basically impossible to find what she wants. She’s looking for narrow stripes, thoroughly synthetic fabric and, most importantly, garish colours. Blues and purples, greens and oranges, yellow and aquamarine.
“It’s getting harder and harder in life to get stripy polypro – it’s all sombre colours,” she says..