Women lead the way in 2006 New Year Honours

Topping the Te Awamutu contingent at this year’s New Year Honours Awards are two women made Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Barbara Lim is well known locally as a former businesswomen, but has earned her honour for voluntary work for the New Zealand Chinese Association Waikato branch and Te Awamutu branch of the Hearing Association.

The name Marilyn Sainty is more internationally recognisable as one of New Zealand’s iconic fashion designers. She grew up and was educated in Te Awamutu, before making her name in the fashion industry. Ms Sainty retired last year and earned her MNZM for being at the forefront of the industry for over 30 years.

Mrs Lim and her husband Sid ran their fruit and vegetable wholesale/retail business for over 25 years. When they sold in 1988 Mrs Lim looked for volunteer work that would provide her with future challenges and interests. She became involved in both the Te Awamutu Hearing Association and Chinese Association. Although a volunteer initially, Mrs Lim started training as a therapist for the Hearing Association and qualified in 1990. She has worked as the local therapist for that time, but has also continued as a volunteer for the association and is currently secretary.

She was nominated for the New Year Honour by the Chinese Association Waikato branch where she has served as secretary for 16 years. The group organises society events and the executive committee ensures the society takes a full part in the wider community in sports and cultural activities.

Mrs Lim says it is an honour to be recognised by her fellow volunteers and by the wider community.

Marilyn Sainty grew up in Te Awamutu and attended Pekerau Primary School, Te Awamutu Intermediate and College. She learned to sew at Intermediate School and developed her love of fashion and clothing throughout her teenage years. Her grandmother Loretta Allison owned Vivienne’s Hair Salon in Arawata Street and mother Maureen Sainty owned a lingerie store in the same vicinity.

Upon leaving school, Ms Sainty had a short stint at the Waikato Times before her first ‘real’ job in fashion, working for Wendy Hall in the city’s Elle Boutique.

“Wendy saw something in me and gave me the freedom to design. She showed me the logic of pattern-making. After that I really learned about construction from sample machinists.’’

After a seven-year stint in Sydney, Sainty returned to New Zealand and settled in Auckland in 1974. She continued to design, working under her own label. In 1979 she joined forces with Sonja Batt and the pair opened the first Scotties boutique in Queen St. The partnership has always worked well. The two women have complementary styles. For the past few years business headquarters have been in Blake Street, a narrow side street in Ponsonby. The clothes designed there have never been produced in a factory, they’ve always been sent to outworkers to craft in their homes.

“This has always been a cottage type of industry and we like it that way,’’ Ms Sainty says.

Ms Sainty’s designs are featured in many New Zealand museums. She has also continued to support the industry’s up-and-comers, as an adjudicator to fashion design students at the Wellington and Nelson schools of design and she has nurtured and supported young fashion designers.

Ms Sainty was founder of the annual Artituture exhibition which showcased New Zealand furniture designs in the 1990’s and was also founder of the Women’s Loan Fund to help women into self employment.