Scotties Boutique’s Ponsonby Store in Auckland, New Zealand
The proprietor of Scotties Boutique in New Zealand is the home of some of the world’s prodigious clothing labels: Céline, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries van Noten and Marni to name just a few. But just as you might immediately presume it is another fanciful women’s prêt-a-porter boutique, it is dispelled when you unravel the alchemy of its interiors and the variable portals linked its existence through its virtual fashion e-commerce.
Marilyn Sainty’s creative verve mirrors much that of British clothing designer Margaret Howell. Both prime women in the early 1970’s, the latter of who already dabbed in clothing design with her prevalent story of finding a men’s shirt at a jumbo sale. Sainty found herself in the unbalancing act of a change in gender dynamics in which women self-empowered to own and start their businesses. What loomed on both women were an economic downturn and a highly regulated economy in New Zealand that impose austere import tax. The cost of goods skyrocketed. Sainty describes the climatic period, “For along time and up until the 1980’s, New Zealand had import restrictions and I think that deprivation forced people to be creative, especially women.”
Unperturbed by the market economy, she established Scotties Boutique with her business partner Sonja Batt in 1978. This was on the backend of 7 years learning the fashion business in Sydney, Australia for a manufacturer. Throughout this time, Sainty’s own eponymous label grew in stature, developing well-honed and pragmatic women’s basics and outerwear using fabrics of tulle, crepe de chine and fine wool. “I don’t completely understand how it is that ever I can remember a strong interest in fashion… but I think that living in such isolation New Zealanders became outward looking and have become great travelers.” Sainty is referring to her childhood youth with an inability to afford her own clothing and creating dress pieces by herself. They often incorporated rudimentary materials such as crepe paper and linen yet despite this was overwhelmed with determined satisfaction. Sewing and patternmaking becoming her deftness, Scotties Boutique exposed the New Zealand public to a woman creating pieces by female craftsmen.
How did the opening of Scotties Boutique lead to the introduction of European identities one might ask? Comme des Garcons, Dries van Noten then Marni and Lanvin, Sainty traveled to both Paris and Milan yearly and felt enlivened by kindred spirits particularly with Rei Kawakubo. For her ‘Au Revoir Mariyn Sainty’ exhibition in 2005, she explains, “I have immense respect for Rei Kawakubo’s work. I think she gave us permission to be freer in a way because she broke the rules. Issey Miyake took fashion to a new place, especially his more sculptural work. It had a kind of unconventional elegance. Yohji Yamamoto sometimes achieves a level of perfection that leaves me breathless. There are a lot of people making beautiful clothes but there is strength to what these three Japanese designers work that puts them in a special place for me.’ Her reflection reveal her notion of womenswear carried within her Pornsby store and her other two that for which clothe and nuture their feminine wearers, abstaining from any hint of fast fashion.
”The Ponsonby Store is a former small factory built in the 1960′s, Architect Nicholas Stevens has made some alterations for us as well as designing the Wellington store” Sainty explains and further adds, “The Lorne Street store was originally a linen store and had been designed by sculptor Chiara Corbelletto and artist Judy Millar with Vivienne Leung who owned the store. We have made very few changes in that we just removed shelving and added racks.” To ascertain the extent of how prevalent of what Sainty provides within her boutique’s interior, its online presence can give an encompassing outlook. ‘Spreads’ are conceived on an asymmetrical web-page layout that elongates horizontally. Rectangular images react at the click of the mouse, selecting mini-portals that delve into a cosmopolitan aesthetic. Peering through one, a cubist yellow Marni dress lays hung beside a canvas portrait as early as the 16th century, another rare archival footage of past runway shows by the likes of Alexander McQueen and Martin Grant and the dimensional juxtaposition of history and ancestral heritage pertaining to a crimson red Comme des Garcons wallet place upon an open page spread of black and white Victorian era photographs. To show just how universal good fashion can be, the “Room Service” editorial flickers through domesticated settings – everyday luxury of a tribal printed Dries van Noten dress or the twisted draping of a Lanvin blouse befits the home comforts of art literature readings and integral as much as the polaroids of ever-lasting friendships.
Although now semi-retired, Sainty now leaves the reigns of her workroom to Beth Ellery who trained under Sainty herself, but still buys the collections for her stores in the summer season whilst Batt does the winter season. The collections also comprise of Ellery’s own designed prêt-a-porter and two other New Zealand designers in Camille Howie and Julia Fong under Sainty’s patronage. Still enlivened by local hard architecture and the culture of craft in New Zealand, for the seasons to come the convergence of fabric and technology will be more evident in her self-empowering Scotties Boutique.
Scotties Boutique - www.scottiesboutique.co.nz
