#Figleaf boutique professional

It was reported that Gregory's Designer Fashion Kits concept “carries all the hallmarks set by the European, English and American designers, translated for New Zealand lifestyles by the imagination of one very talented New Zealand woman”.

#Figleaf boutique professional

The Designmark evaluators reported “the Kit System Concept, presentation and professional distribution plan were all impressive indeed”. This marked the first time the award had been presented to a clothing manufacturer. Later that year David Caygill, Minister of Trade and Industry, presented Trish Gregory Fashions (NZ) Ltd., with the New Zealand Industrial Design Council's 'Designmark' Award for excellence of the company's innovative products and systems. īy 1985, Gregory's Designer Fashion Kits were a household name and creating work for around three hundred women making it the largest all-women company in New Zealand. In 1979 the company moved to Auckland and started expanding its sales force by hiring area managers throughout New Zealand. This became the framework of the Trish Gregory selling method. Afterwards, guests could try on a garment and purchase exactly the same item in kit form. Fashion consultants were hired and trained to present intimate fashion shows to invited guests in private homes. Impatient to expose this new idea to a wider market, Gregory decided to by-pass retail and take the product direct to the consumer. In 1978 Gregory formed Trish Gregory Fashions (NZ) Ltd., and leased factory space in Wellington. Their unique design, featuring no zips, buttonholes, darts, linings, interfacings or hand sewing, meant they could be easily constructed at home following a simple instruction sheet. Ready cut to sew 'Kitset Clothes' (later 'Designer Fashion Kits') entered the market initially via retail in 1977. In 1976, inspired by her overseas studies, including work experience in the Fashion Department of Vogue magazine London, and the International Wool Secretariat, London, Gregory returned to Wellington, New Zealand, with a plan to bring professionally designed high fashion garments to the New Zealand market in deconstructed form. įollowing her studies at the Royal College of Art, Gregory worked with European fashion house Zoe in Ibiza, Spain returning each winter for the next five years to design the summer collection. In 1975 Gregory was accepted as an Honorary student at the Royal College of Art School of Fashion Design in South Kensington, London. In the same year, Gregory was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Award to study in Europe, becoming the first fashion designer in New Zealand to be chosen for this award. It was noted that Gregory “has consistently been to the fore in New Zealand fashion design over the last four or five years”. Gregory “scooped another major award” in 1974 winning the NZ Benson & Hedges top award for High Fashion Daywear. Gregory was described as producing “creative design that has all the smooth professionalism of an international couturier” and that her entry “was unmistakably a winner she has produced a design that, if it were commercially exploited, could well be a trend-setter”. It was reported that Gregory's entry 'showed the signature of a really creative designer who has what the Americans call 'class''. In 1973, Gregory took the top award for High Fashion Daywear in the New Zealand Benson and Hedges Fashion Design Awards with her design 'Flappers'. Gregory entered the New Zealand Benson and Hedges Fashion Design Awards again in 1972, winning the Merit Award in the High Fashion Daywear category. The 'revolutionary boots in two parts could be worn over an ordinary pair of shoes' and were sold at Auckland department stores Milne & Choyce and the D.I.C.

Gregory, displaying 'a flair for inventiveness' designed 'Splatadashes' and in 1971 was described as having 'put Timaru on the map as a launching pad for fashion trends”. In 1970 Gregory entered the New Zealand Benson and Hedges Fashion Design Awards for the first time, winning the Merit Award in the Evening Wear category. In 1968 an NZBC posting took her to Timaru in the South Island and a year later she opened a fashion boutique named 'The Fig Leaf' on Caroline Bay Hill.

Career Īfter travelling internationally for several years working as a secretary and architectural draftswoman, Gregory returned to New Zealand joining the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) as a copywriter. Gregory was born Patricia Pearl Lattimer in New Plymouth, New Zealand, and educated at New Plymouth Girls' High School.