In the 1970s I caught the last wave of the "Hippie" era and was deeply influenced by the style aesthetics of that generation. I admired designers like Mary Quant and Emilio Pucci with their colour block dresses, pop art fabrics and loose A line shifts. Moving into the 80s there were the romantic designers like Bill Gibb and Zandra Rhodes with their ethnic referenced prints, "peasant" style dresses and bohemian whimsy. During the 90s pop goddesses like Madonna, Blondie, Cyndi Lauper and Chrissie Amphlett wowed us with their shabby chic and urban scruff style.

Right from my very first clothes designs in the 80s these influences were the basis of my inspiration. Even today I still describe my own style as a mashup of hippie, bohemian, tribal/oriental/eastern, alternative arty with a bit of goth thrown in.

I've found theres little affordable or flattering in boutiques for curvy creatives and the big 4 pattern companies mainly cater for the slender figure and conservative styling. In my researches to find great clothes that were practical, flattering and less than conventional I was attracted to the contemporary Japanese designers such as Junya Watanabe and the street style aesthetic known as “Lagenlook” (literally – layered look) In 2014 I blended my old and new aesthetics to design and sell my own unique range of PDF patterns specifically to cater for those who yearn for something different and artistic. The business enterprise I started to sell my independent design clothing patterns is called "Boho Banjo art to wear"

In my home country New Zealand I had studied technical pattern making and became a trade qualified Clothing Industry Pattern Maker in 1984. In the last 30 years digital technology has changed the industry so much that the manual skills I learned for creating and grading patterns had been almost completely superseded. I had to completely retrain and update my skills to the contemporary age in 2014. The only skill from my last century knowledge that has remained virtually unchanged is sewing

I want to offer a style of clothing that is loose, relatively unstructured and that moves on the body when worn. Clothing that is designed for comfort and practical ease of movement but still shows off the wearers individuality through innovative cut, embellishment, detailing, colour, pattern and design features.