Collection celebrates women and their influence through the years
| Published date | 18 March 2022 |
| Publication title | Oamaru Mail |
It was tucked away from the main shopping centre, and she was the busy mother of four young children.
Called Mrs Hyde, the boutique soon found favour with fashionistas who appreciated the opportunity to source leading labels locally. It outgrew its small premises, moving to a larger space in the main street.
Its owner had always had a passion for fashion. Originally from Lower Hutt, Ms Hyde did a fashion design course in Wellington and worked as a pattern-maker for a bridal boutique.
She then headed to London and worked at the likes of Harvey Nichols and Selfridges, and then to Sydney where she was a pattern-maker for Dotti and other labels.
She started her own label but once she had children — particularly when she had four under the age of 5 — everything was put on hold.
After her three oldest children started school, Ms Hyde decided she needed to do something. Mrs Hyde was named after her late mother, who had six children and died from breast cancer aged 49.
Ms Hyde observed how people in the South usually wore the ubiquitous puffer jacket during the colder winter months. If they invested in anything for winter, it tended to be knitwear.
She herself loved knitwear and found there were not many New Zealanders making it. She looked into getting knitwear produced in New Zealand and doing it through Mrs Hyde.
But knitwear factories were already very busy and she was turned away. She got some samples made but she was too busy with her business, complicated by a marriage break-up and the sale of the property where the family lived.
And then, aged 46, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was at home alone when she discovered a lump in her breast on October 29, 2020, the day she should have been celebrating the six-year anniversary of opening Mrs Hyde.
She had had a mammogram five years previously and was supposed to have them yearly but they were so painful she tended to put it off. She thought it had only been two or three years since her last.
When she felt the lump, she ‘‘just knew’’ and she recalled being surprisingly calm. She only told her sister and a close friend.
‘‘Even though my mum had cancer, I just thought it wouldn’t happen to me. I was in shock but I’d accepted it at the same time.’’
When Ms Hyde saw a specialist in Dunedin, she was accompanied by her friend and her sister who had flown down from Wellington.
‘‘He had a special appointment for me...
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