City Medalists

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30388, 12 March 1964, Page 22

City Medalists

The House of Selby, which won two gold medals and 10 fashion choice labels for their entries, was the first New Zealand garment manufacturing firm to export coats and suits to Australia. Its workroom, staffed by 150 employees, uses more than 100,000 square yards of wool fabric a year. The stylist, Miss Loma Cooper, adapts master patterns from London associates to suit the needs and tastes of New Zealand women. Miss Cooper tries on all her own samples before passing them.

“I do this to get the feel of a garment and to decide whether to put it in the matron’s section or in a group to show for younger women,” she said recently. “If I particularly like the look of a certain neckline, for instance, I might repeat it on another style.” This is the advantage of having a woman stylist in a workroom which manufactures women’s fashion garments. Miss Cooper joined the firm 12 years ago as a typist-model, but it was the styling room that interested her. “I really pushed my way into designing,” she said. Mr R. H. Wadman, governing director and designer of the Christchurch firm which bears his name, won a gold medal for the coat featured on page 2, as well as 15 fashion choice awards. He began manufacturing in 1949, concentrating on girls’ coats until two years ago when the firm moved into new premises and expanded into making womens’ coats as well. Last year he entered the Wool Fashion Contest for the first time and won 10 fashion choice labels.

Mr Wadman, who employs a staff of 23, uses about 30,000 square yards of wool fabric a year. He designs under licence for Leroy of Melbourne and is the stylist of “Jaki Kay” fashions, an abbreviated form of the name, “Jacqueline Kennedy.”