“Wild west" goes to town

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32462, 24 November 1970, Page 7

“Wild west" goes to town

(By

ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE)

“Look what Mum made,” the Hintze family seemed to be saying as they proudly did their shopping at Taupo recently, all wearing green suits and lemon shirts in authentic “western” style. ! They certainly attracted many second glances. Father and two little boys wore long trousers and jackets with I their shirts, while mother and two daughters had A-line skirts and boleros. The feminine versions of the shirts were trimmed with lace and pretty buttons. Young Mrs Mary Hintze made the suits for her husband, herself, and their children in little more than two weeks, at a total cost of about $6O. She used 14 yards of yellow vinyl material for the six shirts and 12 yards of “hunter” green crimplene for all the suits. Husband Gene, and the children—Veray, aged 7, Clay, aged 4, Rej. aged 3, and Raina, 11 months —were all thrilled with the family | “uniform.” The reason for it was that the Hintzes, who came to New Zealand from Utah, i U.S.A, almost two years ago, could not buy the type of clothes they wanted here, and Mrs Hintze had to resort to making them. FARM COMPLEX "Mr Hintze is employed at Poronui station, an enormous farm complex near Taupo, owned by the Mormon Church. His job is training quarter horses, which he is. introducing to New Zealand-i ers at shows around the! country. “We were brought to New, Zealand to work with horses,* but we cannot buy Western clothes here. That is why my wife has made them,” he said.

l Mrs Hintze has made . Western-style shirts for her ’ husband ever since their • marriage JO years ago. He ' used to be a professional . rodeo rider, performing . before crowds, and sometimes ripped a shirt a night. I “It was really a matter of economics. I am fussy about my clothes, and she could make them better and much 1 more cheaply than we could r buy them,” Mr Hintze told ' me. [ DELIGHTED . He is delighted with, his '. new outfit (“I always wanted . a green suit and haven’t been I able to see one I like in the shops”), and intends to have . his wife make him some more suits. Petite and attractive, Mrs , Hintze has had no formal ■ training as a dressmaker. “I . just picked up the basics of . sewing at high school. It is i easy to make Western clothes . look tailored because the style is fitted to the body.” , she said. She used a basic pattern for the suits she made recently, and adapted Western-style yokes on the shirts and jackets. The family modelled their new clothes in a Mormon Church fashion parade held in Hamilton not long ago. Even the baby, Raina, with her sprinkling of hair drawn up into a big ribbon on top of her head, enjoyed showing off her mother’s sewing. Appearance at the parade came about on the request of the Taupo branch of the homemaking division of the church. Its members knew Mrs Hintze did all her (family's sewing and asked her to make something for the (parade. i That was the incentive Mrs . Hintze needed to make suits for the children, her husband, (led herself in “an all-out > effort to make it something igood from Taupo.”