Fashion keeps this career woman travelling

Press, 27 July 1981, Page 10

Fashion keeps this career woman travelling

It all began with a parttime job selling high-fashion garments which Linda Beamish took to give her more time with her 18-month-old daughter. That was three years ago. and now she is a very busy career woman who spends most of her time travelling from one end of the country to the other.

Linda Beamish, of Tauranga. joined Trish Gregory Fashions (N.Z.) Ltd. as a fashion consultant. Now she is its personnel manager, responsible for up to 100 fashion consultants throughout the country. It. is a job which encompasses diplomacy, public relations. and a sympathetic ear for consultants’ problems; teaching sales skills.

how to dress and now to coordinate clothes; all this coupled with her organising skills and flair ... and heaps of clerical work.

It’s almost , a case of one ear on the phone, one hand packing her ever-ready suitcase, and one fast-moving foot already out the door en route to her next appointment. In the kitchen, her father has alreadv taken over.

Linda Beamish says she couldn’t do such a demanding job without her father. Mr Rod Knox: "When I move out he moves in!"

She 1 is the mother of four children, aged 20. 19. 16 and 4*-2; two sons and two daughters. The elder two have left home and live in Auckland, and as the company is based

there Linda sees them often. She has for a year now been on her own, so her father’s presence to look after her two younger children is invaluable. “Dad usually does all the cooking while I’m away. I do a bit of shopping if I have time, but usually I just hand him my housekeeping cheque and say ’go to it’.’’ Linda Beamish was a hairdresser for 17 years. She was brought up in Matamata. later spending two years in Opunake. nine years in Rotorua and the last six years in Tauranga. She worked at hairdressing part-time until the birth of Kylie, now four. When offered the fashion consultant's job three years ago she agreed, because it was some-

thing she could do without leaving Kylie during the day

- she did the work in the evenings. She also took it on because she loved clothes — and the challenge.

She sold for two seasons, successfully, then was promoted to area manager, responsible for finding and training a sales team for the Bav of Plentv area.

the young company was growing and changing by now. and the following year area managers were dropped and Linda became personnel manager.

This meant covering the whole of New Zealand, advertising. interviewing and training women as consultants.

That was two years ago: "It's been exciting to be in at the beginning and see the business develop and grow, and have some say in how it goes." she enthuses. “We (the designer. Trish Gregory, and her husband. Jim Gregory) often meet to discuss new ideas as we grow, because I’m in the front line of the sales side."

Because of her family she tries to be away only two days at a time, usually weekends, as most consultants work and can onlj' attend training sessions then. She will fly to a town or city and interview women who answered the company’s advertisement. She might see 30 women but, because of the special standard sought, may employ only three.

This will take all day. and is repeated the next day, in a different place. Those chosen have their first trainig session the same dav.

Then it is home to all the office work entailed, plus answering letters and phone queries from existing consultants and sending information out to the new ones. During her travels she phones her home every night so consultants’ urgent problems can be solved.

She now has a part-time assistant, and employs a woman to do her housework twice a week.

Every six months previews are held to show consultants the new range of clothing.

These are held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. and involve organising models and conference rooms, finding out which consultants are attending which preview, who has to have accommodation booked, which clothes to choose for sales kits, pointing out fashion features for the coming season and co-ordinating the garments.

After previews, she spends six weeks visiting every area in the country. taking workshop sessions with consultants, motivating them, getting them to practise presenting their clothes, mixing and matching them, getting different looks and assisting them with problems.

Linda Beamish is also responsible for a "roving kit" — a complete set of Trish Gregory garments which consultants borrow for large, promotional fashion shows. She takes bookings from all over the country for this kit and has to keep careful diary notes, as any mistakes could be disastrous for publicised, heavily-booked fashion parades. Adequate travel time between each booking is essential and of course the garments have to be kept in tiptop condition. Ten-hour days, seven days a week are nothing out of the ordinary for Linda Beamish. So all thoughts of a social life fly out the window. “My social life is nil," she remarks. “But I meet so many people when I'm travelling I’m happy to just relax at home."

However, she is looking forward to her annual holiday — Hawaii for the second consecutive year. She takes a small travelling backgammon set when flying, and often finds a fellow traveller to join in a game. But her main relaxation is as hectic and strenuous as the career she has chosen: jazz dancing.

At the moment she is training for a cabaret act. along with two others chosen from quite a few Tauranga dancers. She learnt ballroom and Latin American dancing, and finds she always goes back to dancing:

“It's my recreation, my escape from everything. I get home and feel too tired for dancing, but I go and then feel fantastic. Dancing's a complete relaxation, even the hard, strenuous type. I think we need it because we spend so much time sitting in offices — and it keeps the body in shape."

That is essential for her job. Wherever she goes she is an ambassador for Trish Gregory fashions, and her slim figure is model shape.

She has worn no other clothes than her emplo.vers’ for the last three years, and looks on her wardrobe as a bonus for an extremely demanding. but exhilarating job. 4