Fashion in the fast lane:

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 14

Fashion in the fast lane:

In vogue

Paula Ryan

profile

The manufacturers of fashion in the fast lane will always conjure up to the layman, a tinselly impression of glamorous sophistication, — glimpsed in the best restaurants seen arriving and departing in airports all over the world with elan, matched luggage, and signature accessories.

The New Zealand fashion designer, Gaye Bartlett moves around the world, researching her craft and keeping her fashion in a fast lane, but remains a selfcontained enigma. Shy and very self-effac-ing, she is loath to talk at all about herself ... when she does, there are twenty years of hard-won knowledge and knocks to substantiate her formula for success and the strength of her drive in the pursuit of excellence.

Gaye Bartlett has moved through three generations of a family in fashion, with uncles and cousins entrenched in the industry. On the periphery of her childhood were pattern makers, cutters, designers, merchandisers, buyers, marketing strategies, ordering systems, production. She learnt early, that singleminded commercialism applied to fashion, spells success.

School holidays were spent in factories, showrooms, cutting rooms, picking up the pieces, running the messages, watching and learning. She believes this is where it must begin.

Given a flair and an inmate sense of colours and how they can work together, Gaye believes the best extension to that talent has to be from the bottom up. Regardless of diplomas and courses, at the end of the day, you have to know what makes the industry work, and how to make it work for you.

After finishing her schooling in Melbourne Gaye Bartlett decided to do law, but the childhood grounding of fashion kept on winning. She began a two-year cadetship in design with Norma Tullo. Those who dressed well in the Sixties will remember Tullo, with her flirty, godet skirts topped with prim white collars and cuffs, and her schoolmarmish little jackets that came off to reveal startling sensuality.

And so a new facet was added to the endless information she had gleaned as a child. Fashion was a magical world for the child, and remains so for Gaye Bartlett the woman.

Eventually, she returned to New Zealand and worked with a large franchise company adding merchandising to her expanding knowledge. Then came marriage, three children and a period of coordinating weddings, whipping up specially designed, one-only outfits keeping her hand in, never losing touch with the industry, nor sight of her driving ambition. Six years ago, the Bartletts moved to Christchurch, and bought a manufacturing company with two outlets. Mrs Bartlett began marketing her Accent on Fashion label, supplying both shops and wholesaling to accounts throughout the country.

Accent on Fashion quickly became a widely quoted label, so she expanded her retail section. But growth did not prove easy. Undercapitalisation the indigenous problem of the fashion industry, prevented her from sustaining the growth necessary to meet the demand.

She’d heard about it, seen it all before, so without a backward glance, promptly sold her manufacturing unit and in her own words ...

“opted for the bigger company structure that knew how to sustain manufacture better than I did.”

Gaye Bartlett is now associated, with M. G. McCaul and Company, and takes great pride in this association because of McCaul’s undeniable expertise in manufacture, the finish of their garments, and the quality of their production. In speaking of fashion in general, “quality” without doubt, is Gaye’s most repeated word, and her standards never vary in its regard. She could never be happy working with inferior fabrics.

All her life she has been fascinated by the weaves and textures, sheens and patinas of quality cloths.

She is in total control of the quality of her fabrics, purchasing on site in Europe for winter, and from the East in summer.

Designing now, under her own name and label, with 30

outlets from Whangarei to Invercargill, the Gaye Bartlett signature is easily recognisable in related ranges of outerware and p.m. dressing. A perfectionist by nature, this lady keeps herself on self-driven over-drive, and relates success only to the rare times she can go to bed and sleep easy without fretting whether she could have done it better. She calls herself a semitraditionlist, but extends tradition by designing ranges with enough separate and colour-related units to create a multiplicity of looks.

By combinations of what may appear to be unlikely companions, the most individual looks can be achieved. Which of course, is exactly the interplay that this designer had planned. Working in a tight group of interrelated colours, her ranges have an intrinsically seasonless air, always interspersed with the lighter weights that will travel with ease, bridge the gaps between seasons, and extend from season to season. She admits that it would be a joy to do wonderful one-offs. Her commercial head rules her heart, and she designs for lifestyles with a controlled eye on the commercial viablities of what women most want to wear, for what and when.

She hopes, with the finest of quality control, to create gilt-edged investment dressing, particularly in her traditional tailoring.

A naturally shy and sensi-

tive person, Gaye Bartlett has had to work very hard to overcome what she calls her disadvantages, working as she does under the tremendous pressures of a male-dominated industry. One of her greatest frustrations is the public view of the vain and glamorous fashion industry. Her most quotable ... “What it needs is an unfailing tenacity and an indestructible spirit.” Her progress has not always been easy, and at times the going has been very tough. Family and friends have always been supportive, and successes have compensated for the tough times. Gaye believes that young and aspiring designers must know for sure that their affinity for colour and style ' is natural and true (“you’ve- ; either got it or you havn’t”) — they have to be prepared to start at the bottom, and rise through the ranks in construction, programming, merchandising ... ‘success does not begin and end at the drawing board.’ On overdrive, Gaye Bartlett continues to see success ' ■ as a continually beckoning beacon, and from her draw- '■ ing board launches into each season as a fresh new field to conquer.

Footnote: The Gaye Bartlett Designer Collection has been selected as one of the New Zealand collections to be shown to buyers at a special show in Melbourne and Sydney later this year. Watch this column for the New Zealand designers in Australia story next month.