Designing to startie people

Press, 4 April 1989, Page 15

Designing to startie people

Maria van ham is a leatherwear designer with a unique approach to her work and her customers. According to Maria, there are three sorts of people — the confident, the overconfident and the shy. Shy people need outrageous designs to “bring them out of themselves.” The confident and the overconfident need less help. “As for myself, I always go for the outrageous — I like to startle people!”

Maria entered the Benson and Hedges Fashion Design Awards for the first time this year, mainly because she was “being hassled by everyone saying I should enter.” She entered three garments, one of which was nominated for the Leather Industry Award.

While this was her first experience in the limelight, Maria van Ham

is no newcomer to the fashion industry. Trained in Holland, she has been designing for about 15 years, and sewing for 33.

She makes one-off garments to order, and gains business entirely by word-of-mouth. Her own shop is a nice idea, but Maria’s family concerns rule it out. “I’m trying to juggle two careers — one as a designer and one as a mother.” Three of her four children have left home, but she feels it important that she is there for her youngest daughter when she is needed. Leather is her favourite medium, and the main component of her own wardrobe. Maria finds it more • challenging than working in fabric, and believes that although the initial outlay for her designs is greater, leather forms an ideal investment

fer any woman’s wardrobe. “There should be more colour in leather,” she argues. “Not a lot of people will wear the bright colours — they tend to gravitate towards the blacks and browns.” Dressed in a stunning hot pink leather jacket, Maria herself provides the best ammunition for her cause.

Her design style “depends on the people.” Because she works closely with her individual clients, she can usually work out the sort of design they would feel happiest in. “I go with the feeling I get from the person who wants the design.” Who was her Benson and Hedges entry designed for? “Myself. It’s a style I like, so I just thought I’d go for it.”

She has had a lot of positive reactions to the

mango and black jacket and dress which won her a nomination in the Leather Industry Award. The pale pink leather evening dress she wore to the award presentation also aroused attention. Maria has been planning to return to Holland for a year, but the en-

thusiasm generated by her nomination may just be enough to make her stay — "You never know what may turn up tomorrow.” There is another reason to keep at it in New Zealand, too. Maria has big plans for next year’s Benson and Hedges.