Fashionably enjoying retirement
Great style, well put together, or just someone who catches our eye. Every week reporter Carly Gooch gets out and about to discover the people behind the clothes in Canterbury.
These women are enjoying much more play and hardly any work since hitting 65, ensuring they are doing the things that make them happy. Miro Slawa, 70, is semi-retired and lives in Perth, Australia.
She was on holiday celebrating a milestone birthday.
“I just turned 70 and bought myself a cruise around the South Island. I’m very passionate about travel and I wanted to see NZ.”
For six months of the year she lives in Perth; the other half of the year, she house sits in Melbourne and travels.
Originally from the Netherlands, her father was Polish and her mother was Dutch.
Looking festive in red and green, Slawa says she loves colour. “I’m a happy, positive, bubbly type of person who’s unlucky in love.”
She says she likes to use natural products, including “vege lipstick” and vegan nail polish Raww.
She wears Taking Shape plus-size women’s clothing and Crocs shoes.
Rosie Holmes, 65, is enjoying retirement in Lincoln.
She left Canterbury and moved to Scotland in 1985, living there for 16 years before returning to Christchurch for the lifestyle. Despite the cold weather in Scotland, she does miss being central to travelling Europe, she says.
During her last visit to Scotland, she realised a lot of her friends were playing golf, prompting her to take it up as “something extra to do” during her retirement.
“I’m starting to really enjoy it.”
She has made some golfing friends since heading to the Tai Tapu golf course twice a week, along with playing the 18-hole game with existing friends.
She bought her shoes in Hanmer and her pants in Rangiora. The denim jacket is a recent purchase from Vassalli and her Evity bag, which can be worn as a backpack, was bought in Alice Springs “of all places”.
Nicola Shanks, 66, is retired and lives in Takamatua.
A couple of days a week, she drives from her Banks Peninsula home to help look after two of her grandchildren, while also enjoying op shopping in the city.
Reflecting back on her time being selfemployed, she says “it’s funny, when you’re retired, things seem a lifetime ago”.
In the years leading up to retirement she owned a blind business, she had Brumbies Bakery in Hornby, and she worked as a postie in Prebbleton for a short stint.
Shanks and Rosie Holmes went to Lincoln High School together and have been friends ever since - reconnecting after some time apart when they spotted each other at Halswell Quarry.
Shanks wears Diesel shoes that once belonged to her daughter, Elk pants bought for $4 at a Salvation Army op shop, a tee from Wear Else, a merino cardi, and a preloved Briarwood bag her daughter bought her online.