Where there’s wool, there’s a way
Viv Tamblyn is a recreational designer – but nobody could call her amateurish. Her designs are award winners and many are made of wool.
If Viv Tamblyn is on tenterhooks, and just at the moment she is a bit, then that is probably appropriate. The teacher’s aide from Gore is also a recreational fashion designer who has long turned heads with her widely celebrated designs, exulting in the possibilities and liberations of wool.
Right now she is feeling some stress. The Hokonui Fashion Design Awards, in which she has shone for just about two decades, take place at the end of next month, she has a half-finished dress to complete, and Covid has caught her.
It is not ideal. She is working with wool, under tension. Right there you have the original purpose of actual tenterhooks, which since way back in the 14th century were used on stretching frames called tenters, to make woollen cloth. Tamblyn herself can be forgiven for feeling a bit stretched but centuries of experience have shown that tensions have their purpose.
For Tamblyn’s admirers, who are certainly legion in the south, the question has long arisen why she hasn’t turned professional.
Her daughter, Andre Johnston, has a degree in fashion and design and has also proven a designer of interest. The proud mother has followed her achievements on the catwalks of several New Zealand fashion weeks.
So professionalism is something she and Andre have pondered over the years.
‘‘We have watched many talented designers come and go,’’ she says, ‘‘even those with financial backing, and I guess this scared us off somewhat.’’
Then there is the added factor of competing with online shipping. So far the timing has never seemed right.
Still, circumstances change. ‘‘Don’t rule us out – you never know what the future holds.’’
And it is hardly as though her passion feels unrewarded.
‘‘I love what I am doing. I love the challenge of creating something original and learning new techniques as I go along.’’
Look, she adds, it is pretty much stress-free. Apart, that is, from months like this one.
Working as a teacher aide at St Peter’s College has its own satisfactions but does mean her design work fills up a great deal of her time before school, after school, well into the night and weekends.
But then, to see her pieces in motion, ‘‘strutting down the catwalk’’, is simply thrilling. Challenges? ‘‘Endless. ‘‘This year I broke several sewing machine needles because of the thickness of what I was doing and cut a hole in my fabric with a knife.’’ She would rather not elaborate except to say ‘‘the brain does not work well when you panic’’.
Tamblyn has always enjoyed sewing, which is just as well because shops did not stock size 8 when she was a teenager.
She is self-taught but that girl of hers has been winning design awards since 1998 and following her daughter’s successes, travelling with her to major events, led to an addictive shared spirit, which in turn, and with Andre’s encouragement, led her into designing.
Her first entry in the Hokonui awards was 2003 and she was a finalist in the wool section with, well, OK, technically it was a brown jumpsuit. It made the finals of the wool section, though a judge said the piece had too much going on. She didn’t enter again until 2007. No reproach on her part, though. ‘‘I learned a lot from that judge. Less is best.’’
Ah, but isn’t there a school of thought that some pursuits, like singing, cooking and dancing – certainly fashion – are essentially aesthetic and can’t really be turned into competitions determined on the awarding of points? Tamblyn doesn’t see it as a case of either abandoning individuality or standing deaf to the views of others. ‘‘Designing and creating a garment is very personal, and you have to learn to accept criticism, but at the same time stay true to who you are as a designer.’’
You evolve. You gain confidence. You strive for perfection. This doesn’t mean she resolutely searches for inspiration. If anything, it tends to leap out at her. ‘‘Motivation is never an issue. I have so many designs stored in the memory bank – time is the issue.’’
Inspiration can come from a particular fabric or stitch and she certainly isn’t afraid of symbolism. Last year her Nightlife entry featured bathroom tiles in the shape of a large cross. Actually a tribute to her late dad.
Her Open Streetwear win in 2019 ‘‘We are One’’ celebrated the diversity Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern cited to counter the sour agenda of the Christchurch mosque attacker.
The piece broke traditional design rules in the cause of displaying diversity.
‘‘Is this an art form? Possibly. ‘‘There is a fine line between ‘fashion’ as we know it and crossing over into avante garde.’’
This year the Hokonui Fashion and Design Awards representatives have visited schools in the south to encourage entrants and to offer a mentoring programme next year. Tamblyn mightily approves. ‘‘My advice to novice designers would be – give it a go, strive for originality and make the inside of your garments as good as the outside.’’
Most of her garments are 100% wool, because?
‘‘Wool is fabulous! Such a beautiful fabric in all its forms.’’
She takes inspiration from 3D fashion, and working with wool allows her to explore and experiment with different techniques and textures in either yarn or fabric.
Somewhere out there, the late Gore mayor Gabriel Farry would be beaming. The owner of the town’s long-famed department store, he was an ardent champion of wool. And Farry’s would sell only one high-end fashion item of a single line, for fear two of Gore’s well-dressed women might encounter each other wearing the same outfit.
Farry would proclaim wool’s combination of warmth, when it was needed, and coolness when it was wanted. His heritage was Lebanese and he wore fine wool comfortably on his travels to the Middle East. All of which meant he lamented, good and hard, the rise of synthetics and the decline of wool.
Tamblyn for her part, sees positivity ahead. Wool could still be promoted more, she believes, but its virtues are unassailable.
‘‘I think it has almost gone full circle and many designers have incorporated woollen handknitted jerseys. So gorgeous to wear and very warm.’’
She does enjoy both crochet and knitting but even now wouldn’t call herself experienced.
And she hardly ever uses a pattern. ‘‘I just make it up as I go along.
‘‘Sometimes this works, but I have my share of failures.’’
Does it ever happen that she passes a well-dressed woman in the street and feels an urge to mentally redesign and rectify the ensemble?
‘‘I definitely admire a welldressed woman, no matter what
size they are. We all have different tastes and styles and I believe in showing your individuality.
‘‘Take risks! I know what I like and I learned a long time ago to go with your gut.’’
Perhaps it is just an afterthought but honesty compels her to acknowledge that, in the privacy of her home, tolerances do have their limit.
‘‘I do comment on the news and weather presenters if their outfit doesn’t suit them.’’
‘‘Designing and creating a garment is very personal, and you have to learn to accept criticism.’’
Viv Tamblyn