Farmer's wife turned designer

Becs Calder and her daughter Charlotte at their stall at the recent Mackenzie Highland Show in...
Becs Calder and her daughter Charlotte at their stall at the recent Mackenzie Highland Show in Fairlie. Photo by Sally Rae.
When Becs Calder goes to work, she does not have a big commute.

The Central Otago woman, who makes clothing for women and children, works from a room in her home on Lauder Station.

She can pop out at morning tea time and make a cup of coffee and then produce lunch for her husband, Robbie, and the station's single shepherd. And, at the end of the day, she can shut the door and walk out.

Mr and Mrs Calder farm Lauder Station - a large sheep and beef property near Becks - in conjunction with Mr Calder's parents, Grant and Robyn.

When Becs Calder moved to Lauder Station in 1995, she was machine knitting for a knitwear company.

She continued doing some machine knitting but when her children arrived - Charlotte, now 12, and Archie, 9 - she changed her focus to making children's clothing.

She initially sold her designs from home and supplied a couple of shops, before she began thinking about women's clothing.

She started making skirts and pants and gauged a feel for what people wanted "and it kind of went from there".

Mrs Calder now travels to four events during the year - the Mackenzie Highland Show, the Geraldine Arts and Plants festival, the Strath Taieri A and P Show and the St Bathans Fete - and has a stall. She also has a studio in her garden, set up like her stall.

While her business was growing, Mrs Calder did not want it to get too big. "It's quite nice I can control how much I want to do."

When she was not running around after her children, she could usually be found in her workroom and spent about four days a week sewing.

She preferred to get short runs of fabric to ensure there were not large numbers of women wearing the same design.

"People like to be different," she said.

She enjoyed variety in her work, although she did once make 300 merino beanies for a fertiliser company.

Mrs Calder's mother taught her machine knitting and other than school sewing classes in form 1 and 2, she was self-taught.

"It's just another wee sideline to tie into the farm. I'm a person that can't sit. I have to be doing something," she said.

A creative person, she also enjoys painting and doing upholstery.

 

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