"Like the Greytown of the South."
That’s how Oamaru fashion designer Mary-Jane Hyde would like to see her adopted hometown, likening her vision to the Wairarapa destination known for its stylish shops and restored Victorian buildings.
Ms Hyde opened a shop in Tees St last month, ironically next to where she opened her first shop Mrs Hyde back in 2014. And in another case of history repeating, that was also during tough economic times.
A single mother of four who was diagnosed with breast cancer after discovering a lump in her breast in 2020, a day on which she should have been celebrating the six-year anniversary of opening Mrs Hyde, she had no intention of opening another shop.
Instead, she was going to concentrate on her knitwear label Ohae, named for the first initials of her children, Oscar, Holly, Amelia and Emma, which she launched last year; the ideas for the label percolating during her time travelling to and from Dunedin for her cancer treatment.
She had sold Mrs Hyde — now Hyde Boutique — to her employee and friend Becky Dennison, who has since opened another Hyde store in Ashburton.
But then someone mentioned a vacant space in the town and initially Ms Hyde was thinking of somewhere to store her knitwear which was taking up space at her house.
But one thing led to another and, as she sat with her bank manager, Ms Hyde "just knew" she was supposed to have the shop.
"I thought, ‘This is crazy, we’re in a recession ... [but] all the stars aligned."
The response to her being back in business had been heartwarming; people had told her they missed her and several had even cried. As a people-person herself, she was "all about relationships".
Selling clothes was not just a materialistic thing. People had an emotional connection to clothes and she wanted a piece of clothing to "bring joy" to its wearer.
Once Studio Ohae was up and running, Ms Hyde hoped to have someone working in the shop so she could "float back and forth" and be designing.
Samples were already being made for next year’s winter collection and she was bringing out just one knit for summer, named Margaret after her own grandmother. Her styles were named after the cherished grandmothers of her close friends.
Ms Hyde was keen to expand her range and she likened Studio Ohae to an artist’s studio — it was not just about knitwear — and she wanted it to have a curated feel. "It’s my creative ideas, my creative space. I just want to bring in so many different elements, really mix it up and go against the norm," she said.
Ms Hyde’s late mother, who died from breast cancer aged 49, was a sales representative for a lingerie brand. During the school holidays, her six children would have turns to go with her on work trips — "I felt like I went a lot," Ms Hyde said.
When they reached Greytown, they always stopped at a particular cafe and she recalled the rural town as having little more than "‘just a cafe and a few houses".
Following her mother’s death, she moved to England where she worked at the likes of Harvey Nichols and Selfridges and then to Sydney where she was a pattern-maker for Dotti and other labels, before moving to North Otago.
It was probably 20 years from her last visit to Greytown before she made it back and she was "shocked" at what she found.
"It’s just the prettiest place with beautiful shops with beautiful homewares and clothing, all boutique and really quite special. That’s how I would like to see Oamaru.
"It would be cool if we could all come together and open more shops like this and more boutiques.
"We are all supporting each other, it’s making Oamaru like a shopping destination."
