Di Rudge keeps it colourful - for herself and for the young children she cares for. Photo / Warren Buckland
Di Rudge keeps it colourful - for herself and for the young children she cares for. Photo / Warren Buckland
The favourite thing for Tikokino’s Di Rudge to hear is people telling her “you brightened my day”.
“That’s the best comment I can get. It’s so nice that by getting up at 6.15 this morning and getting dressed like this I’ve made someone’s day.”
“Like this” means bright, colourful andeye-catching. It can mean a bright pink mohawk and could also mean purple Doc Martens, or the highest of high-heels shaped like swans or Care Bears, or shoes that light up, or a sequinned tail-coat.
“It’s nice when people notice,” says Di, who has been an early childhood teacher for 40 years and now manages Hastings Early Learning Centre.
“But really I dress for myself, and I dress for the kids. Some of our children have it hard and they deserve me to be the best I can be for them.
“That means bright and colourful and kind and fun. I want to brighten their day and when I’m no longer around I’d like to leave behind a legacy - a memory that ‘this person cared for us and was kind to us’.”
But despite turning up to work in a rainbow-hued designer dress, floral tights and one of her 25 pairs of light-up high heels, Di is more than happy to sit in the sandpit with her tiny charges.
“It’s just clothes, and I love to dress up. I do wear designer clothes, but I’m also the one dressed as a bunny at Easter, and dressed in yellow for Daffodil Day and green for Barnardos Day... the kids love it and it breaks the ice with the parents.”
Di says she’s always been flamboyant. Born in the 60s in the UK she grew up with a mum who was “very matchy-matchy” and believed in always looking decent, even on a budget.
The children at Hastings Early Learning Centre are always excited to see what Di comes to work in. Photo / Warren Buckland
“I got very into punk rock styling when young, and now I have several Steampunk outfits. I sew and upcycle. If I see something I really like but it’s expensive, I’ll try and copy it. I buy a lot second-hand. Basically I just wear what I want to wear.”
While some people look sideways at Di in her colourful garb, others are outspoken.
“Kids will say ‘look at the lady with the pink hair’ while their parents try to shoosh them. Some people look at me a bit wonky, others take it in their stride, and some tell me they love my shoes or my hair, or say they wish they had the guts to dress like this.
“But nobody knows how you feel inside, if you are feeling gutsy or not... if you want to do it, just do it.
“I often have people ask me where I’m going all dressed up. I tell them I’m just doing my groceries. One lady in Waipukurau said ‘you look amazing, I bet you’re not from around here’.
“I said no, I’m from Tikokino.”
Having grown up in England and then worked in Wellington, for the former intensive care baby nurse and her early childhood educator husband, landing in Tikokino was a bit of a surprise.
“Seven years ago we wanted to move out of Wellington, and jobs came up for each of us in Hastings. We were looking at houses in Waipawa and Waipukurau but couldn’t find what we wanted. Then our agent asked ‘how about Tikokino?’
“But when we saw the house, with two acres for animals and gardens, I just wanted it.”
There’s now a container in the garden to store all the clothes and shoes that don’t fit into the house. And there are alpacas, pigs and ducks.
“People ask me if I wear my heels and sequins in the garden, and I have to admit I can get distracted and start pulling out weeds while dressed up.. .but no, I do wear ’normal clothes’ and gumboots to do chores. Leopard-print gumboots.”
She isn’t sure what she’ll do about her incredibly colourful wardrobe if she retires. “If I retire I’ll just have to sit around the house in my good clothes. So I’ll just keep working even when I have to come in on a walking frame. I enjoy every day I go to work and I will do it until I can’t any more.
“Then I might have to go to the dark side and take up quilting. I have a lot of very bright and colourful ideas for quilted jackets and children’s clothes. There would, of course, be sequins.”
