Au revoir Marilyn Sainty

Deborah Smith and Marilyn Sainty at Objectspace. Picture / Kenny Rodger

While devotees of designer Marilyn Sainty are bereft that she has retired from the business, there is one final chance to survey the meticulous style, wit and elegance of her 40-year, hype-free career in a show at Objectspace in Ponsonby.

Au revoir Marilyn Sainty, curated by her longtime friend and photographic collaborator Deborah Smith, features 73 garments lent by Sainty friends and fans from as far as Texas and Hong Kong.

The show is not an archival survey - as Smith puts it, "Marilyn didn't have an archive, it's against every cell in her body". But, like paintings, every garment tells a story.

Important passages in life - births, deaths, weddings, divorce - have been negotiated by people wearing Sainty creations.

Their stories, pinned to the individual items in the show's collection, express and evoke a gamut of emotions.

A tiny blue dressing gown on the wall was made by Sainty for a boy dying of a brain tumour.

Actor Miranda Harcourt has two garments in the show - a black waistcoat to wear at her father Peter's funeral, and a little black coat for her son, Peter.

There's a well-worn pinafore which was the subject of a war between two sisters, who have "grudgingly" worked out a custody roster.

A toothpaste blob on a Sainty skirt aroused accusations of a semen stain by a man, who later married the wearer.

A fairy skirt was worn by one donor during a dinner with her husband - then he left her: "What a shame", the story pinned to the skirt reads.

Artist Yuk King Tan's amazing red wedding dress is there, as is Smith's own wedding outfit, complete with mouse ears and tail. Sainty was flower girl at the wedding; all of the wedding party wore Sainty-designed tails.

Smith's moody, documentary-style photographic work for Sainty has become as iconic as the designs themselves, and the show says as much about their friendship as it does the collection.

Smith first became aware of Sainty's work in the early 80s when she noticed an advertisement in the magazine Paper. She was 18, a fine arts student at Elam.

"It struck me as terribly theatrical and exotic," she recalls. "As Irving Penn said, good fashion photography is about selling dreams, not selling clothes."

But she didn't meet Sainty for some time to come. Smith was working part-time at the old Real Time collectors' shop in Ponsonby. "I think Marilyn found out I was a poor art student and my father had died. One day, when I wasn't there, she dropped off a bag of hand-me-downs - it took the top of my head off."

The friendship was born, but the professional relationship didn't start until 1992 when Sainty asked Smith to do some fashion photography. Smith turned her down, but Sainty persisted.

The first shoot was in the former McGregor Museum, using a tiger skeleton as a prop. "I thought that would be the end of my Marilyn Sainty career," says Smith. "I also did what I thought was a conventional picture but she went straight for the tiger."

Says Sainty, "We were more in tune with each other. Deb's way of working teaches me a lot as well, you open up to a whole new conversation."

"The good thing is that Marilyn gave me total freedom," adds Smith. "She has always let me take photos of really interesting women wearing her clothes, always in a location, always with a hint of narrative."

When Smith, Sainty and Objectspace director Philip Clarke thought about accessing the garments, they used letters, emails, word-of-mouth and a notice in her Lorne St shop, Scotties, which will remain open as an outlet for a new generation of designers.

"We have probably left out some important people but we tried," says Smith. "We were going to have 29 garments. Now we have 73 - we've gone from being chic and spare to a department store on acid. What gives the show an edge are the stories. The room is full of emotions."

What: Au revoir Marilyn Sainty
Where and when: Objectspace, 8 Ponsonby Rd, to Nov 26; curator Deborah Smith will discuss the show on Sat Nov 5, 11.30am