Kate's Fashions
“My name is Kate Ma and my fashion journey started while at school in my hometown of Dalian, China. I took a clothing class at high school which I really enjoyed and after that moved on to the Dalian Fashion Academy for three years of study. My first job after studying was at a local clothing factory, sewing, overlocking and general production operations. Pretty hard work but I learned a lot about garment manufacturing and how to organise a factory. After a few years when my daughter came along I left the factory. A little later I started tailoring for private clients from home. My first business was a fruit shop I opened in collaboration with my sister. It was an interesting time as China was just starting to develop a market economy after many years of state control. In the late 1990’s my first overseas experience was 2 years in Japan as a sampling machinist.
I came to New Zealand in 2006, initially intending to work for a couple of years, then return to China. I was using a Chinese chat program called QQ to keep in touch with my family when I noticed someone from the same Auckland suburb using it. It turned out to be a Kiwi who was using it to communicate with factories in China for his job as a purchasing manager. We met up and have been together ever since. I started taking on contract sewing work, one step removed from directly making for the fashion houses. By 2013 I was becoming too busy to work from home so I leased a small factory in Penrose and started making directly for some really great New Zealand labels. After a couple of years as business increased we outgrew the Penrose factory and Kates Fashions Limited moved to our current location.
I’m really proud of the work that my team and I do for Maggie Marilyn. Their quality standards are high and it is great to be a small part of Maggie Marilyn’s international success story.”
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