The stitchwallah
Hilary told her story to Jo elwin
From Mumbai with a population of nearly 18.5 million, Hilary Niederer has settled in the 100-strong community of Athol, a one-hour drive north to her Arrowtown store, Stitchwallah.
Very much a Southern girl, Hilary grew up on a farm in the Catlins, her father had one of New Zealand’s last flax mills, which is ironic because textiles are now very much her thing. “If I had been 20-years older I could have had linen going,” she muses. But those years have led to more worldly ventures. Following a fashion course in Wellington Hilary found herself in London dressing opera singers at Covent Garden and Royal Ballet dancers for three years, including six-months in Berlin before the wall came down – venturing over for parties and back by midnight through Checkpoint Charlie. Four to five years of wardrobe work including Hercules and Xena in Auckland “with thousands of others, many of whom now live down here,” Hilary expresses, “it’s amazing who I bump in to.” One of her first gigs in New York, where she lived for eight years, was tailoring clothes for US Vogue editor Anna Wintour (Anna’s tiny size required inches taken off expensive designer pieces). She toured to England, Japan and the US with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, “laundry girl” laughs Hilary, and worked for an Indian costume designer. In 2004, after working on a film in Los Angeles she packed up and moved there. “Because I turned 40 in a tiny one-room apartment, fifth floor no elevator,” Hilary responds to my asking why. “It was time and of course 9/11 had changed things.” Film work had her spending long periods of time away from LA and she is effusive of her time in Kashgar (far west-occupied China) working on The Kite Runner, she also took the opportunity to visit Tibet. When a call came to do a Bollywood film in Mumbai, she jumped. “I went for four months and stayed 10 years,” she beams.
Hand-stitched quilts and chai tea glasses
Hilary met husband Rashid in Mumbai on a movie ironically called Luck By Chance and eventually, with Rashid wanting a change and Hilary’s desire to be closer to her aging parents in Christchurch, they charted their course back to New Zealand. “The costume designers who I worked with in the States knew I was in India so they would ring me to get fabric, that’s what moved me from film work to shopping,” says Hilary. “They’d give me the brief and I’d take photos of the stock I thought appropriate for them to choose from. Talking them out of cheap silk, which would be polyester, I would buy them nice silk from good shops, the real deal and half the price of what they could get in the States. With my own shop in New Zealand in mind I stockpiled, spending all my savings buying anything I liked every time I went anywhere. I started my own product range and twice a year went back to New York to exhibit at the largest US trade show. I did one in Paris too. Downtown Mumbai in Chor Bazaar is a street of antique shops which I just loved. I collected pieces with the shop in mind – display shelves, pictures and an old daybed I knew would look great in the shop,” Hilary says, showing me the bed and the gorgeous kapok mattresses she has had made up. “I have actually been collecting for 30 years, there is a 20-foot container in the garden” she says proudly. After New York she sent furniture (vintage and second-hand finds that were too good to leave behind) back to Christchurch where her New Zealand stuff was already in storage. The LA apartment furniture went to Mumbai and now she finally has everything together in one place.
That place is Athol. A quaint 1940 schoolhouse spotted on Trade Me. “It’s Art Deco, which I love,” says Hilary. “All rimu with ornate plaster ceilings that feature Maori patterns, ferns and nikau palms. They were after something with character and there it was, not quite Arrowtown but Hilary has since realised that was unrealistic. Since moving in, in August 2018, they have double glazed all the windows, retrofitted all the wood, insulated and rejibbed.
So back in Southland after 35 years and loving it. They are immersing themselves in the community, “well we’re here,” says Hilary. The locals have taken to calling Rashid Raj or Rocky and he’s “having the time of his life” building a veranda, a garage and workshop, there is plenty of time out with the hunting and fishing club and he’s got the locals eating curry, having done three curry nights at the local pub. Hilary tells me the code is ‘don’t eat the green beans’ – his curries include whole green chillies. In Mumbai Rashid was a movie key grip working with cameras and drones and here he keeps his hand in fixing them. “The farmers leave quite a few broken drones on the doorstep, and the odd leg of something to make a curry with,” shrugs Hilary. The Athol community had their own wild food festival recently, where everyone took a plate to the pub. Rashid’s goat curry was on the menu along with smoked trout, venison, goose wontons and swede crumble.
They’ve had no worries moving from the dense, vertical city of Mumbai to the small, open plain of Athol, halfway between Kingston and Lumsden. Hilary says “I don’t miss it all, it’s actually more social in Athol and there’s a lot less traffic and air pollution. Many friends have come to stay, I have run in to lots of people - my high school art teacher who lives in Albert Town was recently in the store, and I met a lot of people doing the Remarkables Market last year.”
Hilary has set up shop upstairs in the Coachman’s Hall on Arrowtown’s Buckingham Street.
The plan is to move the shop closer to home eventually. “Once my customer base is established, I’m hoping they’ll make the trip down and there are plenty of people passing through on their way to Milford. Athol has a popular art gallery and Garston (11.5km north of Athol) has an art deco pub and an amazing airstream coffee van that does the best coffee around, there’s an antique shop, a honey shop, a girl with a fabulous souvenir shop – she’s from Athol, so maybe Athol – it’s growing.”
As we chat my eyes are very busy breaking down the visual magnificence of the store. There are kaftans at the door, khadi towels – the most beautiful selection I have ever seen, napkins, tablecloths and tea towels are stacked high, throws, cushions, rugs, quilts, bags … it’s all handmade and comes from different states renowned for different types of weaving. It’s not fashion and it’s not seasonal, but my ears pricked up when Hilary mentioned she has sandals to bring into the store for Summer. The curtains at Queenstown’s Sherwood hotel are made from Stitchwallah Recycled Sari Kilim, she also supplies khadi cotton napkins to Sherwood and to Arrowtown’s new Aosta restaurant. There’s a lot to take in but Hilary delights in giving customers the background on their purchases, it’s a very tactile experience. “I always wanted to do this the old way, my computer crashed for two months, I lost everything, it was great! And my website had previously been hacked. I’m not going to do it online; I want people to come in and feel it and a lot of it is one-off so I’m not going to spend time photographing everything.”
Khadi cotton towels
I note the irises in the store window. “Yes, I have a garden for the first time in my life that I plan to get stuck in to once the house is painted at Christmas. I have a kitset glasshouse ready to get built - another thing on Rashid’s list”, laughs Hilary. “We have to grow chillies and coriander.” Hilary scoffs at any return to the film work “I’m too old to be standing on Coronet Peak at three in the morning. Rashid will eventually, but for now he’s a cheaper alternative to tradies getting the property renovation done.”
Wallah: a person concerned or involved with a specified thing or business.
Stitchwallah
Coachmans Hall, 39 Buckingham Street, Arrowtown
Email hilary.stitchwallah@gmail.com
Hilary loves…
+Girnar Masala Chai (low-sugar instant premix from a sachet) from Spice King at Five Mile in Queenstown. They also stock our new favourite paratha stuffed with grated radish. From frozen, we fry gently in a pan eat with pickles and plain yoghurt.
+ Chop Shop’s (across the road from Stitchwallah) nasi goreng. I can’t have it as much as I would like because they’re too busy to do take out so I head to The Shed Takeaways by Buckingham Green for a delicious falafel burger with Fumi’s Japanese spin.
+The mulled wine at The Fork And Tap.