Queen's Birthday Honours 2012: Pieter Stewart

Pieter Stewart. Photo / Dean Purcell

After years at the top of the fashion world, Pieter Stewart has been made a Dame in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

Dame Pieter was the driving force behind New Zealand Fashion Week and has spent 21 years promoting fashion in this country. Her citation says she has been recognised for her services to fashion, as well as to the community.

She founded Fashion Week in 2000 and remains its managing director. As well as her involvement in Fashion Week, Dame Pieter launched her own modelling agency and was associate editor of magazine Fashion Quarterly from 1985-87.

In the 1990s she co-ordinated the television special Corbans Fashion Collections and produced and co-ordinated Wella Fashion Collections.

She has also been active in the community, both in education and with charities.

For nine years she was chairwoman of the St Margaret's College Board Trust and deputy chair of the Independent Schools Association from 1999 to 2003.

Dame Pieter's charity work has also been extensive, notably in relation to child cancer.

However, her life has not been without controversy - she stood by her husband, Peter Stewart, who was convicted of sex crimes against a teenage girl in 2007. He was jailed for the acts, which took place decades ago, but Dame Pieter supported him and testified on his behalf during the High Court trial.