They say style is eternal and it wasn’t until retirement that cellist Mary Greig-Clayton reclaimed her creative self through clothes, she tells Rebecca Barry Hill.
Ever since she was a child, Mary Greig-Clayton was drawn to colour, so when her mother told her she would buy her a raincoat, she
“The one she bought me was beige,” she says. “I hated it, never wore it. She once made me a brown dress with white cross-stitching. She had it hanging beside the fire when I came home and I looked at her and thought, ‘What am I going to say? She’s worked all day on this.’”
Today, at 79, her love affair with bright colour – particularly hot pink – is evident the moment you step inside the North Shore apartment she shares with husband Barry.
The colour is studded through the white room on cushions and even a lightning bolt-shaped LED in the kitchen. But it’s her wardrobe where she’s really adopted the hue into her life, with several festive dresses, shoes and jackets in the playful hue.
The retired real estate agent is used to turning heads with her bright, elegant ensembles. Just the other day, a woman stopped her while she was walking on Orewa Beach and asked if she could take her photo. It’s only when Mary performs on cello with the Devonport Chamber Orchestra that she has to tone it down, pairing a pink top with a black pant or skirt.
When not in hot pink, she’ll often wear pale blue, a colour that subtly streaks her distinctive haircut – longer at the front where it curls over one eye, a mild shave on the other side, an edgy nod to a previous life in which she had it very short, and at one stage, dyed peacock blue.
Prior to that was a “frivolous” period as a mum in the 1970s when she’d hunt out bold pieces from the Australian label, Jag. But after buying a Harcourts franchise in Eastbourne, Wellington and establishing herself in the property market, this was superceded by black, and lots of it.
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Advertise with NZME.For years she’d shop almost exclusively at the same places: a small French boutique in the capital, Trelise Cooper for her “fabulous” event-wear, Paula Ryan for work- and travel-wear and eventually Moochi for floaty pieces that were easy to find in her petite size 6. Figuring her shorter legs would be elongated by black, it was a colour she lived in throughout the 90s, a time that coincided with New Zealand’s penchant for corporate attire.
“We all bought into the idea of being seen as a team and wearing clothes that were smart,” says Mary. “We always had lippy, perfume, nice hair, and black really worked in Wellington because you could get by on only about six weeks of summer clothes there.”
As her work life grew busier, a capsule wardrobe made getting dressed quicker and easier. But the clothes would also wear out faster, precipitating the need to buy an entirely new wardrobe each season, “not such a good idea when you no longer earning commissions”, she laughs. “I like a wardrobe that looks like a shop. It makes it easy when you’re deciding. You go away for three days and you can just pull from the rack.”
When she eventually retired and moved up to the warmer climes of Auckland, she ditched her heavy black coat but, out of habit, continued to buy black. Then one day, contemplating the fact her short hair had turned grey and she found herself itching to wear colour again, she switched her brand allegiance to Briarwood.
Her discovery of the New Zealand leather goods-turned-clothing brand – and its many brightly coloured dresses – coincided with a new period of self-discovery. Mary had recently moved to Orewa and was enjoying the socialising that came with her tight-knit neighbourhood.
Then Covid arrived and she discovered online shopping, snapping up several garden party-inspired dresses from Briarwood. When she wasn’t buying hot pink or white, she gravitated to New Zealand designer Caroline Sills (Sills + Co) for her pale blue pieces, and began to wear the occasional garment in navy.
Unlike those of us who feel the weight of unworn and unloved clothing taunting us from the back of our wardrobes, Mary says she’s always been good at moving things on – a quick peek in her walk-in confirms it’s not heaving with excess clothing but streamlined with just a few pieces on high rotation.
A hot pink jacket that was recently deemed too large and boxy is likely to go straight to the Hospice Shop, along with a leopard-print dress she wore only once, uncharacteristically deviating from her usual palette, to fit a party theme.
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Advertise with NZME.She’s also forged a reputation for customising pieces to suit her. On a recent trip to Palm Cove in Australia with friends, she bought a multi-coloured dress that she felt hung too low in the neckline, so she simply wears it backwards.
A hot pink floral hairclip caught her eye in another store, so she attached it to a necklace and wore it as a statement pendant. (Her friends scoffed at first but later conceded it looked chic against an all-white ensemble.) She proffers a Briarwood navy cardigan that, until a week ago when she took to it with scissors, was a jersey.
“I quite enjoy restyling something,” she says, pulling out a selection of brooches and jewellery pieces she uses to embellish otherwise simple outfits. But it’s the hot pink that makes a consistent appearance in her wardrobe. Will she ever tire of her signature colour?
“Never,” she says. “I think it’s part of a self-image thing. I’ve had times in my life when I haven’t been that confident.”
That changed when an American trainer came to Harcourts around 1988 and asked each person in Mary’s team to name their favourite colour. When she revealed her love for hot pink the trainer told her it was perfect because he saw her as a vibrant personality.
“From then on I focused on hot pink. It makes me feel good.”
When Barry became unwell, she banished dark colours from his wardrobe, insisting in the power of colour to lift the spirits. The couple recently moved from Orewa to a retirement village in Silverdale, and early on Mary had the opportunity to model on the catwalk and play the cello for a charity fashion parade (yes, in hot pink). She has now played in the Devonport Chamber Orchestra for 12 years, and every Monday joins a string quartet, commitments that mean she’ll practise for up to two hours a day, and will often walk around with a symphony in her head.
“There are times in your life when you feel like you are full of energy. I feel that way without the load of a bigger house, with knowing that Barry’s safe, and I have so many friends here. I’ve joined so many groups – a book group, a Saturday walking group. I’m a person that people know, and I was used to that in Eastbourne.
“So I think the hot pink says I’m a bit of a show-off. And I am!”
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