Sarah Burren, 61, is the sort of person you’d like to be seated next to at a dinner party, to hear her priceless anecdotes of rubbing shoulders with royalty and rock stars when she worked as a freelance couturier in London in the mid-1980s.
“One designer I worked for was Anouska Hempel,” tells Sarah. “She had a salon in Pond Lane, where she created clothes for the likes of Princess Diana, Princess Margaret, Sarah Ferguson and Koo Stark, another one of Prince Andrew’s former flames.”
Fergie wearing Sarah’s design.
Born in Wellington’s Lower Hutt, Sarah’s family moved to Fiji when she was eight, where her parents started a children’s theatre, with her dad designing the sets and mother making the costumes and props.
She was sent to boarding school in New Zealand at the age of 12, which was rather boring compared to island life. But out of boredom came innovation and Sarah’s creative talents blossomed. “In 1978, my English grandfather came out for a visit and he saw me cutting out a ball gown on the floor. He was an inventor and master craftsman himself. When he returned to the UK, he mentioned me to his neighbour, who happened to be a tutor at the London College of Fashion.”
That opened a door and in 1980, Sarah left Aotearoa to attend fashion school.
Anouska’s Fulham salon was a paradise of parquet floors, palm trees and giant mirrors, where one day in 1986, Sarah mustered the courage to introduce herself to the Wellington-born fashion maven. “I told her I was also a Kiwi, then I cheekily asked if she might help her eight staff get into the Royal Enclosure at Ascot. She not only said yes, but she also organised transport and a great big hamper, and every one of us from the studio went. It was utterly decadent!”
Sarah also saw the downside of being a royal in the public eye. “It was so unfair how Fergie was given the nickname Duchess of Pork because she and Diana both had the same waist measurement of 28 inches,” Sarah reveals. “I know this because I made garden party frocks for both princesses, as well as a maroon taffeta garment for Sarah Ferguson’s first Canadian tour in 1987.”
After living away from New Zealand for 15 years, including seven years in Canada, Sarah returned to Auckland in 1994 because she wanted her daughter to be raised in Aotearoa and has since been designing for theatre, TV and film, as well as spectacular live events.
But Sarah’s greatest passion is still theatre and since 1999, she has been creating entertainment for children, with her most innovative work being the Wonderland Glow Show.
You glow, girl! Lighting up kids’ lives.
The latest edition of Sarah’s glow-in-the-dark stage extravaganza is a fusion of science, art and storytelling, where audiences are transported to a world of dancing flamingos, giant flowers and an eight-metre- long caterpillar.
Wonderland Glow Show is touring 27 venues from Kaitaia to Invercargill, June 19 – July 15. Visit glowshow.co.nz for details.
