Christina Perriam grew up at Bendigo Station at Tarras, which is located in Central Otago, New Zealand.
 

Her parents breed and run merino sheep at Bendigo so the luxurious fibre has been part of her heritage and upbringing since she was a little girl.  It was only natural that she pursued a career involving the merino fibre.
 
It was this passion for the fibre that encouraged her to enrol and complete a Diploma and Degree in Fashion Design at Massey University in Wellington.  I could see that my family were producing this gorgeous fibre and I wanted to be at the other end of the chain.  I wanted to produce fabulous clothing out of the superior fibre and make it glamorous
 

At the conclusion of the Degree program at Massey, Christina was awarded the Design award along with the Best End of Year Collection award.  From this collection, made entirely from New Zealand merino wool cloth milled in Italy, Christina was selected by the University to represent them at the Mercedes Australian Fashion Week in 2001, as part of the student collections.
 

It was a dream come true for me, to see a collection made entirely from New Zealand merino on an international catwalk.

Soon after Christina was selected to be a resident designer at the Dunedin Fashion Incubator where her self-titled label was launched.  Two years later a Wanaka retail store was opened.
 

While in Wanaka she won a Biella Young Merino Scholarship to Italy for future leaders of the merino industry within New Zealand.  She left for three weeks in Italy in February 2007.
 

The trip proved to be a revelation. It opened my eyes up to what Europe had to offer in terms of fashion and on returning home I realised I needed to see and experience more.
 

She made the difficult decision to shut the Wanaka store to travel to London, where for 18 months she worked in the fashion industry and visited various European destinations.  She came home inspired.  The result is a new fashion range that is clever, trend focused and functional.
 

I want every Christina Perriam piece to be unique and different, to be of exceptional quality, timeless and feminine all at the same time, a little bit like European fashion.
 

Christina & Mimi