Sharon Ng

Sharon Ng has been a cornerstone of the New Zealand fashion industry since the 1980s, with a career spanning many roles, including designer, workroom manager and boutique owner. She remains a strong but quiet voice in the world of fashion and design and has been a dedicated supporter of emerging designers through NG boutique, which ran for 17 years in Ōtautahi Christchurch until it closed in 2023.

Born in Totara, Oamaru, Ng grew up in a small market gardening community. Her parents emigrated to Aotearoa from Canton, China. She remembers the special garments her mother had gotten made in Hong Kong after marrying Ng's father. Designed for special occasions such as family weddings, she saw them in old photographs but never recalled her mother ever wearing them.

It was her mother and grandmother who introduced her to traditional skills like hand knitting and hand sewing, and her work has consistently reflected this early exposure to finely crafted garments, featuring deep attention to detail, craftsmanship, and quality materials.

In 1979, Ng began the two-year Diploma of Clothing and Textiles at Wellington Polytechnic. After she graduated, she worked a variety of jobs in the fashion industry as a patternmaker and cutter. She changed companies regularly to gain wider skills and experience, working as a designer in sportswear, denim, and leather. In 1982, she won the Christchurch Star award and started her first label, Sharon Ng, with encouragement from judge and fashion editor Denny Greenslade. Around this time, Ng departed on her OE and lived briefly in Hong Kong, but she was quickly drawn back to Aotearoa. While she worked towards turning her label into a full-time job, Ng continued to work for other clothing companies and taught design and patternmaking at Christchurch Polytechnic.

In 1991, Ng won the Lifestyle Award category at the competitive Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards, which led to the establishment of her new label, NG, in 1993. Through this label, she explored the feelings of otherness she had experienced as a child, developing a rich yet subtle design language that blended her Chinese heritage with memories of the wide-open plains of rural Otago. Inspired by historical photographs of local Chinese miners and farmers, she favoured washed, natural fabrics with a worn, organic feel. In 1998, she collaborated with Marilyn Sainty of Scotties to create a knitwear label: MS & NG.

Angela Lassig writes in New Zealand Fashion Design that "her small, thoughtful collections play at the boundary between fashion design and art". Over the years, she has collaborated with a number of prominent artists including Ralph Hotere, Bing Dawe, Phillip Trusttum, Tim Main and Bill Hammond.

In 2005, Ng showed alongside Zambesi, World, Nom*d and Sabatini at the renowned fashion trade fair Tranoï in Paris on a trip sponsored by NZ Trade and Enterprise. That same year, she and her husband, Roland Logan, purchased the historic Bains building on Madras Street and established NG Gallery, later adding a café and a boutique that stocked a number of international labels alongside NG. Through this site, she continued to be hugely supportive of young artists and designers, with many of her staff working with her while pursuing their own careers as artists. A number of artists exhibited their work at NG gallery, including Brooke Georgia (being.), Steven Junil Park (6x4), Ella van Beynen (Evan Beijnen), Vita Cochran, Nichola Shanley, Scott Flanagan, Tim Main, Paul Maseyk, and Innate Jewellery Studio.

The upheaval caused by the 2010 and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes prompted Sharon to relocate her store to a friend's lounge in Merivale. "I would open up during the day from 11 to about 3 – and our customers would come in and talk about what was going on for them.” This period was remembered very fondly by many customers; the shop was a refuge of calm amidst the chaos of a city reeling from a massive natural disaster. Throughout the years, the boutique became more than just a place selling clothing; it became a safe space for customers, many of whom knew Sharon and the staff very well and would stop in for tea and baking while trying things on.

After the Covid pandemic, Ng stopped travelling to buy for the shop, though she continued to buy online. In 2023, she made the decision to close the boutique after 17 years of operation. She is now focusing on resting and tending to her garden. "I think that earlier in life, I always had too much on," she says. "I never had time to really look and to adjust and reflect. Now I think when I make collections again, which I do plan to, the work will be much more considered." She and Roland have also bought the historic British Hotel in Ōhinehou Lyttelton, which they have been restoring. She has used the space to hold yearly pop-ups, selling the remaining pieces from the shop and recent work from local designers.

1982 — Christchurch Star award

1991 — Lifestyle Award, Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards

1992 — Highly commended, Avant Garde category, Benson & Hedges Fashion Design awards