A moment IN TIME
In 1989, the Australian fashion designer had moved to Auckland to run the retail division of a fashion company and for more than 20 years had worked her way up to company director, responsible for six brands and around 15 staff.
But on June 11, 2009, she walked into a meeting with two of the company’s senior managers and immediately knew something was wrong.
“I could have cut the air with a knife,” recalls Laurinda, 55. “They handed me my redundancy notice.”
A decade down the track, the Sydney-born designer admits she can still feel her chest tightening and her heart beating faster when she talks about it.
When the meeting request arrived in Laurinda Sutcliffe’s inbox, she didn’t think too much about it.
‘It was unthinkable that I could find myself in that position, especially the way it was done’
“My employer was like a mother to me, as well as a mentor and teacher. We’d driven the business through some tough times and had a wonderful working relationship, so it was unthinkable I could find myself in that position, especially the way it was done.”
The next few weeks were a blur as the mother of Alexander,
