Natalie Newlands has always been a dedicated fashionista. “I always knew that was what I wanted to do.” The brains and creative talent behind the New Lands label, Newlands grew up in Incholme, near Oamaru, the youngest of four children and still calls the family farm home. Her brother John (Snow) Newlands has taken it over, and she visits often with her three young children. Newlands describes farming and fashion as yin and yang. “It’s so funny that farming and fashion are like polar opposite, but it’s good, you know.” As a high school pupil, Newlands would raid Oamaru’s second-hand shops in her lunchtimes and fill up a bag for $2 with “cool fabrics or quirky prints”. She would cut items up and rework them.