[1][2] In 2017 she took over the position of chair of the iD Dunedin Fashion Week organising committee.
She learned how to use a sewing machine when she was 11 years old, and started to experiment with making garments, including outfits for her high school ball.
[1] At the end of her second-to-last year of schooling her teachers recommended Barton study at secretarial college; Barton attended the college for only a week before returning to high school for her final year.
On completing high school, Barton enrolled for a degree in home science at the University of Otago, although she withdrew after the first year.
She then returned to Dunedin and worked for two years as a pattern-grader scaling patterns to different sizes at a clothing manufacturing company Sew Hoy and Sons.