In 2006, she was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Poland fashion industry.
Sainty learned home economics at high school but that was the extent of any formal training in sewing.
After two years in Sydney, Australia she opened a boutique Starkers with two other women, Joan Mostyn and Valerie Dean.
Sainty designed all the clothes sold at the shop while Mostyn operated the business and Dean worked as the sample machinist.
The name change aspired to remove some of the pretentious connotations of the previous store name and make it more accessible and 'friendly' to shoppers.
[2] Here Sainty sold her own clothes alongside other New Zealand designers such as Jane Cross and Blooms.
[6] In the 2006 New Year Honours, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the fashion industry.
1988 New Zealand Contemporary Furniture exhibition Auckland Museum[10] 1995 Objects of Desire City Gallery, Wellington[11] 2000 Dust Cloak Hawkes Bay Museum[12] 2005–2006 Au Revoir, Marilyn Sainty Object Space