Shed Couture

Her latest book, Shed Couture, tells the story of her life through a passion for fashion. She has always loved dressing up and that hasn’t changed just because she is older now… . Peta is outspoken and funny about fashion - she thinks pink lipstick is a cry for help, white leggings make you look like a slug that has lost its colour and black is not a colour but an absence of light - but she is also very serious. She shops carefully and cleverly, buying clothes that she will keep and wear for decades, and has some garments still in use that date back to the ‘80s and ‘90s.

My favourite line of the book is one that nails the point: “If we stop buying crap clothes, then companies will stop making them.” Shed Couture is the compelling story of Mathias’ rediscovery of clothes stored in her garden shed, and her accidental journey to sustainability.She makes a case against over-adherence to fashion trends, and celebrates the joy and constant companionship of beautiful, but durable, well-made items. It’s a personal tale that will resonate with lovers and collectors of fashion.

Peta Mathias MNZM is a respected and prolific New Zealand chef, author and broadcaster, who conducts gastronomic tours to such exotic places as France, Morocco, Spain, Vietnam, Italy and India. She lives in the South of France in the French summer, teaching cooking classes in her Uzès home and lives in Auckland in the New Zealand summer, writing and avoiding winter. For twelve years Peta presented the award winning prime time travel/food television shows Taste New Zealand, Taste Takes Off and A Taste of Home. Her many books are about food, travel, life, men, women, love and explaining how egg whites can transform your life. In 2012 Peta was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit by the New Zealand Government in recognition for her work as an author and TV presenter.

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