Still chasing her dreams PETA'S ART OF BEING FABULOUS

The fashionable foodie is not entertaining the idea of retirement – she simply is too busy embracing the next chapter of her life

- Nicky Pellegrino

At the age of 71, Peta Mathias still has strangers coming up in the street to tell her she’s beautiful. Clearly she is not beautiful, says Peta, who describes herself as pomegranate-shaped with a long nose and 30,000 freckles. What those people are attracted to is her flamboyant appearance, she explains.

Even during lockdowns, living alone in a small inner-city Auckland apartment, Peta chooses something gorgeous to wear each day. “Clothes make me feel happy,” she says. “I love beauty and I love style.”

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.

“Sometimes I’ll change clothes three times a day so I’m happy with the colour I’m wearing,” she admits. “It’s all about mood. I might walk around in an outfi t for a few hours, feel out of sync, and as soon as I change it, feel balanced and right again.”

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.

“Most of my clothes are bought on-sale or in recycle departments,” she tells.