Trelise

The table is set. Ultraviolet anemones, ruby red anthuriums and winter white orchids spill down a hanging candelabra and out of the gold vases below. Beside them are stacks of pink Versace plates, ornate glass bowls full of dragon fruit and an eclectic mix of candlesticks.

At her Auckland home, reclining on a vintage, leopard print-upholstered chair, is Dame Trelise Cooper. She’s wearing a collared jacket and figure-hugging dress by her eponymous brand – a brilliant shock of green with its own embroidered anemones and garden roses. This, and the daffodil yellow fabric fashioned into a tablecloth, are next-season designs. She may fill her homes with antiques, but the dame is always ahead of the times.

Today, she’s welcomed into her Orakei abode to spill some secrets of the entertaining