Peta Mathias lives a double life that many of us dream of having – an endless summer equally split between France and New Zealand.
A foodie, fashionista, travel guide, book author, chef, broadcaster, sublime singer and a self-made woman for whom French trills off the tongue – Peta Mathias is the kind of person you want to be when you grow up.
Her energy and enthusiasm is as infectious as it is inspiring, which is undoubtedly why her international travel tours and twice weekly Auckland city supper clubs are so popular.
During Good magazine’s photo shoot her face lights up at the suggestion that she reclines across the gorgeous tangerine velvet sofa in her Auckland apartment, upon which she promptly arranges herself as gracefully as a gazelle ready to spring at a moment’s notice, her vibrant outfit accented by sequined “Mermaid shoes” by Alberto Gozzi.
“I was reading a novel and in it a woman went to sleep on her tangerine couch,” she muses, stroking the fabric of the originally pink sofa. “I called the upholster and said, ‘I want a tangerine couch’.”
Peta is well-known for her love of colour as well as mixing fabrics and patterns, and orange – which she describes in her book Shed Couture as “a determined, vibrant colour” – is up there with her favourites.
Her first fabulous style memory was a burnt orange Chanel suit her father bought for her mother on
