Peppertree Fashions: The Brand That Dressed a Generation of Kiwi Women

If you grew up in New Zealand in the 1970s or 80s, there's a decent chance you owned something from Peppertree. Or your mum did. Or your aunty. For nearly three decades, Peppertree Fashions was one of the most recognisable clothing labels in the country — sold in major department stores from Auckland to Invercargill, and shipped as far afield as Hong Kong, Tahiti, and Nouméa.

It's the kind of brand that deserves to be remembered. So let's dig in.

The Man Behind the Label: Peter Nola

Peppertree Fashions was founded in Auckland in 1967 by Peter Nola — a man who, by all accounts, was completely and utterly obsessed with fashion. Not in a pretentious way. More in a "sketching ideas at 2am because his brain wouldn't switch off" kind of way.

Before starting Peppertree, Nola trained under Bill Hall at Society Fashions — one of New Zealand's great early fashion houses. It wasn't a formal apprenticeship. Back then you learned by doing, watching, and throwing yourself into the work. Nola soaked it all up, and when the time was right, he struck out on his own.

He was in his late twenties when he launched the label, and from the start he had a clear vision: make great-looking clothes that real women actually want to wear, and make sure they're ahead of the curve.

The "Best Sellers, Not Guesswork" Philosophy

Here's where Peppertree's business model gets interesting — and a little ahead of its time.

Rather than purely designing from scratch, Nola travelled regularly to London, Paris, and New York, studying what was selling in those markets. He'd bring that knowledge back to New Zealand and adapt the best international styles for the local market. The key word there is adapt — not just copy. A button here, a different silhouette there, tweaked proportions to suit the Kiwi customer.

This approach, documented in the fashion history book The Dress Circle: New Zealand Fashion Design since 1940, was openly promoted rather than hidden. And it worked spectacularly. While other labels were predicting trends, Peppertree was selling them.

Nola was a close watcher of designers like Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren, and he knew how to translate high-end European and American sensibility into something wearable and accessible for New Zealand women. That combination — international fashion intelligence paired with local market savvy — was Peppertree's secret weapon.

From Frills to Denim to Corporate Wear: The Peppertree Range

One of the things that kept Peppertree relevant for so long was its willingness to take risks and evolve. Nola wasn't afraid to try something new even when buyers pushed back.

"When no one was doing frills and spills, I was doing them," he told Apparel magazine. "When I started doing denim, the stores didn't want to buy it — and then it became so popular that we couldn't supply the demand!"

Through the 1970s, Peppertree was known for its fluid silhouettes, flared trousers, soft shoulder lines, and the kind of relaxed ease that defined that era's fashion. By the 1980s, the brand had sharpened into tailored separates and sharp suiting — very much in step with the decade's power-dressing energy.

Later, Peppertree moved into the lucrative corporate apparel market in a serious way. By the end of the 1980s, the label held the largest share of the corporate uniform market in New Zealand — designing workwear for major banks including the National Bank, ANZ, and Countrywide, as well as airlines like Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, and Ansett Australia. It was a significant and often overlooked chapter in the brand's story.

The crowning achievement of that era came in 1990, when Nola designed New Zealand's official uniform for the Commonwealth Games. Not bad for a kid who got his start in the Auckland rag trade.

The Famous Fashion Breakfasts

If you were a fashion buyer in New Zealand or Australia during the late '70s and '80s, you'd know about the Peppertree breakfasts. These quarterly events were genuinely one of the highlights of the industry calendar — buyers would fly in from across the country and from Australia to see the latest collections.

Around fifteen models would show the range, while the legendary Maysie Bestall-Cohen — a major figure in New Zealand fashion — would coordinate and compere the whole affair. They were lavish, energetic, and they cemented Peppertree's status as a serious player in the region.

In a 1986 edition of Fashion Quarterly, journalist Cecilie Geary described the scene at one such breakfast, noting that not even a 20-tonne crane counterweight crashing through the roof of the original venue (the Regent Hotel) two days before the show could stop it from going ahead. A quick switch to the Hyatt, and the show went on.

That's very Peppertree, really.

A Training Ground for Kiwi Fashion

One of Peter Nola's lasting contributions to New Zealand fashion wasn't just the clothes — it was the people he mentored. Peppertree became a genuine incubator for talent in the local industry.

Brendon Austin and Mike Tololi, who went on to co-found the successful label Love Story, both got their start at Peppertree. Nola himself laughed about it in later years: "We were like a teaching school to develop the rest of the business! A lot of the top people in the industry now worked at Peppertree at some stage in their life."

He had a clear philosophy about his team: pay them well, respect their craft, and they'll put their heart and soul into the work. By all accounts, they did.

Awards, Recognition, and Legacy

The accolades rolled in throughout Peppertree's run. The brand won multiple Benson & Hedges Fashion Design Awards — so many, Nola once said, that the walls of the Peppertree office were covered in them. In 1997, he received a greenstone trophy recognising his lifetime contribution to the New Zealand fashion industry.

Rosemary McLeod, writing in The New Zealander in 1980, captured something true about the man: "Peter Nola gives the impression that he's personally in love with every garment his business produces. He adores every stitch."

That love never really faded. Even after stepping back from the industry due to health reasons, Nola remained an avid observer of fashion. "There are some fabulous retailers and some really great looks around now," he said in 2012. "I'm in the stores all the time looking!"

Peter Nola passed away in 2015. But the pieces he made — that camel wool coat, the 70s butterfly dress, the tailored pantsuit with the flared leg — those are still turning up in op shops and vintage stores across New Zealand, still being worn, still being loved.

Why Peppertree Still Matters Today

There's a reason vintage Peppertree pieces pop up regularly on Designer Wardrobe and Trade Me and get snapped up quickly. The construction is good. The fabrics — often wool blends and quality jersey — have lasted. And there's a real sense of considered design in the better pieces, even if that design started its life in Paris or New York.

For collectors and archivists of New Zealand fashion, Peppertree is a genuine touchstone. It represents a specific era of Kiwi style — aspirational but accessible, international in influence but local in spirit. It dressed women who were heading into the workforce, going to races, running companies, flying on Air New Zealand. It was everyday luxury, made in Aotearoa.

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