Pete Bossley at work

Despite his fondness for orange trousers and red suits, Pete Bossley’s sartorial decisions have never been about standing out from the crowd. Simply, he likes colour, and takes every opportunity to wear it on his person. “I have always have worn colour. Not pattern so much, but colour. Even at architecture school I wore colour,” he explains, a somewhat unusual trait for someone in a profession widely known for wearing black, black and more black.

Indeed, even Bossley didn’t realise how much his colour choices did make him different until parodied in a cartoon by Malcolm Walker in Architecture New Zealand magazine. The cartoon poked fun at well-known architects’ quirks in a social pages spoof. The caption “Mr Peter Bossley spotted in the bar queue” accompanied a drawing of a throng of black suits with a pop of red in the midst.

It seems a natural fit, however, for Bossley to embrace colour. Indeed, he has always tried to use colour as much as possible in his buildings. He sighs as he says, “People tend not to take you seriously if you try to make buildings too colourful. Which is a shame because I like putting colour in buildings.” His architectural interest also makes him rue that Issey Miyake doesn’t make menswear: the folded, architectural (and colourful) approach of the Japanese designer would suit him.