Friends of Superette:

Rebe Healy

Rebe Healy started with a hat. Now she runs one of New Zealand's most quietly compelling womenswear labels. We sat down with the founder of Rebe to talk about building a brand with intention, dressing with purpose, and the pieces that earn their place season after season.

Some people find fashion. Rebe Healy grew up inside it. Trips to the fabric store as a child. Rolls of material spread across the floor at home. Outfits assembled from imagination before she had the vocabulary to call any of it design. By the time she arrived at a career, the question was never really whether she would work in fashion. It was only a matter of how.

The how turned out to be characteristically considered. A degree in marine biology. Years working as a buyer for an international designer boutique in Auckland, learning firsthand what women were actually looking for and where the market kept letting them down. And then, gradually and then decisively, Rebe. A label that began with a single wide-brim Panama hat, moved into footwear, and has since grown into a ready-to-wear collection built around the same instinct that started everything. That clothes should be beautiful, hard-working, and worth keeping.

"I'm always looking for pieces I know are going to be really hard-working in my wardrobe. Things I'll wear season after season."

The studio in Tāmaki Makaurau is where she feels most herself. Working alongside her husband and their team, designing in the same space where the ideas take shape and the collections come to life. There is something grounding about that proximity, about being in the room where it all happens. Her creative process is personal by nature. She designs for the wardrobe she wants to build herself, which means every piece has already passed a certain standard before it reaches anyone else.

Her own style is a clear extension of that. Classic and modern in equal measure. An effortless quality that is not accidental but is not laboured either. Getting dressed in the morning is something she actively looks forward to, a moment of intention before the day begins properly. A great pair of trousers. Tailored pieces. Beautiful fabrics with a hand feel worth noticing. Things that feel as good as they look, which for Rebe is always where the conversation starts.

"Getting dressed sets you up for the day. I like taking that moment with intention before everything else."

Superette has been part of the Rebe story from early on. When she made the decision to leave her full-time job and go all in with the label, Superette was already there. An early supporter, a retail partner who understood what the brand was building and got behind it before the rest of the world caught up. That kind of relationship, she says, is something she is genuinely grateful for.

Outside the studio the pace shifts. Interiors and art. A good book at the end of the day. The people around her, her community, and her mum, the ones whose way of moving through the world shapes how she sees her own. There is something in that quietness that feels entirely consistent with the clothes she makes. No noise for its own sake. Nothing that is not earning its place.

"My mum inspires my style. And the people in my life. And our amazing Rebe community."

What is next is already in motion. A new office and showroom. International growth. More women around the world discovering what the Rebe community already knows. She is building steadily and on her own terms, which is exactly how she started and exactly how she intends to continue.