Most fashion stories start with a designer. This one starts with a question.
How does a well made, New Zealand made jacket, clearly designed with skill and care, disappear from view?
That question surfaced in 2022, when an original Oscar Eide jacket turned up in an op shop and caught the attention of Nikolai Solakof. The quality of the cut, the construction, and the label pointed to a brand that mattered, even if its story had faded.
What followed was not an attempt to rewrite that history, but to understand it, and to build on it. We caught up with the person behind Oscar Eide’s return, who is joining us at the Wastebusters Refashion Show 2026.
Before I found my first Oscar Eide jacket, I mostly thought old New Zealand outerwear was purely utility-focused with very little thought to style. I’d grown up with classic Swandris and Swazis on the coat rack, but when I saw that first Oscar Eide piece, I was struck by how good the pattern and cut were. I genuinely thought it must have been made in America or England or somewhere overseas. Then I saw the label: NEW ZEALAND MADE.
After Googling and Googling and finding almost nothing, it really set the cogs turning. I wanted to know what happened to this brand, who made it, and why something this well designed had basically disappeared. That curiosity is what kicked everything off.
I basically had no formal training. When I started during Covid I suddenly had time, so I pulled out my Mum’s old sewing machine and started learning through YouTube tutorials. I hadn’t sewn properly since I was about seven.
When I was really young, around five, my Mum taught me how to sew cushions and buttons. I remember being ridiculously proud of this cushion I made and I still have it at my family home.
So part of me thought, how hard can it really be?
Funnily enough, working as a builder helped a lot. The mindset is similar. You’re taking raw materials and turning them into something functional. It’s the same process, just with different tools.
Over time my sewing has developed to the point where I can make prototypes and help with production. I try to stay as hands-on as possible. I do a lot of the cutting and marker layout myself and I’m about to start that again for the next run. For final production I work with machinists because the jackets are complex and need to be perfect. But I think it’s important to understand the process properly, not just design from a distance.
I decided early on that I was either going to make this brand in New Zealand or not make it at all. In my opinion, too many heritage brands have bent the knee to fast fashion and become shells of their former selves. Because Oscar Eide had been out of business for years, it was actually insulated from that shift, which gave me a clean slate.
Making in New Zealand is hard, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. There are a lot of hidden benefits people forget about. The biggest one is the story. People want to know how something is made, who made it, and why it exists. That connection just doesn’t exist with fast fashion.
“We Make It Here” became an ethos for me. Not just about surviving in New Zealand, but about thriving here and proving we can still produce world-class products without compromise.
Each jacket takes up to 10 hours to sew because they’re complex garments. Made to order is a balancing act. It’s great when someone wants a specific model in their exact size, but you also need stock available so people can try pieces on and see the range.
Having massive stockpiles like fast fashion just isn’t realistic or sustainable at this scale. So a big part of the job is carefully choosing sizes and colours that represent the range well, without overproducing.
These jackets were originally designed for farmers and the equestrian community, and that
utility DNA still runs through everything I make. They’re practical garments first, but that
practicality is what makes them timeless and wearable long term. That dual use is where people really see the value.
From a design point of view, I try to think backwards. I ask myself what you can’t do on a 1,000-unit fast fashion production run. That’s where the opportunity is. Using special fabrics, custom components, construction details and small design touches that simply wouldn’t make sense at mass scale. Those differences are what give the jacket character and help you stand out.
Over time I’ve come to accept that for Oscar Eide to work in the modern world, it has to operate in the luxury space. Not flashy luxury, but quality, craftsmanship and longevity. I genuinely believe we can make product in New Zealand that stands alongside premium European brands and compete at that level if we stay disciplined about quality.
Repair and care are a huge part of that philosophy. I build these jackets to last and I stand behind them. I already get people bringing in original vintage Oscar Eide jackets asking for repairs or care advice and I’m always happy to help. My goal is to add value over the lifetime of the garment, not just at the point of sale.
If you want to get ahead quickly, be entertaining. If you want to turn a passion project into a real business, you need to think seriously about promotion. Storytelling is the easiest and most powerful way to do that. These days it’s not enough to just have a good product.
If you’re not fast fashion, don’t act like fast fashion. Celebrate what makes you different.
Think about how you add value through design, materials, storytelling and details. Lots of small things add up.
Pricing is scary when you’re making in New Zealand, but if you’ve done the work on your product, don’t be afraid to charge properly. You’ll go broke trying to compete with fast fashion prices. Find your niche and lean into it. I was basically broke for most of the early Oscar Eide years. Keeping it as a side hustle at the start helped. I also focused on learning as many useful skills as possible. Sewing, photography, filmmaking, Photoshop, Illustrator, basic bookkeeping, retail selling and even learning how to talk to camera. All of those skills save money and give you more control over your brand.
I’ve built up a big collection of originals and one of them actually came from Wastebusters. It was an old Eidex oilskin long coat and the quality is unreal. People DM me all the time with op shop finds and there are some seriously cool pieces still floating around. What makes it even better is that the originals were made in Wānaka. I’ve since gone back and met people who worked on them, which really brought everything full circle. I also use op shops for inspiration. Sometimes it’s just a small detail like a pocket or seam treatment that sparks an idea for an entirely new jacket.
The company is 105 years old now and I want to set it up for another hundred years. Right now it’s exciting seeing the rebuild really start to gain momentum. I’ve accepted that to work long term, Oscar Eide has to operate as a New Zealand luxury brand. The goal is to keep developing products that show what our version of luxury looks like through a Kiwi lens and take that story to both local and international audiences.
As more people move towards fast fashion or start brands by going straight offshore, the hands-on skills needed to actually make things in New Zealand are slowly disappearing. A lot of the people I work with are older and their knowledge isn’t always being passed down.
I’d love to see that reversed. I think there’s huge value in rebuilding respect for making, craft and local production. If we want a resilient fashion industry in New Zealand, we need to protect those skills and give young people a reason to learn them.
You can hear more from Nikolai Solakof at this year’s Wastebusters Refashion Show, where he’ll share more about the revival of Oscar Eide and the power of slow fashion in practice.
Tickets are on sale now. Buy your ticket here.
This year our amazing Wastebusters whānau has been busy keeping everything we can out of landfill and supporting resourcefulness in our community while also working on bringing our dream of Wastebusters 2.0 into reality.
We were humbled and absolutely stoked to take home the Wānaka Chamber of Commerce Business Awards Supreme Business Award, along with the Community Contribution and Business Sustainability awards. This success was a powerful recognition of the dedicated mahi of our entire team, giving us huge confidence for the ambitious journey ahead.
We welcomed Aviette Musin on a fixed-term contract as our new Programme Manager for Wastebusters 2.0. Her expertise provided the dedicated, focused capacity needed to accelerate progress on this strategic goal.
Funding was secured through Queenstown Lakes Community Composting Project for the Compost Collect pilot, a joint venture with our neighbours Wānaka Greenwaste that will turn commercial food scraps into valuable compost, launching in 2026. We also intensified our focus on Construction and Demolition (C&D) materials, trialling diversion methodology and securing initial partnerships to divert waste from landfill. With our current site so space-constrained, we are extremely limited in the C&D materials which can be accepted for reuse, but this work will lay the groundwork for future diversion on a bigger site.
We made a compelling case to the Council for the necessary land expansion for Wastebusters 2.0 and prepared for the MfE Waste Minimisation Fund application process to support our expansion plans.
A continued focus for us this year has been on strengthening the Wastebusters whānau and ensuring we are equipped not just for the daily challenges, but for future growth. We continued to be a Living Wage employer, reflecting our commitment to the well-being and value of our staff. Feedback from the team via staff survey results highlighted strong morale and resilience within our workplace culture with 89% saying they enjoy working at Wastebusters and 93% feeling cared for by their manager.
The district’s rapid growth brings challenges as well as opportunities, particularly the Ballantyne Road/Riverbank Road roadworks which demanded flexibility and good humour from our team and customers throughout 2024. Despite the road cones, ongoing community support ensured our Reuse Shop continued to be a first choice destination for both locals and visitors. Improved donation flows and adding new changing rooms has made the shop operation smoother and more efficient for everyone.
Wastebusters’ partnership with events continues to go from strength to strength: including the trial of a food scraps collection from vendors. And our Recycle team did the huge job of relabeling all our events recycling bins to align with national recycling colours, making it easier for event-goers to know what to do. Wastebusters recycling trucks continue to be a much-loved presence in town servicing our 408 business customers, with the team doing a great job of keeping our aging fleet serviceable, in line with our kaupapa of keeping resources in use for as long as possible.
Our Reduce team has continued to deliver exceptional impact, with more than 11,000 people engaged in person through our education and engagement in the community. The Resourceful Communities programme inspires our community to take action and builds the knowledge and know how to engage in areas like repair, low waste living and textile waste diversion. It is proudly supported by QLDC’s zero waste district’s programme which recognises the impact of community connection for zero waste action.
We were stoked to join Environment Hubs Aotearoa, and we look forward to collaborating with this network and amplifying our collective impact on environmental action and resourcefulness across Aotearoa.
We worked with an impact consultant to implement an evaluation framework and behaviour change model to better plan, deliver and measure our impact, and have begun rolling out our learnings across all our programmes.
It was a busy year in advocacy, starting with participation in QLDC’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan process. We appreciated QLDC’s approach in bringing Wastebusters and other stakeholders in early in the process, which has resulted in a constructive plan for the next six years. Wastebusters has also made submissions on national and local level, including The Right to Repair Bill, the Container Return Scheme and the publicly notified resource consent for McDonald’s in Wānaka.
Ultimately, this year has been about delivering impact while building the foundations for a much larger and even more impactful operation, securing Wastebusters’ future for our community. The heart of our work remains resource recovery and community engagement, and we enter the next 25 years of zero waste leadership with great confidence, welcome community support and an unwavering focus.
Gina Dempster
General Manager
November 2025
Let us know what you love & what we could do better & you’ll go into the draw to win a $250 restaurant voucher!