Bernina store's bittersweet farewell after 49 years in central Nelson

Aug 01, 2023

Since word got out that the Bernina store is closing after almost five decades in business, owner Dave Prebble has been “inundated”.

“There’s been a deluge of demand,” Prebble said. “People are panicking.”

Prebble, who arrived well ahead of the Bridge St store’s 10am opening to meet The Nelson Mail, gets up repeatedly to greet customers who, seeing the store’s lights are on, are already filing in to see him.

He points to rows of machines waiting to be serviced. Usually there would be four or five, but today there are around 30.

Prebble’s not sure when he’ll find the time to fix them as the store is busy each day with customers stocking up on discounted goods ahead of the September 30 closure.

The decision to close the store after 49 years hadn’t been an easy one, he said.

“I had to take a deep breath, it’s been very difficult to be honest; a big jump.”

But with his wife Margaret suffering health problems, it’s the right move for the couple, he said.

Prebble was 25 when he and Margaret opened the store, on May 25, 1974.

Margaret was a talented tailor, who had studied fashion design in Wellington. Prebble, who had been working at a machinery company, wasn’t familiar with the industry.

“I’ve never sewn a garment in my life. Margaret did all that – she was a woman who never bought clothing, she sewed it all.”

But Prebble learned quickly, and over the years has fixed all manner of sewing machines, adapting as the machines became electronic, and then computerised.

When the store opened in the 1970s, everyone made their own clothes, and the couple did a roaring trade in machines and sewing supplies, Prebble said.

He recalled a brief phase where knitting machines were fashionable.

“We sold dozens, a fad that phased out in the 80s.”

Over the years, as fast fashion made it cheaper to buy off-the-shelf than make your own garments, their clients’ sewing habits changed to crafting and quilting, he said.

When the couple sold a machine, they’d try to make sure their customers knew their way round their new gadget.

“We’d sit them down and show them how to use it, and if they have a problem, we’d fix it,” he said.

This had earned the couple a loyal cohort of customers, some who have been returning to the store for decades.

It was these people he and Margaret would remember when they shut their doors for the final time, Prebble said.

“The friendly people you get. Most customers are lovely, people bring us cakes, people just come in and say hello – customers have become friends.”