Deadly Ponies celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2025, while hinting at a return to an experimental spirit. Liam Bowden, creative director, and Steve Boyd, chief executive, tell Madeleine Crutchley about the moments and muses that made them.
Nostalgia is not a sentiment Liam Bowden and Steve Boyd like to
“I find these conversations stressful,” Steve laughs in response to retrospective questions about the 20th anniversary of Deadly Ponies. The journeyman prefers to propel forward. “I just keep going. I don’t really look back... what’s next?”
However, after two decades in business, the couple are taking a moment to mark the milestone. A recent celebration involved a photo series, capturing 20 Deadly Ponies pieces: one from each year of operation.
It showcases the development of the label, from the first purse Liam patchworked by hand, to the chain-link purse launched alongside their Ponsonby boutique in 2012 and the boots that stepped into a footwear range in 2022. It captures change, slow and steady, which Liam calls a catalyst of the label’s longevity.
“We’ve learned bit by bit what bricks to keep and which ones we can move around and change.”
Deadly Ponies launched in 2005 with an experimental attitude. Liam studied a graphic design degree at Unitec, which appealed because of its elasticity and broad definitions. He remembers designing posters, chairs and more.
“I definitely pushed the boat out with my tutors, pushing them to the limits of, like, ‘how do I mark a soft toy?’”
This boundless encouragement to create led to Liam picking up more in his spare time: crafting wallets and handbags from off-cuts and second-hand leather became a “hobby, on the side”.
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Advertise with NZME.While experimenting with leather and screen-printing, Liam was also working on branding and graphic design for Superette (the store was still the new kid on the block, having opened in 2001). Wallets were stocked in store after a buyer heard about Liam’s leatherwork.
Then, designer Kristine Mary started retailing one-off designs in her Miss Crabb store.
“There was no range, it was all by feeling – going to an op shop and finding an old button or some chain and just putting it all together. There wasn’t necessarily a business strategy. It was just a desire to create.”
The process grew nimbler as Deadly Ponies released larger ranges, approached wholesale and created photo-collaged lookbooks reflecting the grungy, DIY origins of the label. (Liam: “Fashion school would have been fantastic to teach me all of these things... but it was also part of the fun.”)
The first full handbag line launched in 2008, also the first year the label was stocked in an Australian boutique.
In 2009, Steve stepped into the business. The two met on a blind date and eventually transitioned to working together.
“It’s probably overcomplicating it by saying it was a decision. I mean, we met and fell in love and ultimately that was the beginning of a great relationship,” he says.
Early on, Steve began to work on Deadly Ponies with Liam at night, on top of his full-time job. His new role materialised quickly.
“It was about building a platform to be creative.”
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Advertise with NZME.Steve still holds this purpose close, looking to solidify the base of the business and maintain a space for Liam and the design team to conjure creativity.
“That’s the job of any business that’s got a creative director, or someone that’s really creatively talented. To embrace that and go, ‘right, how do we make a business successful so that this person can do that?’”
In 2025, every Deadly Ponies collection considers dual customer demands. There are the reliable, go-anywhere-with-everything staples, and the joyous, sometimes frivolous, statements that create a sense of occasion.
Liam follows firm principles in the workroom: their pieces, largely daywear, should always showcase high-quality materials, approachability and functionality.
Even bolder designs and textures (see the icy blue croc-print micro purse from their spring 2025 collection), are utilitarian (featuring adjustable strap, internal pockets and a sturdy brass zip).
They follow trends, while adapting to how customers actually move through the world. A few years ago, teensy bags acted as accessories to tech. Right now, Liam says, customers covet carryalls that are the deputy to industrious schedules.
“A handbag is something that’s so intrinsic to how you live throughout the day.”
Their signature brass hardware was derived from the chain-linked shipyard docks that surrounded an old workroom in Wynyard Quarter.
Liam has also cast the net for aesthetic inspiration more widely. Like many designers, the tactility of various art forms has drawn his eye to the potential for folds and draping.
However, the creative director has also welcomed more wondrous muses.
“It’s often something delightful and sometimes it’s nonsense, it’s silly and makes you feel something else... it ignites something.”
Absurdist Victorian advertising illustrations encouraged experimentation early on (animal feet and top hats adorned bags). Themes of religion and devotion informed “Transparent”, where high-shine minis beamed through clear PVC totes at Australian Fashion Week 2018. An upcoming 2026 autumn release will pay warm and fuzzy reference to the Muppets.
This enduring playfulness is especially evident in their collaborations. Deadly Ponies always goes beyond a simple tweak, from its application of Len Lye’s psychedelic film stills to its illustrative homage to modernist textile artist Anni Albers.
The bubbly bags of My Little Pony certainly drew the biggest audience: Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle created candyfloss palettes in a collaboration that surprised many, including the founders. Steve remembers meeting Hasbro prepped with a pitch about Tonka’s yellow trucks, a childhood obsession, before the toy company countered with the more obvious correlation.
“We thought that would be out of bounds, like, it’s too big,” Steve remembers. “Literally, in the room, we changed the entire plan and My Little Pony was born.”
The eager reception provided a valuable lesson, which feels key for their next steps now.
“We always remind ourselves, if the collection’s feeling a little bit crazy, [that] people like to be happy, and we like to excite people.”
Formative moments have occasionally involved those outside the workroom. Steve recalls Lorde in 2014, during the summer when she rocketed to Pure Heroine fame, being photographed at LAX donning a fluffy peach-pink Fill n Zip (she was also seen clutching a midnight black version at Gatwick airport).
“She had just blown up... and then there’s this photo everywhere of her walking through LAX.”
A mention in September 2005 plays on Liam’s mind: budding bFM journalist Noelle McCarthy, talking enthusiastically to Viva about her “beautiful, big, white leather Deadly Ponies number” (her words).
“It was the first piece of press we ever got.”
Fans, such as Noelle, continued to reveal themselves in the media: Kate Megaw of Penny Sage and Cybele Wiren of Cybele both sang Deadly Ponies’ praises in the pages of Viva throughout 2006.
So much change since: recycled collections and investment towards B Corp certification, a period of retailing in Selfridges, moving manufacturing offshore to a purpose-built factory/atelier in Thailand, five store openings across the country.
Two more recent shifts provide a roadmap for Deadly Ponies’ future focus.
The opening of a Queenstown store in 2024 brought an influx of international customers to its e-commerce. Steve says it’s an exciting alternative to modes of overseas growth.
“There are lots of ways that don’t rely on the norms of being in a traditional, large, international department store.”
Footwear is the company’s other “new baby”.
The first collection launched in 2022, and in the time since, it has largely showcased sculptural designs in staple colours. A touch of play has surfaced this year, with prickly embossed leather and ballet flats in colourways that would offend a traditionalist.
What comes next, Liam says, will be a return to those founding curiosities and exploration.
“I think it will be about experimenting and growing in that area, and how can we – now that we’ve started to lay a good foundation – be more playful and experimental there?”
Deadly Ponies, once again, is ready to break the rules.
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