Introduction and start at St Kevins Arcade
183 Karangahape RoadKia ora and welcome to the Karangahape Road Fashion Strip Walk.We are starting at St Kevins Arcade and will take you on a walk to discover some of the road’s great fashion stories from the last 100 plus years. Just a heads up that some of these stories have a bit of background and can be quite detailed so you can skip on to the next stop at any time. You might notice too that we are often on the opposite side of the road from the place we are talking about, that's because you can see it better from there.So let's get started and introduce you to Karangahape Rd, which is unique today in Auckland city, in that 85% of the buildings on the road are pre-1940 which means that many of their stories are still visibly present and can be imagined from the architecture and the signage that has survived.Its earlier history too is significant and it was already a major thoroughfare in pre-European times which makes it much older than Queen St which was only developed much later by the colonial settlers.Until the mid-20th century Karangahape Road was actually the only street in central Auckland with a Māori name and there were many attempts to change it to something European – but it proved tenacious and the closest that it got to an easy English language alternative was K'road. Until the 1960s it was Auckland’s busiest shopping street and beside shops selling essential supplies like hardware, bicycles, furniture, fish, meat, vegetables and dry goods it was the place for all things fashionable – tailors, dressmakers, milliners, corsetiere, jewellers, hairdressers, barbers, beauticians and then a slew of photographers and photo studios to document you looking your best. In its day St Kevins Arcade has been home to all of these fashionable things. Wise’s Street Directory for 1926 lists tenants including the Powder Puff Salon, “Pretties” Frock Shop, Mrs Bell’s Portrait Studio, John Walker hairdresser, Penrith Dining Rooms and The Winsome which also had its hemstitching, pleating and embroidery workroom on the first floor.
St Kevins Light
Step into the arcade to the top of the stairs and we will talk about light and the importance of the sparkle it added to retailing.You, of course, notice straight away the huge window at the end of the arcade that overlooks Myers Park and the city; but if you look up you will see that there is lots of glass in the roof and high up in the galleries and the shops.You might also notice that many of the shops still have their original bevelled glass windows and doors to break the light and add sparkle to the goods on display. Light was an important ingredient in successful retailing. In the first decade of the twentieth century electricity transformed light and lives. All over the western world, people would travel into the city centre on the electric tram, to go to the electric cinema and walk up and down streets like Karangahape Road looking at the electrically lit up display windows and to socialise with each other. This made a significant impact on the way retail worked - previously, outside of opening hours - shops were darkened and even closely shuttered for security, now, due to electric lighting, it behoves retailers to have attractively arranged and lit display windows able to be viewed even after the store was closed. Further enhancement came in 1935 when the whole of Karangahape Road was lit by electric lights under the shop awnings to create a "Community Lighting" project referred to as the "Great White Way", a mile of lit-up shop fronts which added to the glamour of late night shopping.
Rendells, The Ladies Warehouse
184 Karangahape RoadStep back outside the arcade on to Karangahpae Road and look across the street at the Rendells building, now Lim Chhour Supermarket and Food Court.This is one of the oldest buildings on this section of the street but it is not where the Rendell family started their business.John and Emily Rendell and several of their children (eventually there were six daughters and two sons) emigrated from Britain in the 1880s, intending a new life in the antipodes. They bought a dairy farm in the Waikato but it turned out that they didn’t have the skills needed for that line of work. And so, the family moved to Auckland and the trade they knew - the drapery business. They opened a store on the corner of Greys Avenue and Pitt Streets (the site is now occupied by the 1944 Fire Station). Called Brighton House (they had lived in Brighton, England), this was, apparently the colony's first Babywear Emporium and their speciality was their standardised "Baby Parcels". This was a standard set of items which could be ordered by expectant mothers and easily mailed to anywhere in the country (money refunded if unsatisfactory). By 1900, the firm had expanded its offering and relocated to what is now the western corner of Mercury Lane. Then in 1904 they commissioned their own building on this site on the southern side of the road halfway between Queen and Pitt St.With female shop assistants (including Mrs Rendell and several of her daughters) they found themselves at an advantage over older more conservative clothing stores with predominately male shop assistants and they promoted this to their advantage with signage over the veranda that said “The Ladies Warehouse”.Only 7 years later they doubled the size of the shop by mirroring the original right hand facade and if you look carefully you can see that the brickwork is different on each side. Rendells was now the grandest building on this stretch of the road. Others soon joined the retail boom and the last remaining houses on the northern side made way for businesses.Rendells became a major retailer of clothing and flourished throughout most of the 20th century supplying ready-to-wear clothes to the people of Auckland. The Karangahape Road signage now said Rendells, The Fashion House.Although they opened many suburban branches as the population of Auckland grew and spread, Rendell's maintained a presence in Karangahape Road until 2006 when the chain was sold to Postie Plus. When Postie Plus went into liquidation in 2014 the building was taken over by Lim-Nam Chhour, a Cambodian Chinese refugee, who converted it into a Lim Chhour supermarket and food hall with a gym in the basement. His daughter, Muy Chhour, is the current chairperson of the Karangahape Business Association.
Kays French Salon and Hair and Beauty
145 Karangahape RoadFrom outside St Kevins Arcade, we turn left and walk east in the direction of Queen St to number 145.At 145 Karangahape Rd, we have a 2-story building originally built for J. Morris and his great Household Store. It was designed by the same architect who designed the Rendells store. Over the years it has had many tenants including KK Footwear which was here as early as 1926 but its most stylish tenant by far was Kays French Salon. Hair grooming, in all its configurations, was one of the most prevalent services offered along the street in the 1920s when salons like Powder Puff, Fredric, and Cinderella offered the fashionable Marcelling, finger waves, Vitamin wave, as well as sunray facials and eyebrow plucking. Kays too was the epitome of the latest fashion - in this instance, it was mid-century style with the salon furniture designed by NZ modernist designer Garth Chester.The salon offered hair styling, cutting, waving, and tinting as well as facials and manicures - all overseen by the owner Mr Keith Cohen who, the advertising said, was ‘a Member of the Incorporated Guild of Hairdressers, Wigmakers and Perfumers’. The salon was patronised by a who’s who of fashion, media and show business. It was managed by 'Miss Sophie', Sophie Zac, and a young Di Goldsworthy worked at reception. They both also worked regularly as fashion models for the top echelon of local designers. That alignment meant that when the new seasonal cuts and styles from Paris were launched by Mr Cohen with a twice-yearly parade, those showings also involved the latest in designer clothes.
Barker and Pollock, and Home Sewing
146 Karangahape RoadFrom Kays look across the street and you can see the last remnants of the Barker and Pollock signage above their building at 146.Department stores have always had their most popular and enticing departments on the ground floor, so it is revealing that the fabric and notions department at George Courts was located there, while the women's ready-to-wear department was on the second floor. In 1936 Gordon Pollock and Bertie Barker left their employ in the fabric department at George Courts to open their own business just along the road. How this competition was received by their former boss is not documented but their success is. At the high point of their business in the 1980s, they had 18 stores around New Zealand selling some 20 million dollars worth of fabric and haberdashery annually.Home sewing had always been a way to achieve what you could not buy. Whether constrained by cost or by availability, a ready solution was to D.I.Y. Ready-made clothing was expensive because it was all manufactured locally and choice and availability were further limited by import restrictions and tariffs. In 1984 economic reforms, intended to open up the domestic economy to the global economy, were introduced by the newly elected Labour Government of David Lange and Roger Douglas. They resulted in a flood of cheap imports and have turned New Zealanders from producers into rabid consumers. Our garment and other manufacturing industries were totally decimated, companies folded and skilled workers became redundant. The skills of the home sewer lost value too and the market for fabric shops dwindled which resulted in the eventual but unavoidable demise of Barker and Pollock which finally closed its doors here around 2000.
Walking interlude
151 and 161 Karangahape Road in passingFrom Kays walk on to the pedestrian crossing and cross over to the south side of Karangahape Road and walk along to where you can look back at 145 with Kays French Salon upstairs. While listening you can walk on towards Lim Chhour, and pause again opposite St. Kevins Arcade.As we walk from here towards Rendells, we can see the other shops on the north side of the road. Next door to Kays is Melverns where, according to the remnants of signage at the entrance, the upstairs rooms were occupied by, among others, Miss Hubber Superfluous Hair and Toilet Specialist - Expert hairdresser, W.E. Martin, Tailor and Holly’s tea and lunchrooms.Next door at 161 the Bristol Piano Building was home to Sneddens Drapery Emporium for more than 40 years from the mid-1930s. In the 1980 and 90s the shop was occupied by the Warehouse Clothing Company with the Winters School of Hairdressing upstairs. The basement was home to DNA Clothing’s workroom and shop for more than a decade in the 1990s and early 2000s when boutique creators made use of the great spaces and cheap rent available on Karangahape Road. Virus Clothing was another such with their workroom and living upstairs above what was then Hannah's shoes on this side at number 178.The Verona and Buchanan Building seem to have always been home to some sort of food and hospitality ventures.We are now at Rendells and across the road, you can see the facade of St Kevins Arcade.
Display windows and shopping hours
We are now at Rendells and looking across the road at St Kevins Arcade.From the Rendells side of the road, you can see not only the lovely light fall through St Kevins Arcade but also the glass in the sides of the front entrance veranda. You will also note the large display windows on the first floor. These were a very deliberate feature to attract attention from the other side of the road and you can see them too on the two buildings to the west; the House of Flackson and it's neighbour the La Gonda building. They are a feature you will see more of as we continue this walk.Late-night shopping was a big part of the retail experience in the first half of the 20th century. Shop hours were not what they are now – shops could be open from early morning until as late as 11 at night and open Saturdays. In 1945 legislation restricting work to a 40-hour week introduced the idea of a weekend for all and with few exceptions, Saturday and Sunday trading was no longer permitted. Shops introduced the practice of a late night, staying open until 9 pm on a Thursday or Friday. Karangahape Road’s late night was Thursday. It wasn’t until 1980 that Saturday trading was reintroduced and it was to be another 10 years before Sunday trading was allowed.
The House of Flackson and fashion whakapapa
191 Karangahape RoadAlongside St Kevins Arcade to the west we see The House of Flackson.Next door to St Kevins at 191 was The House of Flackson, a ladies' outfitters and beauty salon. Built in 1925 it is on the ‘half-crown side’ of the road, the shady side. The other side was considered more valuable because the shop fronts faced north and it was the sunny side of the street for pedestrians. The House of Flackson was a family business established by Hungarian immigrant Barnard Kars, which he Anglicised to Kay. It passed from him to his son Mortimer and then to his son, Colin. Colin Kay, not only successfully ran this business but was also elected to the Auckland City Council, the Auckland Regional Council and was Mayor of Auckland from 1980 to 83.In an interview in 1995, he recalls that Karangahape Rd was known as the Golden Mile – it was the busiest shopping precinct in all of Auckland. So busy that they painted a line down the centre of the footpath and pedestrians were expected to keep left. The House of Flackson catered for the 'younger fashionable woman' while Sneddens (at 161 K rd) catered to the older woman. Various members of the family worked in the business and the expectation was that you pull out all the stops to successfully clinch the sale. The sales docket was initialled by the salesperson so it was easy to see who was the best and who unsatisfactory.In keeping with its targeting of a younger customer, the upstairs space became one of the city's early boutiques in 1971. Called Fotheringay after a Scottish heavy metal band, the shop’s decor was bohemian with heavy velvet drapes, dim lighting, black painted floors and Jim Morrison and heavy metal bands on rotation. A young Walter Hart (later famous for his Vamp label) and Sharman Maich (stepdaughter of Gordon Pollock over the road) were the new boutique's first designers. They opened a small workroom on the premises to work on design, cut patterns and produce garments for young people like themselves; dramatic floor-length velvet coats and full circle wool skirts in big checks.The boutique was immediately successful, and four more Fotheringay boutiques were established in the other Flacksons stores. To cope with the growing volume of stock they needed Walter Hart set up a factory in Upper Queen Street and employed more staff. When Sharman left to open her boutique, The Case is Altered on Victoria Street, she was replaced at Fotheringay by Brigid Brock and later by Elisabeth Findlay.Today the only place you might find a Fotheringay or House of Flackson dress is in one of the vintage or charity shops that K Rd is also famous for.
Walking interlude
202 and 208 Karangahape RoadContinue walking in the same direction and listen as you walk. Pause when you are opposite the La Gonda Building at 203 Karangahape Road.As we move west from Rendells we pass two other famous New Zealand brand stores that had their early days here. First James Pascoe the jeweller at 202. Its name was still visible on the facade until very recently. Next door at 208 was our first ‘five and dime’ style department store, McKenzies which had its own house brands including their garment label Roydon. In the 1980s the facade was modernised and it became one of New Zealand’s first McDonalds Restaurants. Opposite at 203 is a building that is known as the La Gonda Building.
La Gonda; devoted to fashion
203 Karangahape RoadYou have arrived opposite the La Gonda BuildingThe La Gonda building was originally a Furniture, Carpet and Linoleum store and in the right light, you can still see these three words on the facade, as is the name of the original owner H Butcher & Co Ltd at the top of the building. You can see that these windows too were designed to be display windows for late-night shoppers. Over the years many others have occupied the building including the Tonson Garlick Furniture emporium and the ABC Drapery Store.In the 1950s it became the flagship store for Ladies' Fashion brand, La Gonda with its byline “Devoted to Fashion”. Inspired by the fashion of Italy rather than Paris the Gonda family built a whole chain of retail stores with about 20 branches around the country selling their own label as well as others. The store closed after the company was sold in the 1970s and the ground floor was remodelled as a small arcade similar to the Modern Bags and Skypath Arcade on this side of the road. The modern glass joinery on the right and the early 70s slick chrome detailing on the left however were not enough to entice shoppers to frequent this arcade and shops turn over regularly.In the 1980s and 90s the front space on the first floor was home to the New Zealand College of Fashion Design, which counts Karen Walker among its alumni. Today the La Gonda building is home to a new generation of fashion people including jewellery designer Nick von K and garment designers Maaike, Ovna Ovich, Vaughan Geeson and, in the arcade, Hannah-Lee Jade and others. Photography studios Thievery and La Gonda Studio serve to remind us of the famous Karangahape Road photography studios whose names you see stamped on the back of the photos in the family album; Bellwood Studios, Peter Pan, D’ora, Crichton Brothers and Tadema.
Walking interlude: Skyway Arcade
210 Karangahape RoadWhile listening walk along this side of the road towards the entrance of the George Courts building.The Skyway Arcade leads to one of three air bridges across Cross St. The Barker and Pollock building has one that connected the retail store on the main road to its fabric warehouse on Cross St while this and another from Rendells, now Lim Chhour, connects the shops on this block to the carpark building. The carpark was in fact built privately by a group of these stores in an effort to counter the decline in business that they were experiencing due to the emerging and popular ‘shopping malls’ and the negative impact of the new motorway which demolished most of the houses surrounding Karangahape Road.And now we arrive at the famous landmark - George Courts.
George Courts and the Department store
238 Karangahape RoadPause in front of, or take a wander around the foyer of what is now the George Courts Apartment Building.George Courts boasts several features that are key to most Departments Stores; a public clock on the street facade, electric lifts, women's restrooms, tearooms and a rooftop garden.It started as a Drapery store. Drapers were Cloth merchants and were a feature of all new settlements. People would purchase cloth and sew it themselves or take it to a dressmaker or tailor to be made up. By the turn of the 20th century, many drapers had developed into large emporiums, selling a range of wares still including fabric for garments and home furnishings but also stocking ready-to-wear clothes for men and women plus hosiery, gloves, manchester, napery, soft furnishings, carpets and floor coverings, toys and appliances.Originally in 1886 as Court Brothers, Frederick, George and John started further up Karangahape Road on the corner of Liverpool St. Frederick left the business while John and George separated the businesses with John Courts on the corner of Queen and Victoria St and George staying on Karangahape Road but moving to the eastern half of the current site in 1906. However, it was not until 1920, when the site on the corner of France St, now called Mercury Lane, became available that this grand building was conceived. Modelled on Selfridges in London it had 6 floors and 3.5 acres of floor space [1.4 hectares or 14,000 sq meters]. At its heart was a grand staircase wide enough to let a pair of ladies walk up and another pair walk down at the same time.There were also 5 electric elevators, spacious enough to accommodate a perambulator. Each was serviced by an operator who opened and closed the doors and announced the offerings available on each floor. They employed 350 staff of which 200 were women. The quality of the shop fittings and the abundance of both natural and splendid electric lighting were noted in an article in the Auckland Star in 1926. With 8 show windows on the Karangahape Rd frontage and 3 facing France St, it presented an inviting public face to the street.The dress fabrics department was positioned on the ground floor at the right rear to take advantage of the natural light fall. The second floor was the fashion showroom of the store with its displays of Ladies' frocks, coats, costumes, millinery and underwear [which included corsets]. Children and 'maids' clothing could also be found here and the same article noted the convenience of fitting rooms. Perhaps a more important convenience on this floor was the provision of women's toilets and a mothers' restroom.
Hallenstein Brothers - 149 years old
246 Karangahape RoadWalk a little further to the pedestrian crossing on the corner where we start our menswear story with Hallensteins and Leo O’Malley.On the west corner of Mercury Lane and Karangahape Rd you will see the HB signage which is all that remains visible of this building’s Hallenstein Brothers history. Today Hallensteins is still a major retailer of menswear and also the oldest clothing manufacturer in New Zealand. In 1873, prompted by the difficulty of sourcing men’s clothing for their general merchandise stores, Bendix Hallenstein and his brothers decided to produce their own and established the New Zealand Clothing Factory in Dunedin. By 1876 the factory was producing a large amount of stock and in a canny business move, they began buying and building their own shops with the first one in the Octagon in Dunedin. Others soon followed in Christchurch, Timaru, Wellington and Oamaru, then they opened in Auckland, Napier, Ashburton, Whanganui, Invercargill, Nelson, New Plymouth and Thames, and by 1900 there were 34 Hallenstein Brothers shops around the country.This store was originally constructed in 1910 but it doubled in size in 1926 when the wooden building next door was added and the two were connected with a unifying facade. It was designed as retail premises at ground level and the upper floors were an up-to-date office complex complete with an electric lift and accessed by the side entrance here. The upper stories were tenanted by several different businesses including at one stage a Dentist who took out a full-page advertisement in 1913 to promote their state-of-the-art facilities.In the 1980s Hallensteins moved further along the road next door to Barker & Pollock before it left Karangahape Road altogether.
Leo O’Malley’s busy corner
235 Karangahape RoadDirectly across the road from George Courts was the home of another Karangahape Road menswear icon, Leo O’Malley.Leo O’Malley had worked as the manager just along the road at Bradstreet’s but in 1934 he set out under his own name with a Grand Slam opening of O'Malley’s Corner – the Modern Men's Store. They offered quality cloth for tailoring custom suits but also high-grade ready-to-wear suits at "best value prices". The site had always been a prime retail location as all the trams and later, buses, turned at this corner on their way to and from the city or heading to the North Shore. For the previous 25 years, it was known as Ashley's Busy Corner and it was now O’Malley’s busy corner. The business and its signage were a visual touchstone for 85 years until it closed its doors for the last time in 2019. Two doors back from the corner in Pitt St is Checks Downtown - the new face of menswear on Karangahape Road.
Bradstreet Drapers, Mercers and Tailors
258 Karangahape RoadFrom George Courts corner use the pedestrian crossing to cross diagonally to the old Naval and Family Hotel. When you look back to the opposite corner, you will see the 1926 double frontage of the Hallensteins building and the tiny Norman Ng Building that was once the elaborate entrance to the King Edward Theatre (this entrance was closed in 1956 and the theatre became the Mercury Theatre). Next door at 258 was Bradstreets.In 1900, Julius Augustus Bradstreet established his Men’s Drapery & Mercery Store. "Drapery" meant heavy fabrics used for drapes, upholstery and men's suiting and "Mercery" was the term for lighter cloth for shirts, blouses and dresses etc. Drapers and tailors often situated their premises very close to each other, with tailors sometimes taking rooms above drapery stores so their clients could select the cloth for their bespoke clothing and have it made up in virtually the same location. It was a natural development for such businesses to merge their interests, especially after the advent of "ready-to-wear" clothing in the early 20th century.By 1926 Bradstreet occupied 3 shops which at the time all looked like the buildings next door on the western side. Bradstreet had the facade remodelled in the Neo-Greek style so that the three became one modern shop with display windows on the first floor to take advantage of the nightlife.It appears that Leo O’Malley took over the business in the 1930s separating out the womenswear which remained here and the menswear, which became O’Malley's. The premises changed hands in the 1940s when Hugh Wright, who had started his tailoring business in 1904, moved to this site. Hugh Wright’s grew to become a national chain of menswear stores and continued as a family-run business until the company was eventually liquidated in 2002 after 98 years of service to men's tailoring.
Hannah's Shoeists
290 Karangahape RoadFrom Bradstreets - continue on this side of the road to the bend in the road where you can see the Hannah's shop opposite at number 290.Hannah's – was R. Hannah and Co Ltd and was established by Irish cobbler Robert Hannah in Charleston on New Zealand’s West Coast in 1868 to serve the needs of the gold miners. When the gold ran out he moved to Wellington and established a shop and factory there. The business expanded quickly and by 1893, Hannah has 10 shops around the country and his factory employed more than 250 people.Hannah’s arrived on Karanagahape Rd in 1913. Calling themselves Shoeists – they sold button shoes, laces and leglets – they also offered a repair service. In 1926 they built this shop. At the time there were already more than six specialist shoe shops on Karangahape Rd including KK Shoes at 145 and Offers on the ASB corner of Karangahape and Upper Queen Street and E. Kitchener which was on the opposite corner. There were also six Department stores or Emporia on Karangahape Rd, all selling shoes – so the competition would have been pretty steep, but they were successful in their business and stayed on the road until the 1990s.Today Hannahs are part of the same company as Number One Shoes and together they represent about a quarter of all retail shoe sales in New Zealand. In 2018 they celebrated 150 years as shoeists.
The Bon Marche millinery, and being entertained
322 - 346 Karangahape RoadKeeping an eye on the Hannah's side of the road. Carry on walking until you have passed East St and Australia and New Zealand Bank until you can see the next building which was The Bon Marche.Joseph Zahara, who had previously worked at the Bon Marche in Paris and at John Lewis in London opened a French Millinery Emporium here in 1904 and called it The Bon Marche. Trilby Yates learnt her millinery skills here and went on to open her own store, with her sister Julia, on Queen St. She called it The Ladies Paradise. Hats were an important and affordable way to keep up with fashion. While dresses and coats were big purchases a modest budget could often be stretched to buy the latest hat and so appear fashionably on-trend. Although The Bon Marche was one of many millinery shops on Karangahape Road, Zahara was particularly successful. His business expanded and eventually occupied three adjoining buildings to become what was reputed to be, ‘the largest Millinery establishment in the Dominion’. Like Bradstreet he employed an architect to unify the disparate facades. The Bon Marche got an Art-Deco treatment. In 1931 Zahara advertised that he had a million hats in stock and he invited customers, offering the other facilities in the building which included excellent tearooms and an indoor midget golf course for the use of customers or perhaps it was to occupy the husband or children while the women decided on their next purchase.Under the roof of the Bon Marche there was also a 1000-seat theatre. Called the "Arcadia", it had its entrance on the right hand side of the building and was one of the electric cinemas that brought people to the street at night. It was taken over by R.J. Kerridge in 1941 and renamed the "Vogue".The Bon Marche closed in 1932. The Vogue closed in 1955. The space became home to Para Rubber. For a number of years it was also used as warehouse space and a carpet & lino showroom until its interior was extensively renovated around 1991 and it became DTM, [Don't Tell Mamas] a gay nightclub. High-energy fashion shows, which include live music and performance, by labels like Marvel and Feline were hosted here. DTM closed around 1993 and was followed by the infamous Staircase in its third iteration. Later just known as The Case it was here until the early 2000s. Today it is a music venue.
Las Vegas, red lights and bargains
Walk up to Fort Greene. Under the green veranda at number 327, look up to your right and you will see the last remnant of Smarties Shoe Store which was here in the 1950s. From here you can also see our last stop.Just across the service lane is evidence of an incongruous pair of businesses that are emblematic of Karangahape Road and the vast changes it underwent in the decades from the 1960s. The Las Vegas Strip Club with its iconic Vegas Girl over the veranda sits above what was the T+T Childrenswear Bargain House. A famous image by photographer Robin Morrison shows a group of parents rummaging through sale items outside the shop with prams and children beneath the neon lights of Vegas. Karangahape Road’s reputation as a fashion shopping destination was being lost and replaced by red lights and bargains.Cars and suburbanisation were central to these changes. The development of the Central Motorway Junction, which runs below the overbridge further to the west, divided and decimated the street and the suburb of Newton. 15,000 homes were demolished and with them, some 50,000 people were lost as residents and customers. The remaining housing was allowed to run down as homeowners and shopping moved increasingly to suburban malls. Many of the street's original businesses like Rendells, George Courts and Barker + Pollock responded by opening stores in places like Takapuna, Panmure and Kelston and their customers no longer needed to come to the city to shop. Over time their flagship stores became their outlet stores.Local residents were now largely from the Pacific Islands or students and they became the new shoppers on Karangahape Road. The products sold here reflected that. One by one the practical stores selling fruit, fish and meat and homeware modified their offering or shuttered and left for the suburbs. Some of the vacuum left on K Rd was filled by the likes of Fiafia Fabrics, Tala, Mack’s Cheap Clothes, Polynesian Airlines, and Tangaroa’s Hut while the western side became home to the strip clubs and tattoo parlours that were being pushed off the waterfront. Starting in 1962 with Las Vegas and followed in 1963 by the Pink Pussy Cat and businesses like Scandalous Scanties and the Naughty Knickers Coffee Bar. When homosexual law was reformed in 1986 it allowed gay nightclubs to come above ground and they did that here.In the 1980s and 90s as the Pacific residents too moved on to Otara and Mangere new creatives and fringe dwellers moved into the street. Quirky cafes and hospitality venues popped up and designers like Virus, Vicious Fish, Footeprints and DNA occupied basements and other empty spaces to make and sell their clothes. By the 1990s K rd was a completely different place and in the mind of the general public, they viewed the street as a whole as very disreputable. Now, as the neighbourhood gentrifies, the Vegas Girl remains, a poignant reminder to always look up.We have reached the end of the Karangahape Road Fashion Strip Walk. We hope we have given you an insight into Karangahape Road’s rich fashion story. We’d love you to walk it again and to share it with your friends. Why not check out the New Zealand Fashion Museum for more fashion information, events and other walks?Thank you for joining us.
