Moments in Fashion

Fashion Moments

Caught on Coathangers

In the Capital

June 2010. Ajr

In the Name of Fashion - Melbourne

Acne

Is perhaps the strangest name I have ever come across on a fashion store.

Maybe it's all some wry joke that I don't get.

Ultimately, the name doesn't much bother me because I loved the store itself and their creative approach to design - a little Kusama influence if I'm not mistaken - but toally delicious. Acne is located in Melbourne's beautiful GPO retail complex

Design - Four Melbourne Views

de de ce on the corner of Russell Street and Flinders Lane in Central Melbourne, is one of my favourite contemporary design stores. 99.9% of the items in it are way beyond my price budget but it's a great place to visit to simple appreciate good design displayed beautifully.

As always though, I'm as much into the shadows and reflections as I am the real items. I took these four photographs from outside the store, looking up from the pavement. I love the 'shadowy' reflections of the furniture inside the store layered over the exterior architecture, reflected from across the street.

Melbourne Meeting Place

Every time I come to Melbourne, I eventually make my way to the GPO building on the corner of Swanston and Elizabeth Streets – to meet friends, or just to sit and take in the crowds. Melburnians have been doing that same thing for over 150 years. During the 19th century people came to collect their mail and during the 20th century the GPO building served as a popular meeting place and focal point for the city.

Melbourne’s first Post Office sprang to life in 1837, two years after the 1835 settlement of Port Phillip district. In its original guise it was a bark-covered hut in Collins Street and it then moved twice in two years – to Flinders Street in 1838 and to Little Collins Street in 1839.

This gorgeous great bulk of a building closed as a functioning Post Office in 2001 and development began on turning the historic building into a modern retail complex. Unfortunately, part-way into that process, in September 2001, an electrical fault in a computer caused a tragic fire, which damaged the ground floor, including the historic Postal Hall and the glazed skylight. By 2004-2005 though, the interior restoration was complete and today the GPO building is home to a wide array of boutique stores, fashion houses, restaurants and cafes. Like nearby Federation Square, it’s a great place to ‘people-watch’ and to take photographs of Melbourne’s busy daily life.

And if you're into fashion - and/or retail design - this is a great place to find the best of both. I was very taken with a number of the fashion store window displays here; and at the risk of thrashing an old argument, they could be held up as excellent examples of retail creativity for many of New Zealand's lack lustre retail businesses.

WORLD on a Corner

Leading New Zealand fashion house, WORLD has opened in Christchurch – some months ago now – in one of my favourite Christchurch buildings: this stunning corner edifice on the intersection of High, Manchester and Lichfield Streets. WORLD was established in Auckland in 1989 by Denise L’Estrange-Corbet and Francis Hooper, who have taken it from a brilliant idea to one of this country’s leading avante-garde fashion names.

I was wandering around the city with my camera last weekend and as I crossed over this intersection, I saw the morning light catching at the brilliant palette of colour hanging off the coathangers in the WORLD window. I had to stop and capture the moment. It’s a funky little store, bulging at the seams with original garments in the company of nostalgic curios – patterned china displayed on walls, taxidermy animals, old cameras and knick-knacks. I love it; some don’t. In its previous life, this corner location was home to a New Age crystal and Buddha shop that sold everything from incense and tiny figurines to crystals, Buddhas and all things god and goddess. Suffice to say WORLD has given the prime location (at one end of High Street, which is lined with fashion stores) a completely new look. ‘Back at WORLD’ it’s good to see that L’Estrange-Corbet and Hooper continue to defy expectations, combining crazy colours in garments with strong silhouettes. It’s fair to say that it’s been their irreverence, their talent and their fearless approach to taking fashion risks that have set them apart in New Zealand and brought them to the attention of leading international fashion writers and critics. They’ve appeared at London Fashion Week (1999) and they’ve taken part in major shows in Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Their garments are stocked even further afield in Russia, China, Beirut, Europe and the United States. You can read much more about WORLD and see their latest ranges at www.worldbrand.co.nz

Bring Back Life

I've made no secret of the fact that I love words and signs but sometimes, in certain contexts, they're a mystery to me. I photographed this phrase through the window of a now-empty fashion store. I have no idea of its relevance but I liked the sense of mystery in that - and the way the o0ld building across the street is reflected in the image. There's just something about all that visual layering in a city that I adore.

Lighting the Way

I loved this composition in a High Street Window - a very pleasing retail still life complete with Trubridge-designed light shade on the far left. For others in 'the continuing saga' of one of my favourite David Trubridge lighting designs, click on David Trubridge in the label line below. www.davidtrubridge.com

And Just to Confuse You.........

A Winter Window High Street, Christchurch August 2009. Ajr

Crown Lynn on Show

Three Swans

One Window

Crown Lynn

Poplar Lane

Christchurch

August 2009. Ajr

A Shop Called Swonderful

Wellington

www.swonderful.co.nz

April 2009 Ajr

Three Men Under a Tree

Christchurch July 2009. Ajr What More Can I say?

A Little Bit of Everything....

Wellington. April 2009. Ajr

....On Sale in Cuba Mall

Wellington

Architects of Desire

Only in Auckland's Nuffield Street!

Autumn Fashion

One Hot Orange Autumn Moment

@

Annah Stretton, Ponsonby

Auckland

Collectors' Heaven

Auckland. April 2009 Ajr

If you ever want to fossick in a secondhand/antique shop, seek out this little gem in the Auckland suburb of Westmere - especially if you're into collectible china. Babushka's has an enviable gathering of just about everything. It was closed when I visited... thank goodness, for I fear I might have done something silly.

Wedged Between

Hereford Street, Christchurch. Dec. 2008. Ajr

How's this for one of the cutest little shops you've ever seen. It's the Shands Building, which is the oldest shop in Christchurch - if my memory serves me correctly. It's now home to a great little secondhand store, Shand's Emporium on the ground floor, an excellent secondhand clothes store upstairs (with a great collection of old hats); and a small jewellery boutique.

Designer Den

Artikel, Wellington. April 2009 Ajr I know what you're all thinking - why didn't she take a photo that shows what Artikel is all about? Well, I did think about it, but I quite like the sense of mystery that comes with this photo of their imposing silver door and the boldness of their signage. I like to think it makes you want to know more - but maybe that's because I have the advantage of knowing what visual treats lie inside this little design emporium. And not only that - there's the fantastic staff! They made my day yesterday. And when I commented that I loved one of their posters - that it should in fact be my Frommers motto; that I should have it emblazoned across my car as a kind of personal logo - they wouldn't let me leave the store without giving me a cool mini version of it on a carry bag. I think I might be a fan forever and ever more. www.artikel.co.nz

More From The Colourful Shoppers' Files

ikoiko, Wellington. April 2009 Ajr

Welcome to ikoiko - another of the cool and colourful stores you'll find in Cuba Mall. I adore this part of Wellington. It's a creative melting pot where anything goes and I love the freedom of that. Nothing is pristine and shiny like it is in the Lambton Quay area. You never know what you're going to find, or who you're going to meet when you walk down Cuba Mall - or greater Cuba Street.

Tutti-Frutti

Frutti, Wellington April 2009 Ajr

So many cool and colourful shops in Cuba Mall. This place - FRUTTI - sent me into a little frenzy of delight - a fantastic rainbow of colour, pattern and texture and it was filled to overflowing with shoppers yesterday. Who said anything about a recession?

Chaos on the Move

Chaos, Christchurch. April 2009. Ajr

While the headline for this post sounds suspiciously like my life right now, it does in fact refer to the fact that my favourite Christchurch secondhand shop - Chaos - is about to move....from their current funky Manchester Street store, to the much larger Blue Kiwi premises in Tuam Street. This will give them SO much more space to display their fantastic array of goodies; plus they're sharing the space with a purveyor of Victorian clothing and jewellery, so now you'll get two for the price of one under one roof. I can't wait. They always have a terrific range of old signs, posters and embellished mirrors. There's even a giant pink flamingo - just the thing for the person who has everything!