The Department Store

Quite a special place, for a morning coffee, quick lunch and afternoon relax, with greens and flowers.
You wouldn’t notice that you are actually in paradise. Yes, Paradise has the meaning of ‘Garden’.
Top Quality coffee, good cheese scone, caramel chocolate slice. Menu is not too complicated, ease for mind when you just into the sunny mood and some inner peace.
Or you can choose just grab a coffee and have a stroll in the department store, finely selected fashion there waiting for the right person.
Choose a beautiful day, and amaze yourself here. There is nothing more beautiful with a nice coffee I the warm sun.

The Department Store reminds me of ‘Liberty’ in London. Beautiful & luxurious product/​s in all forms: baby-​wear (Nature Baby), homeware (Nest), lingerie (Lonely), beauty (The Powder Room) or sunglasses (Ksubi) come at a premium price with quality attached. I have had coffee and cake here a few times, purchased items from TopShop and put the rest on my ‘wish list’. Friendliness is hit-​and-​miss. They have a great Instagram account! Fab sales, glorious gift wrapping and impeccable standards. I always enjoy browsing & shopping in the lush environment located in Takapuna.

Welcome to the cool kids one stop shop, the department store is a great place to find all your favorite brands from Ruby to Topshop, and the set up is absolutely stunning. The staff are reasonably friendly (though they do have a «you cant sit with us» attitude). Though I wonder how well the department shop will do once Topshop sets up its new store here in Auckland, as thats the main reason I travel all the way to the NS on a saturday. It’s a great place to drop a few hundreds on some serious threads.

I may be bias because I am from the shore but this is hands down the coolest department store I have ever been to!
Home to Stephen Marr, Lucy and the Powder Room, Karen Walker, Black Box, TopShop as well as a myriad of rotating NZ designers, this place is nothing short of brilliant. Expensive, but brilliant nonetheless.
On my last visit I was delighted to see they now also have a wonderful range of quirky terraniums and indoor plants. Definitely well worth checking out if you are looking to add some greenery to your office or home!

Wow. This place is all class. Three floors of the best in fashion, design, beauty, food, coffee… It’s all here. Concept stores can often be a bit clunky but this is genius, as you would expect from the clever and famous minds behind it.
It’s SO incredibly stunning even from the outside that it can be a bit intimidating to walk in. But the lovely and knowledgeable staff immediately make you feel welcome and there’s no harrassment if you just want to marvel at and covet all the beautiful things.
Here you’ll find designer goods from clothing to accessories and fragrance but not everything costs the earth. I would recommend checking out some of the coffee table books they sell here — who wouldn’t want a big glossy 3D photo book of breasts? Great gift ideas for folks who with impeccable taste who already have everything.
Upstairs of course is Lucy & The Powder Room and Stephen Marr where you can get your bombshell on, and nail artist Jade Kelly is legendary. Best of all, on the top floor is a selection of pieces from the incomparable Top Shop and you won’t find them anywhere else in New Zealand. And they’re at Top Shop prices i.e. affordable!
Oh my god just go, it’s perfect.

I can spend hours in this place. Every nook and cranny is filled with amazing, quirky, luxurious and unique items. Right from the very moment you walk in you know that you’ve come to an awesome place. They know how to do things well. And the café isn’t excluded in this. They have great coffee and yummy treats like Nice Blocks and Macarons to fuel your shopping outing.
I’ve been to Lucy and the Powder Room, their beauty spa there, and have had such good experiences there. Even though everything is really expensive, I don’t mind paying extra because I know the products are so good and will last for ages. So it’s good value for money really.
The staff are always really on to it, fashion forward and willing to help you find exactly what you need. I had one shop assistant Jonny who helped me hard out, so I’d really recommend asking for him if you’re stuck!

I don’t like to go to the shore so much. I don’t know what it is, but I will pretty much never go there without a specific reason and plan. You’ll never see me driving over the Harbour Bridge to hang out or to get something to eat or go shopping without having that specific destination in mind and that destination has got to be somewhere that doesn’t have a branch in the city.
The Department Store is one of those specific destinations. It’s a nice place to go, for starters. It’s all clean and it feels good when you’re walking around. It’s a multibrand store so you can get a tonne of shopping done at once, it has Karen Walker housed within it, as well as Nature baby, Topshop, RUBY, I Love Ugly, and a bunch of others. You can get your hair cut or beauty treatments done there because Stephen Marr and Lucy and the Powder Room live on the second and third floors. There are bikes you can borrow to ride around on, and La Boulange sits at the entrance if you want a coffee and a snack. The baguettes are good.
Bonus for girls: There’s a lingerie store on the second level which has Lonely lingerie as well as Miss Crabb and Kate Sylvester knickers. The best.
Side note: Parking on the street is cheap.

Ok so I’ll start with a warning: you will want pretty much everything in this store. The Department Store is a relatively new, amazing wonderland. Places like Karen Walker, Black Box Boutique, Topman, Topshop, Simon James, Lonely Hearts, Ruby, and I Love Ugly have all come together under one roof to make this the Mecca of shopping. Yes, as you can imagine, a lot of the stuff is rather pricy, but places like Topshop and Topman are actually really reasonable, and they only get a few of each item in, so you won’t be looking the same as everyone else. Even if you aren’t in the position to buy anything (like me), it’s such a cool place to go and have a look at. The décor is always super creative and the people are lovely. But it’s not just awesome clothes that you can get here, oh no. Coffee, pastries, Nice Blocks, oh my! And there’s even Stephen Marr if you need a little work on the hair, or Lucy and The Powder room for some indulgent pampering. Long story short, heaven on earth does exist. It’s at 10 Northcroft Street.

If you are anything like me, and find yourself wondering at the end of the week where exactly all your pay check went, then you can probably safely blame the very existence of The Department Store. This place is a haven for me, If I’ve had a hard day I just go in here and breathe in the beautiful new clothes smell. The concept of the store is based around a revamped department store experience and is the brainchild of Karen Walker, Black Box and Stephen Marr. It is a combination of fashion, interiors, design, beauty and food. The prices here for most things are definitely on the pricier side, but if your looking for an item that no one else has, then this is the place to go. I would class this store as an investment piece retailer; fantastic, quality New Zealand and overseas designers all residing in the same über cool fit out. What’s most exciting for me about this store is the presence of ‘Topshop’ on the first floor, I am obsessed to put it mildly. At last count I had 15 different pairs of their graphic jeans. Topshop’s prices are also pretty competitive with their online shopping counterpart without having to pay for international courier fees etc. So if your looking for a direct intravenous shot of happiness, head down to Takapuna now. I’ll see you there!