Auckland / New Zealand / Online
New Zealand's most recognisable fashion brand — Runway Girl motifs, vivid patterns, and BoF 500 ranked. Heritage brand still leading in 2026.
Best for Iconic New Zealand fashion
Shopping in Auckland
Shop by craft
Best of Auckland; search or filter for all 22
Visit official site ↗Real Groovy Records
Hidden GemAuckland CBD
Trading since the 1980s, Real Groovy is billed as New Zealand's largest record shop. The Auckland independent sells vinyl, CDs, music, books and merchandise.
Best for Vinyl records and music from an iconic indie store
Visit official site ↗Auckland / New Zealand / Online
New Zealand leather bag label for 25 years — pebbled-grain totes and the innovative dipped Reverie release. Designed with the wearer in mind.
Best for New Zealand leather bags
Visit official site ↗Devonport Chocolates
Hidden GemDevonport, Auckland
Hand-making small-batch chocolates in its Devonport kitchen since 1991, this Auckland chocolatier has more than thirty years of craft behind it. It sells its confections through boutique retail shops.
Best for Handcrafted small-batch chocolates and gifts
Visit official site ↗New Zealand
3 Wise Men is a New Zealand menswear brand. It began when Richard Miles and two friends, Hugh Cotterill and Simon Peacocke, saw a gap for quality shirts at a sharp price in 2004. Miles opened the first store near Broadway in Newmarket, Auckland, in 2005 and sold online from the start. Shirts in soft cotton remain the core of the range. Suits and knitwear now sit alongside them in the stores.
Best for Men’s business shirts and casual shirts
3 Wise Men grew out of a conversation in 2004 between three friends in Auckland: Richard Miles with Hugh Cotterill and Simon Peacocke. All three had lived overseas and found that shirt shopping back in New Zealand meant thin choice at high cost. Miles was then general manager of sales at Bendon. He used his contacts in Hong Kong to find a high-end shirtmaker willing to run 25 to 50 pieces per colour and design from its sample room. He then left his job and opened the first 3 Wise Men store near Broadway in Newmarket in 2005. A second store followed just off Lambton Quay in Wellington. The business paired its shops with an online store from the start, a rare thing for New Zealand menswear at the time. Early marketing leaned on a database of 800 friends and quirky emails, plus shirts with local names such as the mint surf shirt. The brand's rules still read plainly: quality gear at affordable prices, simple pricing with no sales, and shirts in soft, rich cotton built to last. The range has widened to suits and knitwear, as well as footwear and accessories, across stores in New Zealand.
Visit official site ↗Auckland (founding roastery)
Founded in Auckland by Michael Allpress, this specialty roaster has been roasting coffee for over three decades. It now operates roasteries internationally while keeping its New Zealand roots.
Best for Hot-air-roasted espresso from an Auckland original, now roasting across five cities worldwide
Allpress Espresso was founded in Auckland by Michael Allpress and has roasted coffee there for more than three decades, but the company has since built out roasteries well beyond New Zealand — full cafes and roasting operations now run in Sydney and Melbourne, London, and Tokyo, alongside the original Auckland site. The company's stated point of difference is its hot air roasting method, a technique it uses across its full range rather than reserving for a single specialty line: the flagship Allpress Espresso blend, an A.R.T. Espresso, a Good Brew filter blend, a House Decaf, an organic B.M. Organic line, and rotating single origins. Scale is part of the story too — Allpress supplies more than 2,500 independent cafes internationally, a wholesale footprint that keeps the roasteries running as working production sites rather than showroom operations. Despite the international spread, the company still frames itself around its Auckland roots rather than any of the newer cities it operates in, keeping New Zealand as the reference point for a brand that now roasts coffee on four continents.
Visit official site ↗Atlas Power Coffee
Hidden GemAlbany, North Shore
Atlas Power Coffee has roasted in Auckland since starting at its Ponsonby café in 1995, now from Albany on the North Shore. It roasts on a Probat L25 drum roaster and blends its coffees after roasting, not before.
Best for Probat-roasted Auckland coffee blended after roasting
Atlas Power Coffee started small: "We started roasting coffee in the front of our Ponsonby Cafe in 1995," as the company describes its own origin, before growing into today's operation out of Albany on Auckland's North Shore. The roasting itself runs on a Probat L25 drum roaster, a named, specific piece of equipment rather than a generic "professional roaster" claim. What sets the process apart is when blending happens: most blended coffees are mixed as green beans before roasting, but Atlas Power roasts each origin separately and blends afterward — a method the company says "honours the individual characteristics of the origin of the coffee" instead of averaging them out under one roast profile. That combination of measured process (tracking temperature, pressure and airflow) and post-roast judgment is how the company frames its consistency claim, positioning the roaster's own hands-on decisions as part of the product rather than something automated away. Three decades after starting in a single Ponsonby café, the throughline from that 1995 start to the current Albany roastery is the same equipment-plus-method combination: a named Probat drum roaster and post-roast blending, not just "independently roasted" as an unverifiable label.
Visit official site ↗New Zealand
New Zealand menswear retailer founded 1972 in Auckland by Raymond Barker as 'Raymond's'; now trades as Barkers with around 27 stores nationwide, under owners Jamie Whiting and Glenn Cracknell since 2006.
Best for NZ menswear
Barkers was founded in 1972 by Raymond Barker, who opened his first store - originally called 'Raymond's' - on the corner of Victoria and High Streets in central Auckland, selling original designs rather than mass-manufactured stock. Raymond Barker sold the company in 2002 following a health scare, and the business changed hands again in 2006 to its current owners, Jamie Whiting and Glenn Cracknell. Now trading as Barkers, the retailer operates around 27 stores across New Zealand, from Auckland to Dunedin, alongside an online store, and has become an established name in New Zealand smart-casual menswear over more than five decades.
Visit official site ↗Ponsonby, Auckland
Bijoux is a jeweller at 208 Ponsonby Rd, Auckland, operating since 1988, offering custom design, repairs and alterations in sterling silver and gold. Their pieces include engagement rings, wedding bands, necklaces, bracelets and earrings set with freshwater pearls, diamonds and sapphires.
Best for Custom jewellery design and repairs
Visit official site ↗Kokako Organic Coffee Roasters
Hidden GemAuckland CBD, Mount Eden
Kokako has roasted organic, Fairtrade-certified coffee in Auckland since 2001, funding conservation for its endangered namesake bird. Its beans are sold at Commercial Bay and its Mount Eden roastery in compostable packaging.
Best for Fairtrade-certified organic coffee roasted since 2001
Kokako has roasted in Auckland since 2001 — "Kōkako first took flight in 2001," as the company puts it — and has held Fairtrade certification since 2009, on top of a house standard of 100% organic coffee and drinking chocolate. The name isn't incidental: kōkako is an endangered New Zealand forest bird, and the company backs that branding with actual conservation funding, supporting the Rotoehu Ecological Trust and the Kōkako Ecosanctuary rather than just borrowing the name for its logo. That sustainability line runs into the packaging too — bags are home-compostable, made from sustainably produced wood pulp and GM-free corn sources instead of standard foil-lined plastic. Two Auckland locations carry the brand into daily retail: a café at Commercial Bay in the CBD and the roastery's own roller door outlet at Mount Eden, where the beans are actually roasted. For customers uncertain what to buy, the site runs a "Coffee Matchmaker" quiz to match a roast profile to taste rather than leaving the decision to a wall of unlabeled bags. Two decades of Fairtrade-plus-organic sourcing, a real conservation tie to its own namesake bird, and compostable packaging make Kokako a more specific sustainability story than the certification stickers alone would suggest.
Visit official site ↗Auckland and Wellington, Auckland / Wellington
Kura Gallery has featured Maori and New Zealand artists since 1998, with stores at 95A Customs Street West in Auckland's Viaduct Basin and 19 Allen Street in Wellington's Courtenay Quarter. It sells traditional and contemporary Maori carving, original artworks, jewellery, furniture and pounamu/greenstone.
Best for Maori carving and pounamu jewellery
Visit official site ↗Auckland / New Zealand / Online
B-Corp certified New Zealand brand — expertly crafted menswear and womenswear with continuous sustainability standards. Timeless and responsible.
Best for Sustainable New Zealand fashion
Visit official site ↗Auckland
Mountain Country designs, knits and manufactures possum merino knitwear on site in Auckland, New Zealand, from a factory shop at 1/113 Vincent Street, Howick. Garments including capes, wraps, scarves, cardigans and jerseys are made from a blend of merino, possum and mulberry silk or pure merino wool.
Best for Possum merino knitwear made on site
Visit official site ↗Auckland / New Zealand / Online
Contemporary NZ label — luxury, considered pieces grounded in quality and timeless silhouettes. Worn by Emily Ratajkowski and Irina Shayk.
Best for Contemporary New Zealand luxury
Visit official site ↗Auckland / New Zealand / Online
New Zealand fashion favourite since 2002 — the Matilda Cardigan and Trulli Skirt are viral It pieces. Led by Creative Director Deanna Didovich.
Best for New Zealand cult fashion brand
Visit official site ↗Auckland / New Zealand / Online
Stolen Girlfriends Club mixes punk-influenced clothing with jewellery, footwear and accessories from New Zealand. Seasonal graphics and sharp silhouettes make the range more expressive than a conventional contemporary wardrobe.
Best for New Zealand punk fashion
Visit official site ↗Tatty's Designer Recycle
Hidden GemAuckland / New Zealand
Auckland's designer-recycle institution — racks of consigned labels hunted by stylists and students alike, the city's first stop for a second life in good clothes. Retrock precedent: resale done with a curator's eye is atlas soul.
Best for Designer consignment institution of Auckland
Visit official site ↗Auckland / New Zealand
The Binding Studio is run by Louise James from her home studio in the Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland.
Best for Custom hand-bound commissions and antique-press bookbinding from a credentialed binder
The Binding Studio is run by Louise James from her home studio in the Waitakere Ranges west of Auckland. James began bookbinding in 2001 under binders Anna Caithness and Helen Everest, later worked as a Bookbinding Technician at AUT University's Art and Design School from 2009 to 2013, and established The Binding Studio in 2009 — a documented practitioner history rather than an anonymous storefront.
The studio's stated services span custom commission bindings, hand-sewn and bound books produced on antique equipment, custom-made boxes, bookbinding tools and materials for sale, and bookbinding workshops and classes. Its own framing is direct: "The Binding Studio keeps the traditional ideals of bookbinding alive, whilst adapting them to stay relevant to today's design world," with James adding that she is "driven by new ideas and the opportunity to be experimental within bookbinding" while maintaining client and student relationships alongside the commission work.
As one of a small number of dedicated artisan hand-binderies documented in Auckland and Wellington — a scene that also includes The Bookbindery (family-run since 1979) and the newer Wellington Centre for Book Arts — The Binding Studio's combination of a named, credentialed binder, antique equipment, and a service list centered specifically on binding and boxes (not general stationery) supports treating it as a genuine dedicated craft business.
Visit official site ↗The Third Eye
Hidden GemKarangahape Road / Online
The Third Eye has spent more than 20 years on Auckland’s Karangahape Road, building an eclectic ethical-trading shop around conscious sourcing. Its large in-store range spans jewelry, crystals, incense, clothing, handicrafts, homeware and spiritual goods.
Best for New Zealand design, gifts and lifestyle goods
Visit official site ↗Auckland / New Zealand
Wild Wheat began in 1999 as a wholesale operation out of a small factory in East Tamaki, Auckland, supplying bread to the city's restaurants and cafes before it ever had a retail counter of its own.
Best for A twenty-year-old apple-culture starter behind Auckland's award-winning 48-hour sourdough.
Wild Wheat began in 1999 as a wholesale operation out of a small factory in East Tamaki, Auckland, supplying bread to the city's restaurants and cafes before it ever had a retail counter of its own. Founder Andrew, who trained as a chef at AUT after leaving school at sixteen and later worked at London's Le Pont de la Tour, describes his approach in blunt terms: "I believe in simplicity with food: be honest and cook with integrity." It was during that London stint, in a brief spell covering the restaurant's bakery, that he found the trade he'd stay in.
The bakery's sourdough runs on an apple-based starter now more than twenty years old, fed and maintained daily, with loaves taking upward of 48 hours from mix to bake — six to eight hours of bulk fermentation, shaping, then a full 24 hours of cold retardation to break down starches and sugars before baking. Wild Wheat states its dough uses only flour, water, and salt, with most loaves free of additives and suitable for a vegan diet, the same minimal-ingredient discipline that defines the current wave of serious New Zealand and Australian sourdough houses.
The wholesale reputation built through the early 2000s translated into recognition once the bakery opened its first retail shop in Mt Eden in mid-2004: Best Hot Cross Buns in the North Island in 2004, 2005, and 2010, Metro Magazine's Best Bread through 2004–2010 and Best Bakery in 2011, an NZ Food Award for its Kumara sourdough in 2012, and a win at the Farmers Mill Great NZ Bread Bake Off in 2016. The bakery now supplies stockists across Auckland and wider New Zealand alongside its retail counters.
Visit official site ↗Auckland / New Zealand / Online
Auckland-based brand (2015) — plays between playfulness and relaxed silhouettes. Slouchy tailored trousers, fun knitwear, and grey-area design.
Best for Playful New Zealand tailoring
Visit official site ↗Ponsonby, Auckland
Zambesi is a New Zealand fashion label (trading as "Zambesi since 79") producing avant-garde women's and men's ready-to-wear, knitwear, footwear and accessories. The Ponsonby store also curates international designers including Comme des Garçons, Dries Van Noten, Rick Owens and Acne Studios.
Best for Zambesi ready-to-wear plus Comme des Garçons and Rick Owens
Visit official site ↗Neighbourhood walks
Walk by recorded area.
Area names come from each shop’s published address record; ORBIS does not invent neighbourhoods.
ORBIS city intelligence
Choose your Auckland shopping stops according to what you want to buy and where you are staying. A particular record or bag may justify a dedicated visit, while a chocolate gift can be chosen at the branch that fits the rest of your day.
Real Groovy Records dates its first shop to 1981, and after several Queen Street addresses, it moved to 19 Victoria Street West in 2023. Its catalogue separates new music from secondhand vinyl and CDs, giving collectors different ways to look for a recordingS1.
Saben was founded by Roanne Jacobson in 2002 and named for her grandmother, Sarah Saben. The range includes leather handbags and work bags, with smaller formats for lighter use. Its boutiques include 97 Ponsonby Road and Shop 3 at 1 Teed Street in NewmarketS2.
Devonport Chocolates describes small-batch production in its Devonport kitchen. Chocolate bars and truffle slices sit alongside boxed assortments in the rangeS3. The shop at 17 Wynyard Street is in front of that kitchen. There is also a Commercial Bay branch on Little Queen Street, which gives central-city shoppers another optionS4.
City shops · Buyer’s guide · Route
Sources
- Real Groovy: First shop1981; move to19 Victoria Street West2023; new and secondhand vinyl/CD categories
- Saben: Roanne Jacobson founded2002; Sarah Saben namesake; leather/work bags;97 Ponsonby Road, Shop3 at1 Teed Street; airport location airside
- Devonport Chocolates: Small-batch Devonport kitchen production; bars, truffle slices and boxed assortments
- Devonport Chocolates: 17 Wynyard Street shop fronts kitchen; Commercial Bay branch on Little Queen Street