Skip to main content

Story: Department stores and shopping malls

Fashion parade

Image
Fashion parade

James Smith’s department store in Wellington stages a fashion show in the mid-1950s. The women watching the show have been served a traditional department-store morning or afternoon tea, with small cakes and biscuits on stands, silver teapots and fine china. Department stores held fashion shows as a way of displaying what they had for sale.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PAColl-3332-03-15

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Helen Laurenson, Department stores and shopping malls – The heyday of department stores, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/22202/fashion-parade (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Helen Laurenson, published 4 February 2010.