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Story: Men and women in the city

Shopping in a department store

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Shopping in a department store

Department stores were designed as modern feminine spaces and featured the latest fashions and trends. Rest rooms were provided, and tearooms gave women a place to meet and socialise – or fortify hungry children. These fashionable young women stand in front of the Serenade beauty-products counter in a Wellington department store in 1938. Beauty counters were money-spinners for stores and were strategically placed at the main entrance.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Gordon H. Burt Collection (PA-Group-00743)

Reference: 1/1-015466-F

by Gordon Burt

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.

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How to cite this page

Caroline Daley, Men and women in the city – Women’s spaces, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/24611/shopping-in-a-department-store (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Caroline Daley, published 17 December 2009.