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Story: Shops

All dressed up

Image
All dressed up

Going to town to visit the shops was a major social experience for many people, especially women stuck in the suburbs. In cities they would dress in their finest clothes and catch the tram into town. These shoppers are in Colombo Street, Christchurch, around 1916.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, F. G. Radcliffe Collection (PAColl-4950)

Reference: 1/2-006524; G

by Frederick George Radcliffe

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

Carl Walrond, Shops – Shopkeepers and shoppers, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/21219/all-dressed-up (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 6 April 2010, updated 19 February 2026.