Retail therapy: New life for old store

French label Kookai has arrived at Sylvia Park.

Smith & Caughey's Newmarket store has had a makeover and tripled its size. Instead of just being on one level, it's now spread over two, with one for men and one for women.

This means a lot of new brands are available including, on the makeup front, Chanel Beaute, La Mer, Bobbi Brown and Shiseido and in fashion Armani Jeans, Trelise Cooper, Natasha Gan, Park Vogel, Collette Dinnigan, Calvin Klein Jeans and Gant.

Menswear includes Sherman, Lacoste and Calvin Klein Jeans.

The oldest department store in town continues in its quest to bring "modern, contemporary shopping with an international edge" to Auckland.

Storm in Treehouse

Having taken the fashion world by, ahem, storm, Storm the brand is opening its third store at the end of this month at 161 Ponsonby Rd in the old children's furniture shop Treehouse, which has moved.

There are already other Storm stores in Newmarket and Christchurch.

Fashionable cause

Fashion and charity go hand-in-hand. The Glassons Breast Cancer T-shirts campaign featuring designs by Nom*D, Zambesi, Trelise Cooper, Kate Sylvester and Karen Walker among others, raised $605,000 for the Breast Cancer Research Trust this year.

Project runway

Anyone who's ever fancied themselves as a bit of a Naomi on the catwalk should get along to the model searches for the Westfield Style Pasifika shows.

"The fantastic twist to this model search is that every size, shape, colour and age, both male and female, the bold and the beautiful are encouraged to get up on the stage," says show producer Stan Wolfgramm.

The searches begin tomorrow. For information go to www.stylepasifika.co.nz

Shopping frenzy

There is something of a store-opening frenzy happening in Auckland at the moment.

Kookai is another international name to come here. The French clothing chain has just opened a store at Shop S028, Sylvia Park. And Napoleon Perdis Cosmetics is also at Sylvia Park, Kiosk SK10.

Sporting chance

More on the shopfront - adidas has just opened its adidas Sports Performance Store in Newmarket. While we're not terribly excited about being able to get some David Beckham football boots, we are quite keen on the Stella McCartney ranges. The store's at 312 Broadway.

Uniform style

Uniforms are the new cool. Young designer Michael Pattison is responsible for the sharp uniforms at the Quadrant - the newest hotel in Auckland.

The 24-year-old came up with wearable pants, skirts and jackets in black but threw in a purple crossover top for the women and a purple T-shirt for the men.

"The Quadrant wanted something young and funky, something that staff would feel comfortable in and something that if they were in a lineup with the hotel's clients, you wouldn't necessarily be able to pick out who was a staff member," says Pattison.

The Quadrant is at 100 Waterloo Quadrant, City.