The Department Store is a modern take on the traditional department store experience. The brainchild of designer Karen Walker, hair stylists Lucy and Stephen Marr and fashionista Dan Gosling of Black Box, the group’s vision was to create a single environment where one can experience the best from the worlds of beauty, art, fashion and interiors.

The three-level store, situated in Northcroft Street, Takapuna, is based on the concept of high-end department stores such as Colette in Paris and 10 Corso Como in Milan.

“Both Karen (Walker) and I talked about creating a boutique shopping district in Takapuna, because we both thought the area held so many opportunities,” explains Lucy Vincent-Marr of Stephen Marr. “In our current businesses we noticed an emerging affluent, savvy young set from the north shore who were not being catered for. We saw Takapuna as set to go through another renaissance. It’s a great area with amazing beaches and a steady trickle of tasteful operators popping up around the place.”

Following their initial chat, the duo met with Dave Donaldson, a tasteful and respected developer in Takapuna and central Auckland, as he originally approached Karen about the site. Karen also brought well known fashion figure Dan Gosling along, co-owner of hot label Stolen Girlfriends Club and the Black Box retail store. 

“After a few discussions between us all, Karen’s partner Mikhael Gherman introduced the idea of an open plan concept,” Lucy continues. “From this point we referenced Dover Street Markets and Colette in Paris to name a few. We wanted to create a multi-dimensional experience that offered an aspirational lifestyle; a space where brands that appealed to a certain customer would sit alongside each other to offer a fantastic experience.”

The Department Store has been brought to life by one of the world’s hottest interior designers, Katie Lockhart. A regular contributor to some of the most visionary global interior publications including The World of Interiors, Wallpaper* and Case da Abitare, Katie’s interior design projects include both high-end residential in Europe and commercial in both hemispheres. Karen Walker and art curator Michael Lett are both repeat clients, amongst others such as Emma Hawkins for Dover Street Market.

Each of the three floors has its own unique vibe, but overall the feel is very Paris Left Bank with oodles of top class eclectic taste. Formerly Takapuna Post Office, a slab of a building with a metal grille front, the design brief was to work with the existing space using industrial materials and keeping the colour tones simple, predominantly a blend of white, metal and concrete. Standouts are the beautifully dramatic spiral glassed-in wrought iron staircase, the high gloss vintage furniture and the ‘Green Wall’ in the Stephen Marr salon on the top floor, New Zealand’s first large, vertical,

interior garden.

The ground floor of The Department Store is home to a Black Box mini store, housing  myriad cool fashion labels including Australia’s Ksubi and Claude Maus, Surface to Air from France and naturally, Stolen Girlfriends Club. Also on the ground floor is the Karen Walker boutique, housing a fabulous range of fashion and accessories from the internationally renowned NZ designer including Karen Walker, Karen Walker Runway, diffusion line Hi There From Karen Walker, plus her fine jewellery and eyewear collections. No department store is complete without fragrances and Karen presents a selection of interesting global fragrances, including the wonderful Escentric Molecule.

The Department Store’s ground floor retail environment also houses Stephen Marr’s conceptual beauty retail concept, The Marr Lab, curated by partner Lucy Vincent-Marr and promoting clean, non-toxic, active skincare in a spacious environment. Appealing to ‘the new beauty tribe’, The Lab harks back to the days of the town corner store, with its expert advice and a fine selection of hand-picked products including Aesop, Intelligent Nutrients, Bio Actives, Dr Bronners and many more. The Marr Lab premiers at The Department Store and also acts as a launch pad for Lucy’s sensational new skin care product, Sans.

To complement the ground floor fashion and beauty is the best in object, furniture and lighting design. Furniture designer Simon James presents his hand-picked selection of the chicest in modern brands including the U.K’s Established & Sons, Droog from Holland, Design House Stockholm and of course, Simon James’ signature design pieces. This space is also home to a pop-up store that will host a different inspirational and exciting retail experience every three months. The premier pop-up store is Auckland’s much loved Flotsam and Jetsam, with their eclectic vision for interiors and vintage collectables.

On level 1, guests can escape the hustle and bustle of the ground floor by heading upstairs to Lucy & The Powder Room, where they can pamper themselves with a specialist skin treatment, the latest chic manicure or simply kick off their heels and have a pedicure and enjoy their famous high tea. The Powder Room vibe takes cues from old-fashioned conservatories – think the sunroom, vintage Italian 50s cane furniture, brass fittings, pale peach colour palettes and Earl Grey tea. The space also houses myriad indoor creeping scented jasmine, providing sensory overload when in full bloom.

The top floor is home to the Stephen Marr salon, co-owner of The Department Store and one of New Zealand’s leading hair brands, synonymous with vision, creativity and service second to none. A unique blend of industrial materials, the space is a vision of white, metal and concrete. Industrial scaffolding is used for the cutting stations, which works brilliantly with the loft feel of the space. A colour injection of pale blue softens the space, as does the addition of some mid-century furniture and sheepskins for comfort. The highlight of the salon is the Green Wall. A natural extension to Stephen Marr’s environmental commitment, the living wall is double-sided, measuring 10m long and 2m high and boasts more than 1000 individual plants. The building has had skylights installed to ensure the wall is given as much natural light as possible and the use of supplementary man-made lighting is kept at a minimum. The investment into this original and breathtaking piece of artwork, aside from supporting Marr’s ‘green’ stance in a powerful branding exercise, is that a Green Wall can have incredible environmental benefits such as increased thermal insulation to buildings, noise dampening, and creating cleaner and better quality air, which means healthier buildings and people. From a commercial perspective the Green Wall increases the building’s value and has also been found to raise employee productivity. It also divides the upper level, promoting unique spaces that can be used for presentations such as fashion shows.

Also sharing the top floor is a pop-up art gallery, which will be curated by different gallerists every three months. The opening gallery is Michael Lett, showing a series of work by iconic New Zealand artists Michael Parekowhai and Derek Henderson.

It seems as though The Department Store is New Zealand’s ultimate treasure trove, offering some of the most interesting must-haves from a collective of stylemeisters all under the one roof. Sounds like retail heaven, doesn’t it?