Shopping for women's clothes in Auckland ..... where do I go?

[shelscrape]

OK, it's 3 weeks since I arrived in Whangarei. Nice place, but clothes shopping a bit dire. The clothes shops in town fall firmly into two camps - teenage stuff or "clothes my mother or grandmother would wear" variety. So, a shopping trip is needed to Auckland. Question is, where do I go? I just want to avoid looking like mutton dressed as lamb or an utter frump .... help needed for a 40 year old mother. In the UK I loved fat face and whitestuff.

Or do i just go on line and order stuff from M&S ....

Thank you!

Newmarket isn't bad for a shopping trip, and Ponsonby is quite cool. Some funky independent stores, but you'll pay through the nose.

If you're coming down from Whangerei, Albany mall (northern outskirts of Auckland) is meant to be quite good - I've only been once and wasn't there that long - it seemed big though (by New Zealand standards ).

Yes to Ponsonby and Newmarket. City centre not really worth bothering with though some ok shops on High St apparently. K Road (Karangahape Road, top of Queen St) for vintage/second hand and I think some boutique-y shops there too now.

Sylvia Park, east-ish Auckland (near Mt Wellington) is another big mall (biggest in Auckland I think?) but don't know it well - will have all the chains though.

Sylvia Park is good, as is Albany. I like Espirt which is the closest I've found to Fat face / White Stuff. Also try Colorado, Temt, Sussan. Bendon is fab for bra's. I quite like Country Road but it is very expensive.

If you go to Newmarket don't miss Nuffield St which runs parallel to Broadway and has some nice clothes shops and Café's.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I've read about a factory outlet place called dressmart ... is it any good?

It's okay. Not bad for shoes, I think, although I haven't been for a while. But the clothing can be fairly uninspiring (and I'm not particularly fashionable myself!). There are a few good stores but the clothing tends be the stuff that didn't sell or is a year or two out of date. Better for sportswear, underwear etc than revitalizing your wardrobe in my opinion. But others might disagree.
Plus it's a long way from Whangarei!

You can see the shop directory for Dressmart - here.