AFTER A FASHION

Isabel Harris is holding up a dress to show me. It’s the dress you always wanted, but didn’t know it until now. A beige jersey knit, with a cute flower print, short sleeves and buttons down the front; it’s a simple, timeless design. Put that on the racks in Zara or Ruby tomorrow morning, and there’d be nothing but empty hangers by the end of the day. Yet this covetable item was made half a century ago.

The dress is circa 1970, from Hullabaloo on Auckland’s Victoria St, the shop Harris opened with longtime partner Brian Hall. It was their first boutique, an eruption of creative flair on a hitherto uneventful fashion landscape. They’d go on to have factories in Auckland, Paeroa and Tauranga, plus 12 stores in Auckland and two in Australia. At its peak, Thornton Hall – as the brand was later called, with only the Queen St boutique retaining the Hullabaloo name – had several hundred employees. In the 70s and 80s, the much-feted Harris was the New Zealand designer of the day.

She’s kept some Thornton Hall garments at her Auckland home (the couple also owns two farms, in Warkworth and Matakana, where they spend weekends); others are held by the New Zealand Fashion Museum. “This little dress was an absolute winner,” says Harris. “We