By Mary Marshall 4 March, 2026
From the footpath in Blockhouse Bay village your eye is drawn to the colourful window display of Shirley’s women’s fashion store. As you step inside, you are met with an explosion of colour and fashion, all beautifully curated and displayed.
Shirley’s has been a Bay fixture for about 40 years. It is run by Shirley Browne. As a fashion co- ordinator for Brian Caughey Ltd she would visit fashion shops around Auckland. Shirley’s was then in
a different venue in the village and was a much smaller shop. The previous owner offered Shirley the chance to buy the shop and she took up that venture, more recently moving to one of the new generation shops built opposite the Library.
Shirley has seen many changes to the Bay village over the years. She was there with many other Blockhouse Bay residents, to wave a placard at the town hall when the library protest took place. She lives in nearby Titirangi but is fully involved with the Bay community. When I was interviewing Shirley for this article she knew all the names of the customers who came in and what they liked. It is this interaction with customers that Shirley loves. During the Covid-19 lockdowns the hardest thing for her was missing that interaction with her clientele. Whether a regular customer or a first timer Shirley always makes you welcome. Her customers come from all over Auckland and beyond. She has customers from Australia who make it a point to come to her shop when they are visiting relatives in NZ. Shirley does not currently have an online presence as she prefers that personal face to face touch.
Two necessary skills for successful retailers are customer service and merchandising. Shirley has both these skills in spades. She changes her window display on a regular basis and has even overheard men say to their partner as they walked by “that would suit you”. Inside her flair for fashion and design is breath taking.
Shirley sums it up in a simple sentence – “It’s no hardship to come to work”.
By Mary Marshall