Fiesta Success Story

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31498, 12 October 1967, Page 11

Fiesta Success Story

What began as one woman’s effort to keep wartime wives occupied has expanded into the thriving fashion business which has given Fiesta to the city.

Evenings were long and lonely for wives whose husbands were overseas on service and Mrs Mary Fisse decided they should get together and do something to keep themselves busy without taking them away from their families and homes for too long. Sewing seemed an ideal solution, and so it proved.

Before her marriage, Mrs Fisse was a fur designer. She Resigned a hold-all for cosmetics and her band of friends set to work sewing them. The finished products were sold to a store in each of the main centres and very soon the group had spread its wings to include lingerie and housecoats in its sewing activities. The scheme was still a far cry from today’s fashion house. Mrs Fisse recoils: “When the Labour Department asked me if my workers had outworkers’ licences, I had to admit I didn’t know what an outworker’s licence was. They told me I was lucky not to be in gaol.” Permits were soon arranged with the Labour Department and the same team worked on with the sewing until after the war. It was frustration with buyers from department stores that set Mrs Fisse off on the road to success. She left work after one particularly frustrating day dealing with them and noticed a “To Let” sign. She moved in with her own designs the next week. Within a year sales were such that she had to move to a new shop—on the corner of Armagh and Colombo Streets. This site, too, became too small and she opened the Tonee Travel Fashion Centre in Hereford Street Even this move failed to halt expanding demand for her designs and the proposed B.N.Z. House presented an ideal opportun-

ity. An amalgamation with Beath’s gave her further room for expansion. Clothes for the younger generation are in Fiesta in B.N.Z. House, fashions for the more mature in the Hereford Street shop, and , the lingerie is handled by Beath’s large department store. Fiesta has been described as “an inspiration to fashion.” No expense or art-

istic ingenuity has been spared to make the most of the 2000 sq. ft of floor space. The atmosphere, with a Mexican flavour, impresses one immediately. There are actually three boutiques combined under the one roof—a corner site makes this artistically and practically posable. Display surroundings are such that they can be changed frequently to offset new fashion displays, while' still retaining the distinctive Mexican atmosphere. Each separate department has different decor and assistants wear different uniforms to match the department’s style.

LONG STAY

The Bank of New Zealand’s first Christchurch branch was opened in March, 1862, in a wooden shop in Cashel Street, but these were temporary quarters only. In the same year the present site in the Square was acquired. However, it was not until 1866 that the bank moved in there. The building was altered, extended and renovated over almost a century as the bank’s business expanded. In 1962 it was decided that a new building should be erected. The bank leased another building in the city while the present one was being constructed. In May this year B.N.Z. House progress had reached the stage where the bank could move tn, and at the end z of the mohth, the huge task of moving all equipment was undertaken again.