Wallace Cotton Journey by Timeline

Bill and Paula Wallace and a small talented team had a textile design, source and supply business in Auckland, supplying well-known retailers with house branded bed linen, plus supplying small retailers with Wallace Cotton designed cushions and bed linen.

In early 2005, Paula and Bill decided it was time to turn Wallace Cotton into a catalogue and online retail brand, offering bed linen, homeware and sleepwear. The choice of catalogue and online retail was due to experience working with other catalogue retailers in the Australasian market and seeing that online retail was growing year by year. The initial plan was to be purely online with a mail order catalogue to market the brand. The biggest challenge was building a quality customer base to mail them to.

The first Wallace Cotton store opened at 7 Enterprise Street in Birkenhead, Auckland. The store was tiny, about the size of a single bedroom, and was staffed by the office team plus some young nieces. Customers loved coming to the store and word spread faster with new customers signing up to receive the catalogue after seeing the ranges. Within two years, it was apparent that the store was not big enough, so the offices were moved out into the warehouse to allow for the store to be greatly expanded.

Warehousing was done by hand in those early days, with stacks of cardboard boxes on a wooden floor, no pallets or fork hoists, and when a delivery truck arrived, everyone from the office and store would be on hand to unload boxes. Product photos were taken in the store or lunchroom, and the energetic team of 7-8 helped with designing and developing ranges, ordering, marketing, seasonal photo shoots and working in the store. Inspiring photo shoot locations were found through friends and family, while local hairdressers, café workers, dancing teachers, plus everyone’s kids were roped into model, plus anyone from the office or family who looked particularly fetching at the time.

Bill and Paula fell in love with the old bank building in Wellington so opened a store in the arcade in 2010 just in time for the annual WOW show. The design team made up outfits using seasonal velvet quilts and prints, then hung them in the window that year. In more recent years, they arranged design students to dress the window for this incredible event, and held a competition for fashion design students and graduates to use seasonal fabrics to create an outfit, which was lots of fun and brought out some amazing talent in the young designers.

The opportunity to open a store in the beach side suburb of Takapuna was an easy decision. Aligned with their brand based on creating beautiful pieces to enhance a relaxed lifestyle, the new Wallace Cotton Takapuna location on Hurstmere Road was perfect.

Napier was chosen as the location for our second store outside Auckland city, because we love Hawkes Bay, and our growing customer base in the area kept asking when we were going to open a store close to them. On a visit to Napier, Paula enquired with the tradesmen who were completing a beautiful renovation of an old building on Tennyson Street, that once housed the office and printing press for the local newspaper. Discussions began with the owner, and 39 Tennyson Street soon became the Napier home of Wallace Cotton.

A beautiful retail space was leased in the brand new Northwest Mall. However, the proposed housing and further retail development in the area was slow to take off. And despite growing a loyal local customer base, it was unfortunately no longer viable for this store to remain open and it was closed on 2 August 2020.

After years of looking at offshore opportunities, the Wallace’s decided to have a go at the UK retail market and set up business in London. Luckily there was a tribe of talented nieces based in London, so Wallace Cotton UK was set up as an online business initially. Exactly as happened in New Zealand when Wallace Cotton began in 2005, customers began asking where they could go to see the range, so a pop- up retail store was opened in Covent Garden, followed by a second pop up in Battersea. The Battersea store became the permanent location for Wallace Cotton in London in 2018. The talented nieces lived in the flat above and networked within the local village to build a loyal following. Unfortunately, the winds of change were afoot, and the combination of Brexit and a pandemic changed the retail landscape in the UK, so the difficult decision was made to close the store in 2022.

The long term lease at the Wallace Cotton Takapuna store came to an end so this opportunity was used to find a new location within Takapuna and design a brand new, bespoke store. The new store sits in a prominent corner location within a newly renovated building just up from Takapuna beach.

After beginning in late 2005 with a small but passionate team, Wallace Cotton now currently employs a talented and loyal team of more than 60 people across the retail and support office locations.

In March 2023, new General Manager, Damian Dobb was appointed to continue the Wallace Cotton journey. After more than 17 years at the helm, Bill and Paula Wallace have stepped back to enjoy life as directors of Wallace Cotton, with a little more time to fulfil their passions of sailing and travelling.

Established in late 2010, the Lambton Quay store was more than ready for a renovation to bring the store up to date and more in keeping with look of newer Wallace Cotton stores. The Lambton Quay store is located in the Old Bank Arcade which required working within the quirks of an older building and being respectful of the historical aspects. In a whirlwind renovation, the store was emptied of all stock and existing fittings. Then new fittings and product shelving were installed along with new changing rooms, a new counter, lighting and a fresh coat of paint. A huge team effort saw the store restocked, beautifully styled and ready to open to customers in just eight days.