On site the day before opening, Faradays chief executive Edward von Dadelszen told the Herald he was grateful to his team and everyone involved in the project.
“This was just such a huge job. All the brands, the senior executive team that joined a long time ago, right through to the retail team who joined five or six days ago, they’ve just all pulled together so well,” von Dadelszen said.
“I’m also incredibly grateful to Cape Construction, I couldn’t speak highly enough of them, and what Fearon Hay have done is remarkable. It feels like a very special moment. We hope everyone who comes through those doors finds a moment of surprise or delight and finds something that feels right for them.”
Josh Emett, who has been involved in the project for about 18 months, said he was proud of how it had come together.
“I’ve spent my cooking years in Mayfair, and I spent so much time in Selfridges and Harrods, which I loved. We don’t think it has been done at this level in New Zealand before,” Emett said.
“It should be just a superb addition to the Auckland dining and retail scene.”
Josh Emett, co-owner of Lottie’s restaurant opening on October 2, 2026, located inside Faradays luxury department store.
Faradays will sell many brands not previously seen in a New Zealand retailer, but don’t expect everything to be a bargain.
Faradays creative director and co-founder Constance von Dadelszen said there were nine categories, including New Zealand brands, children’s, Australian, lingerie, iconic global, brands to discover, footwear, fragrance and homewear.
Constance von Dadelszen said the pair had been curating Faradays’ range of more than 220 brands for almost three years.
“Every category has been weighed against what people actually want to shop for locally, and what we felt was genuinely missing. Faradays has been built to encourage exploration and deliver moments of discovery people didn’t see coming, not just a collection of brands under one roof.”
Eddie and Constance von Dadelszen, co-founders of new Queen St department store Faradays, have spent years curating the brands on offer. Photo / Dean Purcell
Von Dadelszen said the pair had leveraged established relationships at the luxury end to recruit certain brands, but admitted many required entirely new contacts.
She said the scale of the Faradays vision helped certain brands decide to come on board, and some lesser-known children’s brands would surprise people.
“Alongside our years of dreaming have been years of intensive research, analysis and planning of foot traffic, customer catchments, online behaviour, the changing ways people shop and discover brands.
“We’ve thought deeply about who our customers will be – a broad and diverse audience spanning generations, economic backgrounds and personal styles.”
Von Dadelszen said prices within Faradays were “genuinely broad”, with items from about $4 (a postcard) to more than $5000.
With plenty to explore in person, here are five of the new brands that are on board.
1. Skims
Kim Kardashian’s global shapewear brand Skims will be recognised by many.
Skims offers technically constructed underwear, shapewear, loungewear and swimwear, and has become one of the largest brands of its kind globally.
The brand was co-founded in 2019 by Kardashian and Jens Grede, also chief executive, and has been valued at US$5 billion ($8.8b).
Skims, co-founded by Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede in 2019, will be available for the first time in New Zealand at the new Faradays department store.
Von Dadelszen said Skims was a brand the world already loves, but New Zealand has never had access to.
“Skims does that perfectly. It is one of the most culturally relevant brands in the world right now, and the fact that it is also genuinely accessible and the sizing is inclusive makes it exactly the kind of brand we want to champion from day one.
“Skims is a strong example of a brand that understands the value of physical retail, and how important it is to connect with customers in a real-world environment.”
The first Skims release at Faradays will be priced from $35, with NikeSkims, a collaboration with sports brand Nike, also available in spring.
2. Chloé
Founded by Egyptian-born Parisian designer Gabriella Aghion in 1952, Chloé was one of the first luxury ready-to-wear houses.
An alternative to high-end, custom-fitted clothing, Chloé offered an elegant, modern wardrobe with relaxed silhouettes, high-quality fabrics and refined details.
The brand is known for its bohemian-inspired clothing, designer handbags and signature fragrances, but has expanded into footwear and other accessories.
Chloé is known for its bohemian-inspired clothing, designer handbags and signature fragrances.
Chloé popularised the concept of the modern “It bag” with the oversized, padlock-adorned Paddington bag in 2005, followed by hits such as the Marcie, Drew and Nile bags.
The brand is owned by Richemont Group, which acquired it in 1985.
Its items are priced in the accessible luxury or mid-to-high-end designer tier, with online prices from $37 for perfumed soap to $12,890 for a silk mousseline and lace dress.
3. La Prairie
La Prairie is a Swiss-founded skincare, body care and fragrance brand with a strong following in Asian markets.
The brand has its roots in the Clinique La Prairie, which opened in 1931 under the scientific leadership of Dr Paul Niehans.
La Prairie’s prices sit in the ultra-premium category. Take it’s Skin Caviar Essence-In-Lotion, which retails for $435.
Niehans administered an innovative cellular therapy, which would later inspire the brand’s signature anti-ageing skincare – notable for its use of caviar extract enhanced with a biomimetic caviar peptide, lipids, proteins.
The company is owned by Beiersdorf, the German firm behind Nivea.
Prices for La Prairie are in the ultra-premium category, ranging online from $150 for a foam cleanser to more than $2500 for a rejuvenation cream.
4. Maison Margiela
Founded in Paris in 1998 by Belgian designer Martin Margiela, Maison Margiela is a luxury fashion house known for avant-garde, deconstructed tailoring.
It is owned by OTB Group, an Italian multinational fashion group with global, unconventional brands.
Maison Margiela has become synonymous with markers including four diagonal stitches on the back of each garment, numeric coding that denotes product lines, and the white overpaint technique called bianchetto, which leaves visible brush strokes.
Maison Margiela offers a range of clothing and accessories, including its signature split-toe shoe called the Tabi.
Maison Margiela offers womenswear, menswear, accessories, jewellery and fragrances. The fashion house also sells shoes, including its signature split-toe Tabi, which debuted in 1988.
The brand launched a contemporary, more casual clothing line called MM6 in 1997, which focused on gender-neutral everyday wear. It serves as a more accessible, lower-priced alternative to the high-end main collection.
Prices online at Maison Margiela range from high luxury for its mainline products to accessible contemporary for its MM6 line, from over $150 for socks to more than $10,000 for some jackets and coats.
5. Jacquemus
One of the more modern brands on this list, Jacquemus is a French fashion house specialising in womenswear, menswear, handbags and accessories.
Founded in 2009 by French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus at 19, the brand is dedicated to the memory of the designer’s late mother, drawing inspiration from a passion for culture.
Jacquemus designs are inspired by the French way of life and its culture.
The brand’s website references the French way of life and universal gestures of beauty behind the designs, encompassing influences from fine art photography to decorative arts, cinema, painting and sculpture.
Jacquemus went viral in 2019 for its micro-bag “Le Chiquito”, with internet patrons critical of the bag’s ability to hold almost nothing.
At the contemporary-to-luxury price point, items from the brand online range from more than $50 for postcards to over $14,000 for its Meunier jacket.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
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