I’m losing my job next year so I’m spoiling myself while I have a decent salary,” says Jenny. She stands chatting to Virginia, proprietor of One Big Sugar Bowl, a designer costume jewellery and accessory shop. Jenny shows me a feathered clutch bag, a ring and a silky kingfisher-blue dress that she has just bought.

Another customer is trying on a small feathered hat. “It goes magnificently with my new ‘40s dress,” she says and gets out her credit card. One Big Sugar Bowl is in the High St cluster of designer and boutique apparel shops. There are chain stores here that I know and love (World, Trelise Cooper, Annah Stretton and more) but I’m in Christchurch for different shops – ones we don’t have in Auckland.

The boutique store Victoria Black is gaspingly different. Here, exquisite clothes come from designers in Paris
and Brussels, but with a price tag of $1500 on a simple grey gathered skirt, it’s not really in my budget range. Across the road at Plush, I’m tempted by a black tunic dress. “There’s no reason why bigger women like me shouldn’t look fashionable,” says designer Carolyn. I hadn’t noticed a glut of large sizes, and thought Plush was affordable and funky.

There’s a tangle of little lanes off High St that used to serve warehouses but now comprise a trendy dining, deli and boutique precinct. I’m lured by the nose into fragrant Blue Earth and sample its natural body products. Around the corner, at Mitchelli’s Deli & Café, I join the crowd of lunch customers and refuel with chai
latte and Italian salad. From there, it’s a five-minute walk to Ballantynes. This is a department store in the traditional sense and it’s huge – big enough so that, when it’s cold and blustery outside, you can spend most of a day shopping here.

Ballantynes knows Christchurch winters well and believes the only way to dress for the cold is with style.
It has floors of tailored warm clothes; fine fingered gloves in eight different colours, French and Italian boots that reek sophistication, merino knits and winter hats that absolutely don’t look like beanies.

In Auckland, shops pretend there is no winter and don’t stock so well for it. I invest in a merlot-coloured cloche hat and a pair of elegant matching gloves – very Parisian. Across the river, on the other side of the CBD, Victoria St has a variety of home décor shops. This is the area for antiques, household linens, furniture, designer
knick-knacks, Indian arts and crafts and all sorts of household bling.

Truly Scrumptious is a unique boutique offering a glorious collection of French Victorian and art deco treasures. Its ambience is feminine and old-worldy, and browsing can be accompanied by tea in fine bone china and lovely little cakes. It looks, feels and smells like Paris.

Nearby Park Avenue is all New Yorkstyle glamour. I don’t need a ball dress, bridal gown or a mother-of-the bride outfit, but I might one day. I’ve never seen so many posh frocks under one roof. Fiona, the owner, tells me, “People fly down from Wellington and Auckland for the day especially to shop here. For a wedding, we can dress all the women in the family, from young trendies to grannies who go for gorgeous silk suits.”

I try on a 1920s beaded flapper dress that goes perfectly with my new hat and ponder if I could wear it in the bar of the Heritage Hotel tonight. The Heritage was built in 1913 and features a wide sweeping staircase, stained glass and high ceilings – perfect 1920s ambience.

It’s a nice thought, but it’s not practical. Instead, I stop at the market in Cathedral Square and buy a merino wrap that is on the exotic side of sensible. It’s expensive but not outrageously so, and I recall the words of Jenny at the Sugar Bowl. These are tough times, so I’d better spoil myself while I can!