Hard times have hit the fashion industry. Fashion Weeks are not sending so many clothes down the runway, and some locally owned boutiques are closing.
For the month of February, clothing sales were $15.4 million dollars down for the same period last year.
In the exclusive Hamilton and Murray, customers are going nuts looking for bargains at the closing down sale.
After 17 years, owner Sheila Murray Hamilton can't quite believe the end is nigh.
"It's been my baby and so it's very emotional and emotional for my staff many of whom have been there since the beginning," she says.
Along Lambton Quay is a clothing store owned by a Wellington family who have been in the rag trade for 61 years. They have had to close four of their five Berringers stores, and now their last one will close at the end of the month.
Owner Kevin Pepperell says the family are happy to leave the rag trade, as the big chain store's constant sales have made shoppers expect reductions everywhere.
While Ms Murray Hamilton says her very wealthy customers were still happy to pay full price for her goods, it's the large middle group of shoppers who have changed the way they shop.
"The middle, mainstream customer who shopped with us every week or every month are not buying as much or they're going elsewhere," she says. "They're doing other things with their disposable income."
Down market, the second hand clothing shops in Welllington are busier than ever.
With recession chic and the recycling ethic, women are wearing their cheap purchases proudly.
There's also evidence of a return to sewing-it-yourself, or at least reviving the wardrobe.
In upper Cuba Street, self-taught sewer Amy Oakes saw a gap in the fashion market and recently opened a sewing and mending service.
"Everyone said it must be hard starting a business in a recession, but it's not," she says. "When the recession ends it will be hard for me because people will go back to buying new clothes but for now business is booming."
And when Ms Murray Hamilton rebrands and opens a smaller clothes shop along the street, it's devout fashionistas that she'll be banking on.
3 News