TALE OF A KIWI FAMILY

It’s 1966. In downtown Auckland, Grandpa started making clothing. The centre of our world was a tiny warehouse, upstairs on Queen Street. There was a cutting table, some racking for fabric and a few shelves for finished garments. Luxury was a kettle and jar of instant coee. There was no fridge for the milk, so it didn’t really matter how you liked it. If you visited, your coee was served black and strong

We may have been tight on space. We may have been surrounded by more mess than we liked. But creativity and quality was never stifled. Pretty soon we began to build a reputation for high quality childrenswear

Back then we were known as Banbury Cross. As the family grew, so did the range. We got into adult clothing and that seemed to work, so we stopped making the childrens clothing. This adult range was under the Aurora brand.

Hoodies came into fashion so we got into those. But you know these modern generations and their weird names. So pretty soon, we had a brand called Cloke too.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing and there were some tough times. But families are pretty good at knuckling down, so that’s what we did. We still have a warehouse in Auckland, even if that tiny space on Queen Street is long gone. The Aurora brand has gone too. Everything is branded Cloke as that weird name just kind of stuck. If you visit us today, you’ll need to come down to Invercargill where the head oce is. Also, we have a fridge now, plus a fancy coee machine. Just don’t ask Grandpa how it works.