some businesses that should exist in tāmaki

Welcome to clipboard, a weekly newsletter about clothes, hospo, and Tāmaki Makaurau, by Reilly Hodson. If you enjoy the newsletter, share it with your best friends, and think about clicking the subscribe button below to support my lifestyle. This week: businesses that should exist, but don’t, and an intro to an exciting new feature.

businesses I would start if I were a business starter

As you know if you read this newsletter, I love Auckland, and the big city accoutrements that come with it. We have a world-class food scene, great cafes, and some really amazing retailers. However, there are a few types of businesses that I wish exist, and don’t, and if I was a different type of person I would start them myself. If you’re that type of person, here are some free ideas!

ceremony.company

Someone should just copy my favourite cafe that ever existed, Ceremony. Charles Williams and Connor Nestor’s coffee and sandwich joint was the first place I was ever a regular at; the food was delicious and simple, and the coffee was top notch. It doesn’t exist anymore, and nothing has ever truly filled that gap in my life, in terms of nailing the coffee and doing indulgent, classic food, made to order. Romeo’s in Wellington is the closest thing I’ve found, but I’m not moving to Wellington any time soon. Someone just needs to copy that business, and I’ll be right there.

a very simple fresh pasta joint

There are now a lot of very good pasta places in Auckland: Cotto, Pici and Ada are all brilliant. What I would love is something that does that level of quality pasta, with really basic sauces, that does quick and easy sit in or takeout pasta. Think 5 menu items, each a different type of pasta with one type of sauce, that can be prepared in minutes, and hits a really cheap price point. I found a place like that in Belgium, and went every night of my trip, if someone did it here, I’d be there regularly, too.

a good stationery store

Stationery is cool, and there are heaps of companies that make great stationery. Unfortunately, you can buy very few of those great stationery items in New Zealand, where the stationery store space is dominated by gross slogan notebooks at Typo, or austere art student stuff from art supply stores. If there was a store like London’s Present and Correct in Auckland, I would be a much happier person. I have often, in fact, thought about opening one of my own. If any of these get picked up, I would love for it to be this one.

more menswear

Honestly, just have more places that sell mens’ clothes. Holes in the market that I have identified include: good basics that aren’t AS Colour (something like Ronning), Good As Gold but in Auckland (RIP GAG Ponsonby), a shoe store that doesn’t suck to shop at (this one, please!), but mostly I just want more places to go.

clips

• Regular readers know that the search for good office shirting has been continuous for me since I got my “real” job. I’m pleased to announce that Thom Sussex of Thom Morison has cracked it: the perfect white shirt to dress up or down, with a straight hem so you don’t have to tuck it in, in a crispy white poplin. Now that that’s solved, on to finding non-Dickies pants.

• If you’re like me and have been lusting over this Wynn Hamlyn quilted jacket but don’t have Wynn Hamlyn budget at the moment, Commoners have just dropped a pretty good, albeit less freaky, alternative at about half the price.

• Alice Neville at the Spinoff has a cracker of a story about the weird demise of Queen’s Rise, a place that always seemed cool in theory but felt a lot like an airport food court when you actually ate there.

• I’m not ashamed to admit that I have been bumping the Olivia Rodrigo album since it came out, I love early 2000s throwback music.

• Open call for recommendations: I am looking for office appropriate white sneakers that aren’t chucks or Common Projects (are Vejas corny?), and a good cap to hide my hair on the weekends that fits a bigger head, hit me up with your thoughts.

• Kiwi designer Matt Nash’s MN Uniform brand has branched out from aprons for cafes into some classic workwear pieces, made to order and really well made. I love this corduroy work jacket, and I spy with my little eyes some more goodies coming.

take it or leave it

Reilly’s note: Mitchell Tan runs Rubbish Bin, the best place to buy secondhand designer clothes on Instagram. He’s also a day-one clipboard reader, a future doctor, and now, a semi-regular contributor to this fine publication, with his new feature, ‘take it or leave it.’ Mitchell will be bringing his grade-A insight to clipboard every few weeks or so, I’ll let him explain:

hello lovely readers of clipboard! my name is mitchell and it’s lovely to meet u. i’m gonna be writing the odd op-ed (potentially sh*post-esque) piece on fashion and materialism bookended by Reilly’s astute tāmaki makaurau/aotearoa/culture-at-large musings within clipboard, delivered to you irregularly. unfortunately, i need a platform with which to vent my opinions and for some reason, Reilly agreed for his child (this newsletter) to be my vessel. 

my credentials?:

• i'm a uoa student

• i passed level 1, 2 AND 3 english

• i sell second-hand designer clothes (yes, i am the rubbish bin guy)

• i wrote a bit for Newspread

• i have a banging linkedin profile

if those aren’t enough to convince you to listen to my opinion (that is always 100% correct), that’s your prerogative. honestly, it’s no skin off my back but i’ll be showering y’all with some hot takes and little fashion rants that are sure to elevate your small brain into the largest cerebrum in the known universe. But again, it’s up to you to

take it or leave it

see u next week (or maybe the week after) for a piece on why you guys should wear your d*mn blazers

I, for one, as a non blazer wearer, can’t wait for that piece.

That’s all for clipboard this week, thanks for reading! If you enjoy the newsletter, send it around to your coolest friends, and consider subscribing, to monetarily contribute to this newsletter and the lifestyle it documents. Also: if you’re like Mitchell and have some thoughts you’d like to see in clipboard, send them through! No bad ideas.