Hundreds of residents and visitors queued for half the length of upper Beach St to be among the first first 500 customers through the doors and receive a free pair of $70 IFD Denim jeans.
The shop traded continuously for the following 24 hours with 40% off everything as part of the celebration.
A DJ played music on a PA system to entertain the crowd. The people at the front of the queue said they had waited for about two hours to enter the store.
The chain's historic connection to Queenstown was acknowledged in a brief speech. Company founder Bendix Hallenstein's great-great-great-great-grandson Harry Railton (18), of Gibbston, was invited to cut the red ribbon across the doors.
Customers were admitted 10 at a time. Private security personnel were present and Queenstown police monitored the event.
Half a dozen Hallenstein staff flew in from Auckland to help the six Queenstown staff in the race against time to stock and prepare the Beach St outlet before the opening.
Hallensteins general manager Glenn Hunter, of Auckland, said the "massive task" of getting the shop ready had been held up by the weather.
However, he was pleased with the buzz around town about the New Zealand clothing chain's return to the Wakatipu, where Hallenstein started his company in earnest in 1864.
Customers had been trying to enter the shop during the previous two days, despite the registers not working and no clothes being on the shelves, Mr Hunter said.
"This store is going to be very well received and we're super excited.
"This is an amazing location and there's not much here for men."
Mr Railton, studying law at the University of Canterbury, said it was "pretty special" to be asked to open the store.
"I think [Bendix Hallenstein] would be pretty stoked with how business has progressed over the years," he said.
