Often the closest a customer gets to a designer is the name on the label.
But at Guild, a designers' collective in the heart of Dunedin, the shopping experience is very different.
The store, set up in February last year, is run by not-for-profit entity Dunedin Designed Incorporated and the designers involved share the rent and staff the shop themselves.
For founding member Dallas Synnott, becoming involved was an easy decision to make.
Ms Synnott and her aunt, long established Dunedin designer Dallas Cunningham, created the clothing label Aunty.
They got to know Silkbody designer Emily Cooper, now chairwoman of Dunedin Designed Inc, when they joined Dunedin Online.
They were involved in a couple of pop-up shops and had great fun doing it, enjoying bringing in new customers, and Ms Cooper later asked if they would be interested in sharing a retail space.
They decided that if designers pooled their resources, they could have a retail space that nobody could afford on their own.
But they had to move fast to secure the premises in what was a "very desirable spot'', Ms Synnott said.
Silkbody, Aunty and Ulala were the founding designers and other designers were subsequently invited to be part of Guild.
The main criteria was their brand had to be extremely high quality - "what you may call international standard'' - and "beautiful''.
"High end stuff that the city can showcase its talent,'' she said.
There was now a core of 12 permanent local designers who sold from Guild and staffed the store.
Sales in-store were reimbursed directly to them.
Every four weeks, guest designers were showcased, not only from Dunedin but also throughout New Zealand.
"People love that. It really keeps the space invigorated and changes the energy,'' she said.
Guild also hosted a pop-up showcase of student designers from the Otago Polytechnic School of Design last year.
Ms Synnott said the model was "working very nicely'' and had many repeat customers.
For many of those customers, it was their "go to place'' for gifts or something special to wear.
As well as clothing, Guild also stocked the likes of perfume, jewellery, soaps, cosmetics and homeware.
The designers involved were proud of their roots in Dunedin and what they had created, she said.
The city has become Irish-born Ms Synnott's own adopted home town.
She originally came from Dublin.
In "her previous incarnation'', she worked in the television industry, predominantly in London and also in Sydney.
Working as a creative producer, she was involved in the likes of television channel branding and graphics for programmes and later stepped into event management.
She was always interested in fashion and her aunt, Ms Cunningham, made special garments for her "and we always collaborated on what she was creating for me''.
She visited New Zealand "on and off'' over the years.
"Next thing I knew, I had a life here,'' she said, laughing.
Ms Synnott, who is production manager for the Dunedin Fringe Festival, has fallen in love with the city.
"I love Dunedin. It's a wonderful place to be able to start any creative endeavour. I think people are very supportive and give you a chance ... in a way I wouldn't necessarily see in a big city.
"It's a very supportive, nurturing creative community in Dunedin which is very vibrant,'' she said.
Ms Synnott and Ms Cunningham originally started selling Aunty garments online but found that it "just wasn't happening for us''.
When they moved into Guild, they found their sales ‘‘shot up''.
"All of our clothes are really made with love and very careful attention, high quality garments that are investment pieces. People get to see them and touch them and have a good look,'' she said.
An important part of Guild was the people aspect; the designers could offer a very personalised service.
They enjoyed getting to know their customer base and talking about their products, while customers benefited from them not having to hike up prices.
"I really just think because we've banded together, we've made it viable. I guess you could call it recession-proofing,'' she said.
Guild was also housed in a "beautiful space'' and the designers all enjoyed being there.
It was a very friendly neighbourhood to be in, she said.
Emily Cooper said it was very difficult for people, in the current environment, to have a retail presence they were in control of.
"I just thought there must be a better way. I knew a whole lot of people in a similar boat,'' she said.
The group was very proud of what it had collaboratively achieved and she was delighted with how Guild was going.
"We hoped and thought it would work; it turns out the model does work. All the hard work everyone put in is paying off."
The good thing about it being run by a society was other things could be done with the concept and there were some "cool ideas'' for the future, she said.
