3 Wise Men is a New Zealand menswear brand. It began when Richard Miles and two friends, Hugh Cotterill and Simon Peacocke, saw a gap for quality shirts at a sharp price in 2004. Miles opened the first store near Broadway in Newmarket, Auckland, in 2005 and sold online from the start. Shirts in soft cotton remain the core of the range. Suits and knitwear now sit alongside them in the stores.
Best for Men’s business shirts and casual shirts
3 Wise Men grew out of a conversation in 2004 between three friends in Auckland: Richard Miles with Hugh Cotterill and Simon Peacocke. All three had lived overseas and found that shirt shopping back in New Zealand meant thin choice at high cost. Miles was then general manager of sales at Bendon. He used his contacts in Hong Kong to find a high-end shirtmaker willing to run 25 to 50 pieces per colour and design from its sample room. He then left his job and opened the first 3 Wise Men store near Broadway in Newmarket in 2005. A second store followed just off Lambton Quay in Wellington. The business paired its shops with an online store from the start, a rare thing for New Zealand menswear at the time. Early marketing leaned on a database of 800 friends and quirky emails, plus shirts with local names such as the mint surf shirt. The brand's rules still read plainly: quality gear at affordable prices, simple pricing with no sales, and shirts in soft, rich cotton built to last. The range has widened to suits and knitwear, as well as footwear and accessories, across stores in New Zealand.
Wellington-region menswear maker with roots to 1946, when Alex Harrison bought Bert Churchill's Vivian Street tailoring business. The Rembrandt suit brand launched in 1952; renamed Rembrandt Suits Ltd in 1953, now based in Lower Hutt.
Best for New Zealand suiting and made-to-measure service
Rembrandt's roots trace to 1946, when Alex Harrison, a skilled tailoring cutter, bought an existing tailoring business on Vivian Street in Wellington that had belonged to Bert Churchill, and registered it as a new company at the start of that year. In 1952, staff brainstorming a name for a new suit line settled on 'Rembrandt,' chosen to evoke craftsmanship and artistry — the name reportedly narrowly beat out 'Michelangelo' as a finalist. The following year, in 1953, the company was formally renamed Rembrandt Suits Ltd, the name it has carried since. At a time when bespoke tailoring in New Zealand typically required multiple in-person fittings, Rembrandt aimed to make well-fitting suits more broadly accessible, building garments with details such as unfinished cuffs and adjustable seams that allowed a suit to be refined to an individual customer without a full custom-tailoring process. Production Manager Pat Lyford later played a significant role in modernizing the company's manufacturing, traveling to research updated methods and equipment and helping build the operational systems behind the brand's growth. Rembrandt is today headquartered in Lower Hutt, near Wellington, where its design studio, made-to-measure factory, administration and warehousing are all based, continuing a New Zealand tailoring lineage that now spans nearly eight decades.
New Zealand tailoring and menswear retailer operating since 1987, founded by brothers Chris and Tim Dobbs starting from a Parnell Road, Auckland store. Now six stores across Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, offering suits, made-to-measure and casualwear.
Best for New Zealand made-to-measure tailoring
Working Style began when Chris Dobbs paired his sales skills with his mother's seamstress skills to start selling shirts door to door. His brother Tim joined the design side in 1992, and the pair took a lease on their first retail store on Parnell Road in Auckland; the company states it has been operating in New Zealand since 1987. Today the retailer operates from six locations — Shortland Street and Parnell in Auckland, plus stores in Wellington and Christchurch.
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