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History and Herstory | |||||||||||||||||
This is a photograph of Hilary standing outside Frinton, our first retail business. In 1975 we had been traveling in Southeast Asia for a few months and then we went to Auckland, New Zealand. Almost straightaway we saw this store and took it. We called it Frinton after the English seaside town as a joke. We lived in New Zealand from 1975 - 1979. |
 1978 |
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In 1979 we went traveling again and this time we ended up in California (via Africa). | |||||||||||||||||
We took this store in West Hollywood because we liked the look of it. Its tiny front reminded us of English seaside architecture. It had a backyard that we made into a garden and there was a large rustic workroom. It was ideal except that nobody knew we were there. This was Los Angeles and people do not walk past your door, except for eccentrics like Michael Lindsay Hogg, who came in soon after we opened. Gradually word spread and we were there 15 years. Jon Noble and Jocelyn Casey worked with us there. We laughed a lot with them. |
 1980 |
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For some odd reason we moved over to Robertson Boulevard. We opened this store with our old friend Bones Morris. Bones and Michael designed it and we think it came out rather well. But the street was always under construction and the parking was fairly hellish, which did not please our customers.  |
 1995 |
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We were driving around Santa Barbara when we saw this building in a semi industrial area. So for the fourth time (with no regard for location or foot traffic) we opened up shop. We called it Taka Puna after a New Zealand seaside town, but most of what we sell is Clacton and Frinton, and most of our customers still come from L.A. |
 1998 - present |
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428 East Haley Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 ph. 805-963-4848 fax: 805-963-7075 takapuna@west.net | |||||||||||||||||
