The Kash

These well dressed gentlemen posing outside “The Kash” menswear store seem to be the perfect advertisement for the business. The photograph is a copy of an original, possibly dating between 1900 and 1930. It shows the exterior of “The Kash”, located at 20 Devon Street, New Plymouth. An advertisement placed in the Taranaki Herald on 21 January 1907 gives an indication of the kind of stylish merchandise the store was selling: “Nothing conduces so much towards clothing comfort during the hot summer weather as a soft NEGLIGEE SHIRT. Open and cool, with freedom from the starchy hardness common to the white shirt, they seem to bring the hottest day down several degrees.” As the signage shows, the building was also home to local commercial photography business Oakley’s Portrait Studios, known alternatively as Oakley Studios. Though it is not known who took the original photograph, it is possible it was taken by William Stanley Oakley, proprietor of the studio.