Michael Hill’s former storefront in Whakatāne has received a major revamp, courtesy of its new fashion boutique occupants.

Tomorrow store’s doors opened to the public for the first time on November 8, with friends and family experiencing the finished shop for the first time the night prior.

For Erika Scholtens, who owns the business with her mum Åsa, Tomorrow is a way to bring some of her favourite shopping experiences home to Whakatāne.

“Mum and I would always go away to Hamilton, Auckland or the Mount to do our shopping, and we thought it would be cool to open something here.

“We wanted to make it our own, with brands we love.”

Ms Scholtens got her start in retail at the age of 15 when she started working at Stirling Sports under its previous owner, before her parents purchased the store.

Other than freelance work as a qualified graphic designer, Tomorrow is Ms Scholtens’ first foray into business ownership, and she said it was an honour to do so alongside her mum.

“It’s really cool that I’m able to do this with my mum. I don’t think many people are able to do this, so I’m grateful it was even an option.”

Together they are running both stores, with the support of a part-time sales assistant at Tomorrow.

Sustainable and ethical manufacturing practices were something the pair looked for when choosing brands to stock in their store.

Among them is Australian-owned Outland Denim, which focuses on sustainability in both environmental and social aspects of its production processes.

They also stock names like American Vintage, New Zealand brand Penny Sage, Dominique Healy and Viktoria and Woods.

Ms Scholtens said she recognised not every brand was all the way there in terms of their practices, but they were moving in the right direction.

The Scholtens have placed a priority on selecting timeless pieces made of high-quality materials that will be in customers’ closets for a long time.

In keeping with that, ‘Tomorrow’ was named as a symbol of the timeless nature of the clothing stocked by the store, and the quality that will always last for tomorrow.

“It’s not yesterday; it’s not going to go out of date,” Ms Scholtens said.

“Our pieces that we pick are timeless, high quality, versatile, so you can always wear them tomorrow.”

The store is not teeming with stock, which Ms Scholtens said was deliberate.

As soon as you enter, you can see if there is anything new on the rack, rather than having to dig through oodles of clothes to find it.

Another layer to that decision was to stock only a small number of duplicate clothing items in each size.

Ms Scholtens is not blind to the tough economic landscape in which she and her mum have opened Tomorrow store.

In fact, she thinks it could work to their advantage.

“We’re hoping that it’s on the up now, but I also think that if you can’t sustain the bad times, you’re not going to sustain the good times.”

Opening Tomorrow has been an enjoyably laborious – and at times frustrating – journey.

“When you open a business, you have to devote a lot of time to the start-up period.”

It has been a true family affair, with Ms Scholtens’ sister helping scout brands, her boyfriend’s builder father taking charge of the fit-out process, and her own dad – also a business owner – offering support.

Ms Scholtens did the branding herself and has experience in renovations, so enjoyed the process of transforming the empty premises into a chic boutique, including sourcing clothing racks from local company BayFab.

Tomorrow has also introduced a multi-tiered loyalty programme, offering vouchers, discounts, gifts and early access depending on annual spend in store and online.