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In an era dominated by opaque fast-fashion enterprises, lifting the veil on production within a retail environment is an approach that’s also proven successful for Melbourne accessories brand A-ESQUE, where the workroom and showroom are in an open-plan space.
And in Sydney, designer Karen Gee’s new space in the Queen Victoria Building has a more traditional retail entrance that with a sharp turn to the right, morphs into a made-to-measure salon that feels a million miles away from the bustling city centre.
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The trend of “secret” retail spaces has also been bubbling away in menswear, where non-traditional retail spaces are just as likely to harbour cocktail bars and reading nooks alongside the racks and fitting rooms. And it’s not just well-heeled consumers seeking physical connections to brands; people aged 16 to 26 give equal value to in-store shopping as online, according to a 2023 report by the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centres.
Bringing the customer closer to the business also drove the founder of Melbourne-based brand Onte, Stephanie Fernandez-Nadinic, to recently open her first proper retail space next to her headquarters above High Street, in the leafy suburb of Armadale.
“We just found that the rents of anything that’s on the ground [at] street level is just too much for us as a small brand,” she says.
Being perched above Melbourne’s most in-demand strip for fashion retail – wedged between Jo Malone fragrances and a new Lululemon store – offers Fernandez-Nadinic the best of both worlds, and she can bring her dog, Harry, to work with ease.
Stephanie Fernandez-Nadinic, with Harry the dog, at Onte’s retail space in Melbourne.Credit: Simon Schluter
“We can also create a really intimate setting for our customers to come in and feel more like it’s a personal experience as opposed to just a shop [where] they come in, they go out,” she says. “It has purpose rather than just being, you know, passing by.”
Although Onte is still running by appointment only, Fernandez-Nadinic isn’t ruling out a more traditional store in the future, including in Sydney – currently the brand’s biggest market. And she’s not alone in her thinking. Another brand taking the try-before-you-buy approach to physical retail is Sydney-based Eupheme, which recently launched a six-week residency in an apartment-style space in the CBD that’s accessed via a private lift.
“This is like a stepping stone … it’s definitely sort of a taste test,” says Fernandez-Nadinic.
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