Connect with us

Blogs & Perspectives

The Land Down Under

Innovative retail design and visual merchandising are alive and well in Australia

mm

Published

on

The invitation came this past May from TAFE NSW, a respected vocational school in Australia, to work with their students and address a group of local retailers as a welcome surprise. Perennial attendees at VMSD’s International Retail Design Conference, I knew about the school and its excellent visual merchandising program.

As a student studying art and architecture, there were three renowned structures that I longed to see. First was the Duomo di Milano in Italy, followed by Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Milà in Barcelona, Spain, and finally, the Sydney Opera House in Australia. My first visit to Milan left me awestruck by the towers of the great Gothic cathedral, and Gaudí didn't disappoint, either.

As for getting a glimpse of the opera house, I thought it out of the realm of possibility, being located as far away as a New Yorker could possibly go. And yet, there I was, boarding Delta Flight 41 from New York’s JFK Airport to Sydney.

With 24 seemingly endless hours on a Boeing 737 Airbus in front of me, I thought about the incredible world visual merchandising has opened for all of us in this industry. My mantra over the past several years has been, “If you're not thinking globally, you're just not thinking.”

Sydney is a magnificent city by the sea. Its port of entry is adorned by the majestic Harbour Bridge, and the aforementioned Sydney Opera House, arguably its most well-known landmark. Our home base was at Bondi Beach – crescent shaped with powder-like sand, it’s one of the world’s most beautiful seaside resorts. And while retail abounds in Sydney’s great metropolis, we gravitated toward Gould Street, a hidden retail gem in the center of Bondi Beach.

Considered one of the coolest streets in Sydney, the heart and soul of Gould Street is The Earth Food Store. A favorite healthy organic breakfast haunt for the well-heeled locals, its design is an eclectic mix of elements celebrating the hippie-chic free spirit of the community. The relaxed environment plays well to the ever-present “yummy mommy,” who always wears the right gear and insists on the freshest in organic food. With menu offerings ranging from spiced breakfast quinoa to Tasmanian raw honey, the natural wood floor and arrangement of colorful vegetables offer the perfect setting. The polarity of a crystal chandelier fixed to a tin ceiling also speaks to the multifaceted nature of the area’s colorful inhabitants. Owner Caroline Attwooll, who opened the eatery 26 years ago, recently renovated in order to “move where Bondi was moving.”

Advertisement

Across the street is Playa by Lucy Folk. Playa, meaning “beach” in Spanish, is the perfect name for a beachwear accessories store in the upscale resort community. Offering everything from handmade Italian sunglasses with Zeiss lenses to food-inspired gold jewelry, including parsley earrings and an anchovy bracelet, the store is anchored by a travertine display table and Italian furniture. Linen-covered arched fitting room doors complement Moroccan-inspired concrete wall fixtures. Its bohemian ambience draws an eclectic crowd in search of everything from ceramics to Florentine hand lotion – at $120 a bottle.

Jac + Jack is the next stop along the boutique-lined street. The open glass façade and horizontal fixturing, along with polished concrete floors and concrete fixtures, drew me into the trendy apparel store. Clean, minimalist horizontal lines are tailor-made for the affluent clientele. The store, featuring tonal silk stories and jersey fabrics that are easy on the eye, is a magnet to a broad client base, ranging from young moms to weekend surfers. Designed by Sydney interior designer George Livissianis, the environment features marble countertops, exposed concrete ceilings and PVC piping that complements the contemporary merchandise.

The first fashion store on Gould Street was Tuchuzy, opened by Daria Sack in 1995. Its opening helped secure Gould Street’s position as a fashion destination in Bondi. Showcasing more than 80 designer labels, the collection features Australian brands, as well as a diverse offering of international names such as Alexander Wang, Rag & Bone, Proenza Schouler and Helmut Lang. The store’s white-painted cinderblocks and exposed concrete walls provide the perfect setting for merchandise offerings catering to a day at the beach to Friday night at the bar. Designed by award-winning Sydney architect, Kelvin Ho, the store is a destination for Bondi locals.

Aesop’s Bondi Beach store windows, featuring mesmerizing oscillating boxes conceptually representing skin cells, are enough to entice the most discriminating passersby to enter the store. The Melbourne-based skin care company considers a “taxonomy of design,” when approaching each store location. Based on art, nature and water, each store installation considers location as an integral design element. The Gould Street store, designed by architect Zenta Tanaka, references the nuances of the beach with materials such as timber gathered from the Geelong wharves to fashion shelves and benches. Grey Carrera marble bench tops flow through the space like the undulating waves of the nearby ocean.

Hosts for this intercontinental journey were Kerry Little, head teacher visual merchandising and floristry, and her staff at TAFE NSW. Through their efforts, the future of visual merchandising in Australia is quite bright; the stores mentioned above and others will be gifted with a wealth of creative energy from the graduates at TAFE NSW. TAFE visual merchandising graduates will clearly take Gould Street and the rest of Australia to new levels of retail excellence.

Eric Feigenbaum is a recognized leader in the visual merchandising and store design industries with both domestic and international design experience.  He served as corporate director of visual merchandising for Stern’s Department Store, a division of Federated Department Stores, from 1986 to 1995. After Stern’s, he assumed the position of director of visual merchandising for WalkerGroup/CNI, an architectural design firm in New York City. Feigenbaum was also an adjunct professor of Store Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and formerly served as the chair of the Visual Merchandising Department at LIM College (New York) from 2000 to 2015. In addition to being the Editorial Advisor/New York Editor of VMSD magazine, Eric is also a founding member of PAVE (A Partnership for Planning and Visual Education). Currently, he is also president and director of creative services for his own retail design company, Embrace Design.

Advertisement

Advertisement

SPONSORED HEADLINE

7 design trends to drive customer behavior in 2024

7 design trends to drive customer behavior in 2024

In-store marketing and design trends to watch in 2024 (+how to execute them!). Learn More.

Promoted Headlines

Advertisement
Advertisement

Subscribe

Advertisement

Facebook

Most Popular