The proliferation of big-name retail brands entering the Australian marketplace in recent years has created challenges for local retailers. Some of the major department stores have mistakenly identified the shift as a need to further discount their wares, backing themselves into a corner of falling margin profits when, as evidenced by Australians’ spend on luxury fashion websites, purse strings aren’t tight Down Under. People are willing to spend money, you’ve just got to be offering the right thing, at the right time and, perhaps most importantly, in the right environment. A website like Mr Porter or department store like Harrolds doesn’t do exceedingly well because its wares alone are great, but rather that they offer something beyond the ordinary retail transaction, whether the engaging editorial content of the former of the luxurious, experiential space of the latter.

A large-scale retail brand like Country Road might, too, have experienced a shifting retail climate in recent times with brands like Cos opening stores in Australia, but rather than putting out the flashing sale lights, they’ve taken an altogether different - and rather clever - tack, as evidenced by the opening of its newest retail concept in Sorrento, Melbourne. We say concept because, well, it’s much more than a straightforward retail store, comprising its various product lines - men’s, women’s and children’s clothing alongside homewares - in a historically-preserved and restored space (originally a post office) that now includes a cafe and vegetable and herb garden, from which it sources its daily produce. The cafe component of the store, collectively titled POST 3943 (the Sorrento postcode) is created in collaboration with nearby organic cafe The Sisters.

Having last year celebrated its 40th anniversary, Country Road is one of few brands ingrained in the Australian cultural psyche, given our relatively young country, and it thus stands to reason that the brand should embrace the lifestyle that surrounds its brand, and which its brand projects to the customer, in an all-encompassing retail space, following the success of global retailers like 10 Corso Como and Colette on a much more localised level.