Celebrity fashion house White Label Noba closes its final Brisbane store to move fully online

The founder of fashion house White Label Noba - the preferred Australian label of Royal Zara Phillips - has announced it will close its last Brisbane store and move fully online.

Tracey Watkins, of fashion retailer White Label Noba, in 2018. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Queensland fashion house White Label Noba - the preferred Australian label of British Royal Zara Phillips and many celebrities - has announced the closure of its last Brisbane store.

Founder Tracey Watkins, a former interior designer who started the label on her kitchen bench in 2011, said the brand would now move completely online.

Once with bricks and mortar boutiques in Ascot and Main Beach, the label’s Hawthorne shop will shut following a final sale this weekend.

White Label Noba is known for its bold yet feminine designs and is a darling of the Brisbane Fashion Festival.

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall at the Pacific Fair Magic Millions Polo. Picture: Luke Marsden.

Ms Watkins, who has dressed not only Zara Phillips but local identities including singer Naomi Price, TV personalities Melissa Downes and Natalie Gruzlewski, and Grace Hayden the model daughter of cricketing great Matt, said it was “an end of an era” to make way for “a new beginning”.

“Since I took that first leap of faith, founding White Label Noba from my kitchen bench, I have been rewarded beyond measure; being able to create and share collections that fill my soul has come second only to the joy of building relationships with incredible women,” she said.

Naomi Price and Melissa Downes wearing White Label Noba ahead of an annual Gambaro ball. Picture: Annette Dew

“Women who are fiercely proud of the lives they have shaped, and who are the embodiment of kindness, authenticity and belonging. It’s those values that have underpinned WLN for over a decade; a lifestyle brand dedicated to making you feel just as good as you look.

“Through the glittering highs and gentle ebbs and flows of daily life, the WLN community has felt like ‘home’ to me – but homes are made by the people who live there, not by bricks and mortar. And that’s why, the time has come to bid a fond farewell to our retail store and take this beautiful brand on its next adventure.”