House of Darwin: How Shaun Edwards built a cultural behemoth – and where to next

A new flagship store, a looming international collaboration, the debut of a new live music venue – things are looking up for this Top End brand, which is booming after humble beginnings.

Founder of House of Darwin, Shaun Edwards, outside the brand’s new flagship store on Knuckey St. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

There have been two seminal brands that have put the Northern Territory on the map in the past decade.

The first was NT Unofficial’s naughty rallying cry to grab your mates and ‘CU in the NT’.

The second was when a homesick AFL footballer returned to the Top End and began selling Territory-themed T-shirts at markets and events from the back of his LandCruiser.

One of them lives on mostly in bumper stickers and stubby coolers.

The other continues to grow into one of the Territory’s driving creative forces, with benevolent tentacles reaching into such diverse scenes as live music, fashion, events, and First Nations advocacy and empowerment.

The year 2024 has been especially kind to House of Darwin, the uber-cool fashion label and social enterprise that has won favour with those in the know right across Australia via more than 100 stockists, including online retail giant Universal Store.

Keen-eyed CBD workers and weekend shoppers would have seen recently the first signs go up for House of Darwin’s new flagship store on Knuckey St, having lived its life previously in Air Raid Arcade off Cavanagh St.

“We probably outgrew our current retail space between 12 and 18 months ago,” said House of Darwin founder Shaun Edwards.

Founder of House of Darwin, Shaun Edwards. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“The growth has been pretty rapid at House of Darwin.

“We’ll finally have some change rooms and we’ll have the storage to be able to hold enough units to be able to make sure that our customers can actually leave with a House of Darwin product, because at the moment we haven’t had enough storage to hold enough units to sell.”

The new store is expected to be officially launched at an event in late October.

October is also when House of Darwin will head out to Fitzroy Crossing, in the Kimberley, to host art workshops with local First Nations children and ultimately beautify the town’s basketball court.

House of Darwin's Barunga apparel was on full display at this year's Barunga Festival. Picture: Facebook

The ‘Hoop Dreams’ program has already seen the beautification of basketball courts at Barunga, Gunbalanya, Minmarama, Yirrkala and Wangkatjungka.

In between painting courts and fitting out the new shop, House of Darwin managed to find the time to design and launch The Hangar, a refurbished helicopter hangar on a Bees Creek property that will host live music events into the future.

“House of Darwin was born about to celebrate the culture and the place that is the Northern Territory and music plays a massive part in bringing people together,” Mr Edwards said.

“We use music as a tool to galvanise the Darwin community and bring them together.”

He said House of Darwin would, in time, look to secure international acts to play at The Hangar.

With the brand’s domestic reputation secured, an important international audition looms: in March next year, House of Darwin will unveil its first cross-border collaboration with a United States label.

“We will launch in multiple stores across the US,” Mr Edwards said.

“I’ve always had a vision for House of Darwin to be not only one of the largest domestic brands, but also internationally as well, so hopefully this is just another small stepping stone.”

While Mr Edwards has his finger in multiple pies – he also owns creative agency Going North and cleaning business Territory Sanitisation – he said House of Darwin would always remain “my baby”.

Asked what his proudest moment was in the House of Darwin journey, the businessman said it was as simple as hanging out at Parap Markets and seeing people in his apparel.

“For too long some of the sentiment, especially outside the Northern Territory, can be quite negative, but I think once you’re here you really can unpack the beauty of it and I’m really proud that people can relate to that in the House of Darwin and be proud of where we’re from,” Mr Edwards said.