The oversized myth that men dislike shopping for clothes is busted with a peek behind select polished closed doors and by the satisfying sound of champagne corks taking flight.
Discreet menswear destinations with private bars and personalised service are replacing the lifeless men’s floors of department stores and dark alcoves of high-street shops packed with polo shirts.
Joe Farage in his Darlinghurst menswear boutique.Credit: James Brickwood
With 25 years’ experience in the fashion industry, designer Joe Farage is naturally on-trend, having closed Farage stores in Sydney and Melbourne shopping centres to focus on last year’s opening of a five-level flagship in Darlinghurst.
“This is a very different approach to retail,” Farage says. “You get to work more closely with your customer, take them on the full journey, from day to night, and build a wardrobe in an environment that is inspiring. And yes, they do tend to spend more money.”
“They come back with friends, sit around for a coffee and become invested in the brand, before investing in the brand.”
Far from any food court, Farage’s store and head office neighbours wine bars, gyms and offices filled with creatives who wear sneakers with suits. The vast space resembles a gallery, with jackets hanging above vintage furniture plucked from Angelucci in Collingwood, near works of art by Henryk Lobaczewski.
A concrete staircase leads to spacious dressing rooms, with a private elevator fast-tracking guests to a discreet rooftop.
“If you’re going to do retail, it has to be about experience,” says Farage. “Why else would you do it?”
“For convenience, you can just jump online. That makes sense, but more people want to be a part of the design journey and understand the product. They hope to have a coffee, shoot the breeze, chat about fabrics and ‘what’s next, Joey?’”
Stores like Farage offer respite during turbulent economic times, with the growth of luxury labels slowing and online British luxury retailer Matches Fashion entering administration this month.
Persistent customers expect more than clicking and a cardboard box from a blow-out on brogues or bomber jackets. Last year, the Business of Fashion published a survey where 77 per cent of frequent luxury shoppers intended to visit a physical store as often or more frequently in the next 12 months.
Joe Ha at The Finery Company in Paddington, located inside a Paddington terrace house. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
In Melbourne, multi-brand boutique Masons lures customers into its sprawling Flinders Lane store to splurge on clothing from Dries Van Noten and Song For The Mute with a marble bar, espresso machine and minibars stacked with sparkling or still mineral water.
Above Hardware Lane, at tailor Oscar Hunt, the fully stocked bar produces martinis that dull the monotony of fittings, best enjoyed with pins removed from trousers in the designer furniture.
Tailor Joe Ha relies on the appeal of his physical Paddington store in Sydney, which feels more like a gentleman’s club, or sartorial speakeasy, to open burnished leather wallets.
“It’s working,” Ha says. “We’re doing much better sales than pre-COVID.”
Environment is important when suits cost $7000, with a five-month wait. The more affordable sartorial line starts at $3650, with a faster turnaround.
“For many people, bespoke tailoring is a foreign concept that makes you think of an old tailor in a dark room. We wanted to break out of that and offer a lifestyle concept incorporating interiors, architecture, accessories, and beautiful objects.
From the outside the property resembles most whitewashed heritage homes, but those with an appointment or stumbling inside on a weekly open day discover an Aladdin’s cave where fabric from Loro Piana, Dormeuil and Holland & Sherry seems to have burst forth from a mid-century lamp.
“This is not about just tailoring, it’s about lifestyle, beautiful living and being able to express yourself as an art form. It’s not the instant gratification of a shopping fix.”
For Ha, the store needed to be a perfect fit for customers in their 70s, and young dandies at home wearing jackets with broad lapels and 1940s-style nipped waists atop trousers that billow in a harbour breeze.
“Our customers like to keep things quiet because for them buying a suit is a very personal thing. They like to keep it to themselves. Even if you ask them where their suit is from they might not tell you.”
“It’s a private world.”
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