MELBOURNE: Menswear designer James Cameron has put a troubled launch into the market behind him, with the unveiling of a new stand-alone store in Collingwood.
Cameron made industry headlines last year after his Oliver Lane store was burgled for the second time in as many years. The first raid occurred just three weeks after he launched the business in February 2007, when thieves cleared out his entire store and studio space and made off with over $200,000 worth of apparel.
Cameron then suffered the loss of the store's computers in another raid during March 2008.
But the young entrepreneur is putting the past firmly behind him with his new site in Collingwood's Smith Street. Created in collaboration with architectural firm Universal Design Studio, the store sits inside the spacious interiors of a 1920s building.
The design references 1960s French spy films with muted green walls and a charcoal painted floor framed by checkerboard tiles. Office archive boxes surround hanging rails while hundreds of black tubes dangle from the site's ceiling. Large mirrors also sit parallel to the aluminium-fronted desk.
The store has debuted with James Cameron's spring/summer 2008/09 collection.