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Melbourne's best?
MELBOURNE: Fashion retail will be crucial to Melbourne's future profile as a leading global city, according to a new report. The 'Melbourne Retail Strategy Year Two Report Card 2007/08' found fashion retailing was key to Melbourne' status as a drawcard for retailers and shoppers. Around 445 of the 1480 shops in Melbourne's retail core were occupied by fashion retailers, compared with 340 out of 1700 in Sydney, the report confirmed. Clothing retail occupied 37 per cent of the retail tenancy mix by shop numbers in the CBD. The GPO was found to be the city's most specialised high-end fashion shopping centre, accounting for 56.9 per cent of the city centre's retail tenancy mix.

Going Grey
MELBOURNE: Emerging label Since Grey has opened a store in the arts and fashion hub of Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. Designer Nadiele The store, the designer's first solo retail venture, was formerly an art gallery and now incorporates Kolb's studio and a seamstress's workroom. The Since Grey range - featuring imported natural fabrications, Japanese fine pleating and Kolb's own hand screen-printing - will be complemented by one-off pieces designed exclusively for Since Grey by jewellery designer Jasmine O'Hara.

Export gold
NATIONAL: Indonesian trade officials have called for Australia and New Zealand to open their TCF markets in the wake of regional free trade negotiations. The Indonesian Trade Ministry has asked that textiles with an import tariff of between 3.5 and 17.5 per cent be reduced as part of the prospective agreement. It is understood officials have also proposed zero-tariff facilities for footwear exports. China is the only country to have obtained free tariffs for textile and textile exports from Australia and New Zealand.

Austin gets Chipper
MELBOURNE: Australian apparel wholesaler Austin Group has secured a licensing deal with American denim brand Chip & Pepper. The embattled group, soon to be renamed Mercury Brands under a major company restructure, is the first to secure a licensing deal with the Los-Angeles headquartered company and will release selected lines across Australia and New Zealand in September. The licensing deal represents Austin Group's entry into the Australian and New Zealand denim market. The Australian line will include men's and women's denim and a selection of vintage tees.

Big shift
MELBOURNE: The Australian head of New Zealand apparel company Hallenstein Glasson has fortified her intention to boost the company's Australian presence by announcing a decision to relocate its buying team to Melbourne. It is understood up to five buyers from Christchurch will shift to Melbourne by the end of the year. Shayne Quanchi, who has been at the helm of the company for just two months and is herself based in the Victorian capital, said the move would not affect Glassons' other operations with financial services, visual merchandising, retail, marketing and distribution remaining in Christchurch and company headquarters staying in Auckland.