New Zealand-born fashion label Kowtow will open its first Australian store in Naarm/Melbourne, in the Fitzroy area this week.
It will add to the brands two existing retail stores in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Located on Gertrude Street, the new flagship is situated over two floors, with natural materials making up the interior, including floor-to-ceiling joinery of spotted gum and suspended panels of Kozo washi paper.
Kowtow managing director Emma Wallace said the brand has had a presence in Melbourne already in various formats.
“Before COVID, we had a showroom and used to do yearly pop ups in the North Melbourne area, so it felt right for us to choose Melbourne as the home of our first bricks and mortar,” Wallace said. “We definitely feel the supportive community here and how it reflects our brand.
“The area our store is in is so vibrant, we love how the street is interwoven with eateries, bars, design shops, galleries and clothing boutiques. It just feels so thriving and alive, anything goes, style is personal and things are not cookie cutter.
“The Melbourne creative scene feels very familiar, it reminds us a lot of Wellington, our hometown, just a lot bigger.”
Kowtow was born 17 years ago, and has since expanded globally via eCommerce and wholesale contracts. It opened its first flagship in Wellington in 2017, and an Auckland store in 2019.
“Bringing our values to life in a physical space has allowed our community to not only experience our collection in full, they can really connect with our circular design system including our free repair and take back programmes,” Wallace said. “Scaling to us is about solving problems, collaborating and creating solutions for our customers.
“Australia is our second biggest market but also a big country so we want to scale realistically, and be confident that we can offer our full circularity service to our community.”
Meanwhile, Kowtow is preparing to be plastic-free from 2024 across its product range. It comes as the brand shifted out standard polyester for stitching, with all its garments now stitched together with cotton.
Wallace said this shift comes after releasing Kowtow’s first Impact Report earlier this year.
“Knowing where a garment comes from and what it is made of is key to supporting an end of life pathway,” she said. “We offer a free repair programme to extend the life of our garments and a take back programme.
“At Kowtow, we believe we are responsible for the garments we produce and it is up to us to take them back at the end of their usable life and recycle them properly. This shouldn’t be up to the customer to figure out.”