We designed a new national flagship store and new retail design concept in Sydney’s Martin Place for 100% Australian-owned ‘gentlemen’s clothier’, M.J. Bale. The flagship store is located in a 19th century heritage-listed building on the corners of Pitt Street and Martin Place.
The space has been divided into two distinct sub-spaces: a deconstructed perimeter space with 8-metre high ceilings, contemporary concrete floors, brick finishes and lighter aged timber joinery to showcase the brand’s ready-to-wear ranges; and the more intimate interior VIP space (divided from the contemporary section by 3.5-metre high steel doors), which is dedicated to custom suiting and made-to-measure programs with richer finishes, including herringbone floors and ebonised and aged timber joinery.
The design embodies a contradiction of different finishes and terms – refined versus coarse, traditional versus contemporary – within a grand heritage building with cathedral-like ceiling heights.