Denim Stores In Australia

[Invisible]

So on average what can expect to pay for a pair of Raw Japanese Selvedge denims in Oz for imported labels...

[Pandemonium]

Pretty sure thats Darwin?

haha, nah man.

darwin's stereotype is that it's full of indiginous people who are maltreated and sniff petrol and do some pre-level shit.

and apparently one of australia's biggest party scenes is there. don't know why.

370 for eternals... fuck we sure get ripped down here.

[Kaze]

i think it will be alot cheaper just getting a proxy and sending it over with the strong aussie dollar, i can't see it being more then what 250 aus? .. 120 bucks difference and now u can get a whole outfit! hehe

[Pandemonium]

could buy a western shirt or some shit.

[jcotteri]

Where is a good store on the net to get these?

[indigo_junkie]

$370AUD!?!?!?!?!? WTF? That's just insane.

[mikecch]

Reviving an old thread. I hope to visit most of the shops here in Australia, and put up some photos and details as a resource for us Aussies.

 

First up is one of my local stores here in Melbourne: Godspeed

 

 

Place is run by Martin, who has been a denim head for some years and also has spent a bit of time living in Japan.

Some cool stuff here, like TCB, Tanuki, Railcar, Radiall, Rats, etc...

 

 

Also there is a denim repair/alteration service with specialized machines: tapering, darning, chainstitch hemming & embroidering.

 

 

Well worth checking out in here in Fitzroy, Melbourne. They have a web-shop too - just google Godspeed store.

[mikecch]

Very lucky in Melbourne at the moment, as Ant at Anthill Workshop has just set up a dedicated denim repair and customization workshop, adding to available resources for Australian enthusiasts. His space is located at the back of Pickings & Parry in Fitzroy.

 

Ant was nice enough to show me through his newly minted rooms:

 

Ant can do almost anything with denim pants and jackets, and has lots of experience working on them.

Chain-stitch embroidery, chain-stitch hemming, full inseam tapering, darning, sashiko hand-stitch, etc.

You name it, he can probably do it.

 

 

Being a denim head himself Ant is pretty particular about the details of any stitch work, as well as the materials he uses.

I felt pretty safe leaving some of my denim goods with him for alteration & embroidery - he takes the time to measure and pin the individual garments whilst worn on your person, and is really enthusiastic about the work he does.

 

 

Ant's got access to a growing collection of vintage machinery too. Some really exciting stuff for the local scene, I think.

The workshop will officially launch in it's current location this Thursday evening at a co-hosted party with P&P - more photos to come.

I hope to show you some of his work here soon.

[karanimal]

DAMN! Melbourne is growing like crazy in terms of rawdenim. You guys have what, 5+ stores now? 

[mikecch]

Which are the others? Only been to Corlection, P&P, Godspeed so far.

[kicks79]

Sydney is not far behind Blue Works, Great Southern Denim, New Vintage, Corlection.

 

Maple has a decent selection.

 

There is also Denham. Not into their denim, but the staff are friendly and they can do chainstiching for you.

[poshy]

Damn, I'm looking to get my Sams darned and it looks like I've actually got options now.  Can anyone recommend Godspeed or Anthill over each other? 

[mondo]

Sydney is not far behind Blue Works, Great Southern Denim, New Vintage, Corlection.

 

Maple has a decent selection.

 

There is also Denham. Not into their denim, but the staff are friendly and they can do chainstiching for you.

 

 

...not to mention Big Trouble!  Chain stitching, repairs and alterations can also be performed by Mikhail Zenon; he does good work.

[karanimal]

Great Southern Denim has some pretty cool items! I will need to go check it out! 

 

Blue works is my fav store around, something about the guys at corlection seems to rub me the wrong way, can't put my finger on it. 

 

Is New Vintage still open? 

[mondo]

I find that CorLection are not very direct when asked for an opinion on a fit.. it could be a cultural thing; maybe they don't want to feel responsible for the choices of a lumbering Aussie.. with the result that once or twice I've purchased jeans that someone should really have talked me out of buying.  As in, they were never going to work post-soak.  I don't get the feeling it's because they're determined to make the sale at all costs; it's more "well, if you think those jeans fit, I'm not going to be the one to tell you they could fit better.."

 

Great Southern and Big Trouble will call it as they see it — I think they've experienced enough online fit disappointments themselves (hence the desire to set up shop in the first place) to know that it's absolutely the last thing you want to happen in a bricks-'n'-mortar environment.  That sets up a good relationship where the customer looks for things they could buy from the store, even though there may not have been anything for them last time around.

[mikecch]

^You'll find that this is very much culture related. Same type of servicing in most clothing shops in Chinese-influenced societies.

[okisan]

Just thought i'd weigh in on this one...

 

Whilst i can't speak for how other stores approach their sales, i can only say that we have little interest in selling somebody something that doesn't work for them. The way is see it we're here to provide a service, and one that extends beyond giving you the ability to try on something on that you'd only seen on the internet. If the fit isn't right, particularly on raw products, it really is to nobody's benefit to try & convince them it's going to work. On the odd occasion we have made a sale that's 'on the fence' so to speak fit wise, we were clear up front that it may not work out post wash - thankfully it's always worked out for the best and nobody's come back disappointed.

 

Every store is going to have their own way of doing things, but we feel honesty is the best policy and we'll always give an opinion on a fit. If we're going to sell you something we want you to enjoy it, otherwise what's the point?

[oomslokop]

which store do you work for @okisan mate?

[okisan]

Great Southern Denim Co.

[mikecch]

Just thought i'd weigh in on this one...

 

Whilst i can't speak for how other stores approach their sales, i can only say that we have little interest in selling somebody something that doesn't work for them. The way is see it we're here to provide a service, and one that extends beyond giving you the ability to try on something on that you'd only seen on the internet. If the fit isn't right, particularly on raw products, it really is to nobody's benefit to try & convince them it's going to work. On the odd occasion we have made a sale that's 'on the fence' so to speak fit wise, we were clear up front that it may not work out post wash - thankfully it's always worked out for the best and nobody's come back disappointed.

 

Every store is going to have their own way of doing things, but we feel honesty is the best policy and we'll always give an opinion on a fit. If we're going to sell you something we want you to enjoy it, otherwise what's the point?

 

Totally agree with your sentiments here...

But in some East Asian societies, you simply do not 'disagree' or 'critique' a customer...just not the done thing.

So even if a shirt or a pair of pants may not fit in terms of measurements or body shape, it is almost taboo in many circumstances to tell the customer, especially if they are a bit older or of higher social status.

It is hard to understand looking from the outside, but rest assured there are likely no malicious motives behind this type of behaviour.

[mikecch]

Pickings & Parry in Fitzroy, Melbourne, who just celebrated their 3rd birthday:

 

Originally stocking mostly work-trad clothing and accessories when they first opened, they've gradually come to stock more Japanese brands.

They have select pieces from brands such as Sugar Cane, Tailor Toyo, Indigofera, John Lofgren, Merz b. Schwanen, Tanner Goods, Nigel Cabourn, etc.

Aero and Stevenson's Overalls are featured, but the selections are extremely small.

 

 

Anthill Workshop is co-located to provide denim alteration & repair services - more photos in my post earlier in this thread.

It even has a barber shop built into the back-half of the shop space.

 

Overall, P&P is nicely curated and quite a holistic experience...even if the prices are a bit higher than overseas RRP and the selection across the brands is somewhat small.

Worth dropping by to have a look if you're in the neighborhood. 

[mikecch]

Bonus pics!

 

Anthony by his lonesome doing some freehand chain-stitch embroidery at the P&P birthday party:

 

 

[mikecch]

Prime is located in the central business district of Melbourne.

 

 

They have a small selection of LVC, Naked & Famous, as well as TSPTR and some Red Wings.

 

 

For LVC they have a jackets, jeans and Ts.

 

 

Unfortunately they are unable to special order in any LVC stuff.

 

 

They have some of Naked & Famous' new models too. But none of their MiJ jeans, which I would have been interested.

Anyway, small shop, worth checking out. It's right next to Nudie and just around the corner from Corlection, so might as well.

 

One thing that I find very interesting is that almost everybody in Melbourne stocks Red Wings, but no one currently has an account with the higher end American makers.

[conqueror]

most of the aus stockists usually only carry the same 2-3 models in like one colour, too. i can understand why to an extent, but it'd it be nice to see someone order some oxfords or something as opposed to identical 875s. if you're already stocking some niche label that makes jackets in the thousands (cabourn) then it shouldn't really be a huge gamble.

Edited October 1, 2016 by conqueror

[louisbosco]

you guys are forgetting RHD over east that started out in Adelaide. In Perth, we have Elroy, who from memory, carries LVC, alpha industries and i think abit of toyo (sugar cane, buzz etc) as well. Then we have Cabinet noir, which seems to be your hype sneaker and brand store, stock a little flathead, iron heart and such. 

[conqueror]

you guys are forgetting RHD over east that started out in Adelaide. In Perth, we have Elroy, who from memory, carries LVC, alpha industries and i think abit of toyo (sugar cane, buzz etc) as well. Then we have Cabinet noir, which seems to be your hype sneaker and brand store, stock a little flathead, iron heart and such. 

 

 

even though it's in adelaide, rhd has been talked about in the sydney and melbourne threads ever since it opened. it's been under different ownership for the last 2 years, but they still stock the same kinda labels - samurai, buzz, sugar cane, kuumba, etc. they have offered chainstitching pretty much since opening day.

 

the one other vaguely similar store in adelaide is midwest, although the only labels relevant to this thread would be red wing and pendleton. adelaide briefly had one arm scissor about 6 years ago that didn't last long and was kinda modelled on tresbien (no jp americana), and stocked band of outsiders, apc, acne etc. interestingly, they were the first stockist of common projects in australia, and also (at the time) the sole stockist of trickers. my understanding is that no one has really 'officially' carried trickers in aus since, which is a bummer considering church's have at least some minor representation here.

 

edit: canberra has literally nothing in terms of 'menswear' (even for suiting). it's kinda weird considering how many government workers on high salaries + rich international students at anu are around.

Edited October 1, 2016 by conqueror

[oomslokop]

edit: canberra has literally nothing in terms of 'menswear' (even for suiting). it's kinda weird considering how many government workers on high salaries + rich international students at anu are around.

 

hasn't really changed much since 1992 then!

[louisbosco]

 

 

edit: canberra has literally nothing in terms of 'menswear' (even for suiting). it's kinda weird considering how many government workers on high salaries + rich international students at anu are around.

 

Key word: rich. they get it made elsewhere

[Syncd86]

Lucky to have so many good stores in melbourne, wish godspeed had some tcb western shirts. they have a couple of pairs of 50's denim but not much else right now from tcb. Guys in Corlection have been pretty helpful to me, just picked up a pair Studio D'artisan sd107 from them couldn't be happy, could of got them from denimio but been trying to support the locals recently.

[mikecch]

Last but not least during my recent travels: Corlection.

They've been around for about 8 years, with the main store in Sydney and a smaller shop in Melbourne's central business district.

I visited the Melbourne branch, helmed by Charlie.

 

 

I guess Corlection is different compared with most other Australian stores by virtue of the volume, variety and stock.

The majority of Japanese brands are carried here, with a good selection of pieces and sizes too.

 

 

Pure Blue Japan, Freewheelers, Full Count, Momotaro, Japan Blue, Iron Heart, Jelado, Orgueil, Studio D'Artisan, Skull Jeans, The Flat Head, Real Japan Blues, The Strike Gold, Warehouse, Stevensons etc...

 

Seriously, it's pretty amazing to have all of these brands on one shelf here in Australia. I wouldn't have imagined this could be possible back when I first started with this hobby.

 

 

Lots of leather goods, silvers/hardware and shoes too:

Thorogood, Kawatako, The Flat Head, S.F.K., Red Wing, First Arrow, etc.

 

 

Also, T-shirts from all the brands, with all sizes available.

Tonnes of other stuff too. It's kinda hard to process all of it, and this is the smaller shop too!

 

 

Corlection is pretty much the biggest Japanese denim shop in Melbourne in terms of range and depth of stock.

It's not as nicely set-out in terms of the shop space compared with Godspeed or P&P, but they have more clothes and dry goods than all the other places combined.

 

Couple of things to note here:

Two levels of membership, with top-tier membership pretty much at Japanese RRP most of the time.

Special order possible in some cases...e.g. if there is a particular Freewheeler vest or TFH shirt you want.