A US cult fashion brand has fuelled speculation a permanent store in Australia may be closer than expected, following the label’s partnership with a local retailer for a new store concept. Edwards Imports, owned by Janine Edwards, is the local licensee of Urban Outfitter’s Free People brand , and operates three retail stores, Sydney’s Come As Your Are, and two stores on the Gold Coast – Janine Edwards and Fifiluxe by Janine Edwards. Edwards Imports, which will also brin
ng Desigual to Australian shores later this year as reported by Inside Retail PREMIUM, will open a second Come As Your Are store in Bondi next month, with 70 per cent of the offering to be Free People apparel.
“The store is a pretty major venture we have started on,” Edwards told Inside Retail PREMIUM.
“It will have the same feel as Free People. We’re having the furniture shipped out at the moment.”
Free People is owned by Urban Outfitter’s and first launched as a bricks and mortar store in US city, Philadelphia, in the early 1970s. It was soon converted and expanded under the name Urban Outfitters, with the Free People label only sold wholesale.
Last month, Come As Your Are, in Sydney’s Paddington, held a three day Free People pop up instore.
Edwards Imports also has the local licenses for Odd Molly, J Brand, and American Vintage, however, according to Edwards there are no plans to roll out store concepts for other international labels.
“This is the only plan we have for this year, and next year there will be another plan.”
