What does Australian jewellery and accessories label Brie Leon have in common with Collingwood-based interior designers Without Studio? They are both young and dynamic, embracing a considered, everyday approach towards design. Rather than working under a traditional client-designer relationship, Without Studio’s recent fitout to a Surry Hills shopfront was more of a collaboration between the interior designers and their design-savvy client. Designed to encapsulate a new era of the growing Brie Leon brand, the flagship store stands today as a timeless testament to both designers’ key ideologies – and the power of restraint.
Founder and creative director of Brie Leon, Janine Zafra, approached Without Studio with a strong design direction and thoughts on materiality. “This was such a great jumping off point for us to riff off of,” says Without Studio’s creative director Mel Hasic, while also acknowledging that “we wouldn’t be doing our job correctly if we didn’t offer something our client hadn’t considered before.” Working off a pared back palette driven by Zafra, Without Studio carefully introduced furniture and joinery elements to reaffirm the fashion brand’s unique identity within their flagship store.
“We had to elevate finishes to make them work harder for us as there were very few finishes – all of which were quite simple,” explains Hasic. Early on in the project, Without Studio familiarised themselves with Brie Leon products, house fabrics and upcoming collections. “As we swooned over the ranges, we felt it would be remiss to not use Brie Leon’s own materiality in the fitout,” shares Hasic.
Lacing the store with motifs and textures employed by the fashion designer, the space reads as a scaled up piece of jewellery – or perhaps a handbag. An oversized chainlink display feature not only nods to the jewellery line, but creates a unique display medium for merchandise. The unique front door pull and several floral laser cut metal backplates are modelled off the brand’s current collection and affixed in a way that allows Brie Leon to replace them with new shapes seasonally. Without Studio also customized stools throughout the store using various house fabrics from the brand’s current and past collections.
Working closely with custom furniture makers Poly Designs, Without Studio introduced various elements in the store that embrace quirky detailing and clever fabrication techniques. Various metal plinths are dressed with a fabric skirt, adding a tactility and softness. The oversized chainlink feature, like many other components in the store, was “essentially a prototype, as we were figuring everything out as a collective [as the build progressed],” explains Hasic. With the flagship store located in Sydney, the Melbourne-based designers’ biggest challenge was time. “We were engaged in early September and we had a mid-late November store opening deadline to meet,” shares Hasic. “It made the most sense time-wise to work closely with a fabricator in Melbourne,” adds Hasic. This relationship ended up being what she describes as a very “rewarding and intimate experience.”
