Yellow Earth, Emporium

Tandem Design Studio's flagship store for Yellow Earth at Melbourne's Emporium set out to give the brand a memorable retail identity while lifting the perceived value of its merchandise. The 180 square metre store weaves together references to the wool industry and the visual clarity of gallery design, producing a zoned shopping journey built from interlinked stories.

Knitted yarn informs the curving rope shopfront and the suspended display cones overhead. A rough textured floor recalls timber wool sheds, while the steel frames running through the store evoke tanneries, machine rooms and sewing floors. Wool itself is showcased through the felt lights and the sheepskin wall cladding. Shoppers enter through the visual density of the woven shopfront and arrive at a central feature zone lit by felt lights, then circulate into areas defined by the suspended woven cones, a shoe library and a Melbourne street artwork by Sean Morris. At the rear, a secondary shopfront faces out onto the second-level street, opening another window-dressing opportunity behind the sheepskin-clad walls of the homewares section.

Display is built into the architecture throughout, inviting a playful, installation-led approach to merchandising. Found objects and stock can sit in the hollows and alcoves of the undulating yarn curtain and woven display cones, on cantilevered shoe boxes or beneath the street art, creating easy associations between the merchandise and the considered design around it. The shopfront's tactile, playful character sets up a constant interplay of transparency, translucency and movement as passing mall visitors run their hands across the threads, and the result is a distinct retail landmark in a highly competitive environment.

Architect: Tandem Design Studio (James Murray and Tim Hill, directors, with Ken Nguyen and graduate architect Kirilly Barnett). Engineer: Bonacci. Photography: Nic Granleese.