Sharing the pavement with Jamie’s Espresso Bar, One Point Seven Four and Libertine Parfumerie, the new Blonde Venus shop space feels like the start of a new era for the maverick clothier. Richards & Spence has designed the fit-out – from the impressive window installation as you arrive at the laneway entrance to the vinyl accordion dressing room doors. Creating a nice link between the old and the new, Adrian Spence also conceived the original Blonde Venus store fit-out 23 years ago. Fluorescent lighting placed on a diagonal meets raw brick and white walls to frame the space, creating a fresh and eye-catching canvas to show off the store’s colourful wares. Paul Owen from Owen and Vokes and Peters designed the elegant wooden clothing racks around the store, along with the trestles that support a recycled door for the centre table.

Expanding your fashion lexicon, Blonde Venus has brought a few new labels under its wing, including the ridiculously soft bamboo lingerie and staple tees of French label Base, tote bags from Los Angeles-based Hansel From Basel, and Carly Hunter’s autumn/winter 2014 offerings. New tulip-adorned dresses and bumpy woollen bags from local label Soot have also joined the mix, while menfolk are catered to with the new PAM menswear collection and LIC beanies, tees and knits. Ladies will enjoy stroking Dress Up’s new Namaste collection, delicate jewellery from Melbourne’s Two Hills and Craig & Karl x Le Specs eyewear. New deliveries of stock will continue to arrive weekly, enticing fashionable folk to return to the new Blonde Venus dwelling regularly.

Blonde Venus
Shop 3, 181 Robertson Street, Fortitude Valley
Ph: 07 3216 1735
Open: Monday to Saturday 10:00 am to 5:30 pm, Sunday 11:00 am to 4:00 pm