Kowtow store in Melbourne

The New Zealand fashion label’s creative director, Marilou Dadat, credits the teamwork that made this succinct dream of a scheme work.

Marilou, you collaborated with New Zealand interior designer Rufus Knight on your new Naarm/Melbourne store’s fit-out — how did that play out? This is the third store Rufus and his team have designed for Kowtow, the first being the flagship in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington and the second in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland. Each space is different but the brief is always the same: what materials can we use that are sustainable and natural? Like our clothing, the design started with circularity in mind; both of our teams are inspired by finding beauty in functionality and natural materials.
The new store is typical of Fitzroy. It was once a home and is quite narrow, with high ceilings, and I love how the design embraces the verticality and height. Our stores always appear more pared back than our collections. The palette of this one is more textural than chromatic — both the space and the clothes let each other sing their song.