What started as on obsession with forward fashion design has evolved into professional retail operations with a global following. We’re talking retailer and avid collector Octavius La Rosa and his quirky dot COMME boutique in downtown Melbourne. La Rosa discovered forward Japanese and Belgian fashion labels when he was a teen, amassing trophy items he found online and selling off most of it again to kindred spirits. The occasional dabbling turned into a proper online store, and it was in 2011 that La Rosa’s operations took shape in a brick and mortar store at Curtin House, a neo-classical landmark building in the heart of the city. And now, dot COMME sees an ambitious renewal of this location on Swanston Street, as it has expanded with an additional retail space one floor up.
La Rosa and his creative director Holly-Rose Butler tapped local practice Sibling Architecture to create a matching interior design, and the result bears witness of a long-term vision for the store. Dipped in a pristine white hue, it’s an uncluttered space with striking bulbous walls and mirrored sections. It’s the perfect backdrop for the colour-infused furniture pieces and a light fixture by Memphis and Gaetano Pesce. Shoppers are invited to sit down and leisurely browse dot COMME‘s extensive online archive, picking from a larger apparel selection to try on – mind you, all selected items are collected from the archive room next door, situated behind a concealed door. However, the new store space displays key pieces from featuring key pieces from every collection since the 1970s of fashion brands Comme des Garçons, Walter van Beirendonck, Issey Miyake and Yohji Yamamoto.
dot COMME
Curtin House, 252 Swanston Street, Level 3 + 4 (CBD)
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Telephone: +61 412 664989
Mon-Thu 11-6
Fri 11-7
Sat 11-6
Sun 12-5
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
