Words: Janice Breen Burns, editor jbb@voxfrock.com.au
Photographs: contributed.
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COS is the slick little sibling of Swedish mega-chain H&M and, for some who like their frocks neat and tailored items sharp-cut and sparingly detailed, it is a kind-of mid-to-low-priced sartorial Holy Grail. Melbourne – city of sophisticated fashion habits – was wisely picked to host the first Australian Cos store for women, men and kids. Cos boss, Marie Honda made a flying visit from head office in London to nurse the store from stock to launch.
Marie Honda
Ms Honda is a little like her brand: fuss-less, low-key, a youngish woman of few words and certain restraint. She’s hosted several one-on-ones with media representatives before Voxfrock swans into the sleek, airy store on Elizabeth Street at the end of a long day, but shows no sign of weariness. Even the collection she shows me, clean-cut cotton, sand-washed silk and technical nylon frocks, shirts, skirts and tailored pieces plucked from racks dominated by clear pastels, salt-whites and a handful of subtle, watery prints, has already been stocked in Cos stores across the European spring-summer months, but she has not tired of it.“We’re excited to have our hands on so many of these pieces again.”
Among the summer best sellers, a neat sleeveless frocklet in glassy sky-blue silk, is finely finished with a robust twill A-line skirt dropping cleanly from the low-waist line. The Cos design team’s current obsession with combinations of weight and texture, flatteringly simple silhouettes, and echos of modern architecture, are loaded into this one little frocklet. “Casual twill, combined with fine silk, minimalistic style,” says Ms. Honda. The logic is obvious.
The Cos philosophy embraces timeless shapes, clean lines, every detail with a reason and function; the right white blouse, the key black frock, the perfect chino, sweater, T-shirt, tailored jacket. “We do talk a lot about functionality, so that’s probably why things appear scaled back,” Ms. Honda says. “Everything (every detail) is there for a reason but also to be flattering and we inspire customers to play: play with proportions, and how they will wear something, like chinos on the hip or more fitted, or a dress with this belt, or a skirt with a soft silk top or more fitted…”
On one side of the Cos store womenswear stocks are summery pastel, salty white, with the odd pop of oceanic green; on the other, overwhelmingly black, white, navy and unmistakeably “minimalist”. One typically intriguing full circle skirt, for example, is cut in a Chinese technical nylon so thick it can stand up by itself. The fabric’s bulk however, has been so carefully engineered, it fits smooth and flat over the hips before dropping into its prettily sticky-outy A-line just above the knees. (Wardens of Melbourne’s many sale racks packed with heavily discounted circle skirts unloved because they bulked unflatteringly over would-be buyers’ hips, take note.)
“The material is key,” Ms. Honda says, “And, how you cut and finish the garment, how to do the pleats and the volumes. We have a great house design team who work in the very traditional way, with material on the stand. They find fantastic new ways work different materials, to combine different materials, to come up with some amazing proportions and always, to make the inside of each garment as important as the outside.”
Cos will sell its spring-summer collection concurrently with Euro autumn/winter drops due to trickle into the store in coming weeks, ensuring Australia’s parity with Cos stores everywhere.
The store opens at noon tomorrow, Friday November 28, in The Strand, on the southside of Emporium, Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. Prices range from about $69 to $89 for staples such as a white cotton poplin blouse, up to $450 for exceptional pieces such as leather, around $190 for women’s tailored jackets, $250-$290 for men’s tailored jackets (including a smashing linen style likely to sell out quickly) and around $95 for trousers.
