The rivalry between Australia’s top two department stores has been strong of late with rumoured, sneaky battles throughout the Melbourne Cup Carnival last week, and now one of Myer’s top designers is jumping ship to its major opponent, David Jones.
After six years under the helm of Myer, Sydney Confidential reports that Perth-based Aurelio Costarella will be stocked at David Jones from February 2016. “We had to look at our strategy going forward and where we see ourselves sitting in the market and felt quite strongly for some time now that David Jones was a better fit for the Aurelio Costarella brand,” he explained of the decision.
Other top-notch Aussie labels like Zimmermann, Camilla and Marc and Michael Lo Sordo are all also stocked at David Jones. “They have a really impressive portfolio of Australian designers and are renowned for supporting and propelling their homegrown talent so it was kind of a no-brainer for us in terms of where we wanted to be positioned,” Aurelio explained of the label’s new home.
Photo courtesy of Aurelio Costarella
In a perfectly timed arrival, Aurelio Costarella will feature in the highly anticipated David Jones Autumn 2016 Fashion Launch next February with his namesake label’s upcoming “Natura” collection. It also just so happens that the face of David Jones, Jessica Gomes, is also a Perth-native, meaning Aurelio can reignite his long-standing relationship with the model.
“We go back a very long way,” he explained. “Jess was doing my shows at Fashion Week in Sydney in 2004 and 2005 before she made it big, so it will be really nice to be working with Jess again after all these years.”
We’ve got to admit, though, we’ll miss the Kate Peck and Aurelio Costarella combo just as much as we’re excited to see the one with the likes of Jess and Montana Cox redevelop.
[Via Sydney Confidential]
