Aésop Flinders Lane

We aim to add rather than detract from the existing built environment, taking into consideration the characteristics of the neighbourhood and the type of outlets with which we share the street. Within each store, we work with objects and materials that offer interesting possibilities because of their colour, texture or history.

Aesop Flinders Lane
Design team: Rodney Eggleston and Anne-Laure Cavigneaux of March Studios
Location: Shop 1C, 268 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Australia.
When to visit: Anytime.

In 2007, Aesop’s Flinders Lane store was given a temporary makeover by Melbourne’s March Studio. Constructed in just five days, the store fit out is made entirely from industrial-grade cardboard, from the shelving units and countertop to the eastern facade. Once the centre of Melbourne’s rag trade, Flinders Lane is now home to stores including Journal Canteen and Superfino. The team responsible for Aesop’s redux are architects Rodney Eggleston and Anne-Laure Cavigneaux, who won the 2007 National Interior Design Awards for their work on Dusk bar in St Kilda.

The ambient new store has drawn attention from all sorts of passers by. Store manager, Kate, says she wasn’t expecting how amazed customers would be by the store’s design. “It’s clear it’s a very tactile environment. Most people come in and tend to want to touch it all.”



Since being established by Dennis Pahitis twenty years ago, Aésop skin care has become an uncontested success story in the notoriously fickle beauty industry – focused on providing its worldwide clientele with the highest quality botanical skin care, rather than subscribing to mainstream-cosmetic anti-aging hype.




Aésop now have 78 international stockists, plus 20 signature stores including stores in Paris, London and Sydney. Most Aésop stores are unique in the retail landscape and have little in common with one another aside from a warm and welcoming ambience.




via yatzer | Aésop | March Studio
Photo credits: Amanda de Simone