Brunswick-based store Better With Friends celebrates local and independent designers

“Playful, femme clothing for all.”

Sandwiched between coffee shops and art galleries on Brunswick’s bustling Sydney Road, Better with Friends is a concept store offering a selection of colourful pieces from local designers. Its Founder, Rebecca Koster, had been working on her own label full-time for over five years when she felt ready to bring her own space to life. In March of 2022, Better with Friends opened its doors.

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“It seemed a waste of an opportunity to only stock myself when there were so many labels I admired that would be welcomed in Brunswick,” Rebecca says. After having her son only six months prior, Rebecca put the store together in “chaos”, but the result is perfectly curated – a vibrant, welcoming space for all kinds of shoppers. Below, Rebecca shares the inspiration behind the new store.

Tell me a bit about how the vision for the Better With Friends store came about.

I’ve always wanted to open my own store. I actually left school in year 11 at the suggestion of my teachers and parents to get real-world experience in a shop…

All the subjects I was taking didn’t apply to my goals, so naturally I wasn’t invested in them. I guess you could say this was long overdue, [with me] being 32 when I finally took the plunge.

I’d been working full-time on my label Rbcca Kstr for five years and it had grown to the point that I was ready to move into a studio, but I wanted to bring the dream of a storefront to life as well.

It seemed a waste of an opportunity to only stock myself when there were so many labels I admired that would be welcomed in Brunswick. This is where the name Better with Friends comes from – because it always is better with friends.

How would you describe the store’s aesthetic?

Playful, femme clothing for all. I typically like to be as local as I can with my buying but we also feature a few independent overseas brands like House of Sunny and Find Me Now. My main goal for the store is for it to be a welcoming space for everybody, no matter who they are or what they’re wearing.

What was the process like putting the store together and were there any challenges or roadblocks along the way?

The whole process was actually very uncomplicated, and everything just fell into place once I found my dream shop front. My son was six months old at the time, so that brought some challenges.

Having said that, I’ve always worked better in chaos, so the adrenaline kicked in and I powered through the never-ending to-do list. We opened at the end of COVID – luckily we didn’t experience any lockdowns, although during our fit-out, our builder tested positive for COVID, which pushed back our opening day by a few weeks.

Who did Better With Friends collaborate with when bringing the store to life?

My work wife Ilsa Wynne-Hoelscher Kidd has been my long-term collaborator for my label, she happily jumped on board to help with imagery for the shop. Austin Maynard were the architect that designed our beautiful building. They were really helpful and generous with their time when I was planning the shop layout.

What’s your favourite feature/area of the store?

It’s not a part of the store accessible to customers but our jewellery and photography studio out the back is by far my favourite area. Before opening the store, I was running my jeweller label full-time from our garage. Having a professional studio was a huge milestone for me and I’m still pinching myself that this is where I get to work every day.

What do you like about the area/the Melbourne creative scene in general?

We’re so fortunate in Brunswick to be surrounded by creative studios, businesses and RMIT. We get to interact with people who are at the start of their journey to full-time creatives. The Melbourne creative scene is especially innovative when it comes to sustainability. I love seeing how people approach waste and recycle something old into an almost unrecognisable new product.

Browse the Better with Friends collection here.