The Standard Store is the Fitzroy boutique stocking a curated selection of international labels

“Colourful, joyful and individual.”

Located on Fitzroy’s buzzing Gertrude Street, The Standard Store is a boutique with a focus on slow fashion and supporting independent designers. Founded by Nicola Reindorf and her husband, Orlando, The Standard Store has two Australian locations – with its Melbourne space a crowd favourite amongst Fitzroy locals.

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Nicola and Orlando travel to Europe twice a year to source their curated selection of high-quality, designer pieces. “Our vision has always been about offering something a little unique, timeless and of good quality, pieces that will hopefully last a lifetime,” Nicola says. “You may have to invest in some of our pieces, but our motto is ‘quality only hurts once’.” Below, she speaks on bringing the space to life.

Tell me a bit about how the vision for The Standard Store came about.

My husband Orlando and I set up a wholesale fashion agency when we moved to Australia from London, representing mainly British or European brands. We were frustrated with the lack of good retail stores willing to take risks with the relatively unknown brands we were representing, so we decided to open our store.

Our vision has always been about offering something a little unique, timeless and of good quality, pieces that will hopefully last a lifetime. We travel to Paris twice a year always on the lookout for something special.

How would you describe the store’s aesthetic?

Colourful, joyful and individual. You may have to invest in some of our pieces but our motto is ‘quality only hurts once’.

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

We actually live in Sydney, so putting a store together from another city is always problematic. We opened 10 years ago, and during COVID we were so close to closing our Fitzroy store down as it was such a challenging time, being closed and not being able to cross the border…

But thankfully, after much umming and ahhing, we decided to stay open and do a refit, which was the best decision ever as Gertrude Street is pumping. We actually managed the whole fit-out while we were in France on a buying trip. Thank goodness for FaceTime and [our] great staff to help overseas things!

Who did you collaborate with when bringing the store to life?

We collaborated with the super lovely design duo Tom and Kim from We Are Humble. I met them in our Sydney Store and thought they had great style… we got chatting. It turned out they were local Melbourne designers so it was serendipitous. It was super important that we engaged local talent to design the store.

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

It’s not a huge space, but I love the area around the changing room and the custom-made rug that mimics the shape of the mirror. It creates a great sense of space. I also love the bold use of colour, bright yellow is pretty risky but I think it works.

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

I just love Fitzroy, and Gertrude Street is my absolute favourite street in Australia. It has the perfect mix of retail, food, drink, art and a bit of grit thrown in… It’s not contrived, [and] it’s just a wonderful example of how a neighbourhood high street should be. There is no way we would ever open a store in a shopping mall. Community is everything to us, and we have forged so many great relationships with our customers and neighbours on the street.

The creative scene in Melbourne is buzzing, it reminds me more of London or Berlin… it’s an urban city [and] not a beach city like Sydney. It doesn’t always have perfect weather, so people get creative rather than go to the beach. There are so many interesting small businesses tucked away in Melbourne… you really have to hunt them down or be in the know. I love the sense of discovery you get when you stumble upon something interesting and creative in Melbourne.