Meet Zinc, the Melbourne store with a carefully curated selection of Australian vintage

“Everything is hand-picked and sourced by us from within Australia.”

Lizzie and Dave Ballard have always shared a love of sourcing and collecting vintage Australian designer clothing. Originally a side hustle and then a regular Lost and Found market stall, last year Zinc evolved into a brick-and-mortar store on Sydney Road in Brunswick (a street renowned for its impressive array of vintage and secondhand stores).

With a focus on local labels from the late ’80s through to the early noughties (‘contemporary vintage’, as Lizzie and Dave have coined it), Zinc is an inviting, creative space where you can browse curated pieces that rotate every single week, listen to a record or just come in for a chat. 

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Zinc’s stock is all hand-picked and sourced within Australia, as both Lizzie and Dave value touching, holding and feeling the clothes when they curate their racks. As well as ensuring quality, such personalised sourcing helps to foster a genuine connection to the clothing as well as the space. Below, we chat with Lizzie and Dave about the process of bringing their vision to life.

Tell me a bit about how the vision for Zinc came about.

Zinc is the creative baby of Dave and me and something that we have been working towards in some capacity for 10 years now or since we first met back in 2014. From the beginning, we have always shared a love for fashion, in particular sourcing and collecting.

This process naturally moved into the selling of vintage and secondhand clothing back in 2017, starting with local markets, then supplying to local vintage stall holders and eventually securing a spot at Lost and Found Market back in 2021. 

Up until then, Zinc was only a side hustle but with this next opportunity at Lost and Found, we saw the potential to shift and make this our full-time gig. It was at this time that we decided our goal was to open our own creative space and we finally made that jump in 2023 by opening our Sydney Road store in Brunswick.

Both Dave and I found that our desires to create something always aligned and so we always knew we wanted to work together. Over the years and working in the secondhand clothing industry pre Zinc, we found a love for vintage Australian archival designers, and in particular, those brands and labels from the late ’80s through to the early 2000s (we now refer to this as ‘contemporary vintage’).

We felt connected to the cuts and fabrics used throughout these clothes and found our love for Australian vintage was cemented through hand-selecting each piece and discovering their quality. Through our store, we have been able to showcase this, which in turn, has created the aesthetic for Zinc.

How would you describe the store’s aesthetic?

When opening our store, it was really important for us that we created a space that was warm, inviting and did not discriminate. Not only did we want to showcase the clothes and pieces in-store, but we wanted to bring a little bit of ourselves to the space so people could feel a genuine connection to us and in turn the clothes.

We are a family with a 2.5-year-old, who is often ‘helping’ in the store, so no matter what, there was always going to be a level of humbleness to the space because let’s be honest, nothing screams further away from ‘high-end boutique’ then a toddler running around pretending to be an aeroplane. We adore that we have regular customers who will often come in for just a chat, browse or even have a beer and listen to a new record we picked up without the obligation of needing to purchase.

Our store is heavily curated and based around Australian-made and archival designers/labels and brands from the late ’80s to early 2000s. Collectively, this is where our passion lies. We also can incorporate European, Japanese and American-made pieces from this same time period that have also been sourced from within Australia.

Everything is hand-picked and sourced by ourselves from within Australia, and we do not import. This model of sourcing fits best for our brand as we love to touch, feel and hold each piece when choosing and curating for our racks. We offer both femme and unisex pieces. The space is minimal, with the use of flowers, warm lighting, records playing, incense and candles to create a mood and vibe that we personally want to be in and hopefully, this translates to our customers.

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

This was our first time fitting out our own brick-and-mortar. Since moving to Melbourne from Queensland back in 2017, we have always lived in Brunswick and love the area. So the plan was, if we were going to open a space, it would always be there. We signed our lease in March 2023 and consciously chose to take our time with setting up the space as we wanted to do the whole fit-out ourselves and had a clear idea of how we wanted the store to look.

We knew that by taking our time, the space would organically evolve and come to fruition. This also allowed room and time for any hurdles to pop up as well as balance work and family life behind the scenes. Luckily, no major roadblocks came about, and we spent our days over the next three months building, tiling, painting and cleaning with the ‘help’ of our then-two-year-old Woody. As a result, we have beautifully documented memories of this time. As of June 2023, we were finally ready to open our doors to the public.

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

As mentioned earlier, the whole fit-out and curated idea and look behind the store was carried out by both Dave and I. Like many people in this industry, we share a love for architectural salvage, secondhand or handmade. As a result, we spent our time researching colour palettes and collecting ceramics and furniture that would fit into our space and create a particular mood.

We had a blueprint of an idea of how we wanted the space to look, from lighting, layout etc and found that this further developed as renovations carried out. In regards to our branding and signage, we collaborated with Pull and Press. This is a local Melbourne business run solely by Chris. We have known and loved his work for a long time now, so it was a no-brainer when choosing a designer to work with when developing our branding.

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

Our favourite area/feature of our store is our ‘feature rack‘. Each week, this rack solely celebrates a designer or heavily curated line/theme or idea. Here we often focus on archival Australian designers but also love to showcase a collective theme, idea or international designer. What’s offered on this feature rack exists for one week only and we do not restock this rack. It functions in a simple ‘first in, first dressed’ capacity.

We also love that each week, come the first day of trading, the shop is 90 per cent turned over with completely new/fresh stock. This allows us on a weekly basis to curate and create a new look for our space to keep the store looking completely refreshed. It promotes the premise for our customers that ‘If you don’t find something one week, you might the week after that or the week after that’. And it continuously provides a platform for us to scratch our creative itch.

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

As we have lived in Brunswick for the past seven years since moving to Melbourne, we have become thoroughly attached to the area. When it came to finding a space for our store, Sydney Road always felt right. We love the community and support that exists through Sydney Road, between other local businesses and customers as well as the multiculturalism, grungy edge and music scene that Brunswick is known for.

Since opening our shop, we have learnt that Sydney Road in Brunswick is becoming a household name when it comes to vintage shopping. Melbourne is renowned for fashion and individuality and expression of style, something that we don’t feel is as strongly and freely celebrated in other parts of Australia and the world. As a result, we feel super lucky to have the opportunity to have our shop here.

You can keep up with Zinc here.