Archive and Shifting Worlds are Lauren Urquhart and Maya Webb’s babies, although Archive was the first born, opening in 2013 in the Art Deco gem Mitchell House. It brought high-end second-hand finds to a hungry market, with everything from Alexander McQueen to Comme Des Garçons, and Issey Miyake in between.
Shifting Worlds opened in September this year when Urquhart and Webb could no longer resist the urge to sell new season Issey as well. However, the pair realised that they required a different setting in order to do Shifting Worlds justice.
“When we were looking for a location for Shifting Worlds, we found the amazing space that was previously housed by Bernard’s Magic Shop,” Urquhart says. “The space was perfect, but it was very, very big,” Webb continues, which is where Marli Atterton and her store Slow Waves came into the picture.
Slow Waves, previously another Mitchell House resident, supplies indie cult labels that can’t be found in bricks and mortar stores elsewhere in Australia – think MM6, Ann-Sofie Back and Filles à papa. When Urquhart and Webb approached Atterton about the venture, she was ready for change. “As much as I loved Mitchell House, it wasn’t the best space to work out of in a retail sense,” Atterton says. “The No Order Market concept sounded great, and the timing was right.”
Atterton resists being pushed to choose favourites in terms of Slow Wave’s stock – “I’d feel too guilty,” she says – but Urquhart is quick to name some of the quirkier finds. “The fabulous Issey Miyake Pleats Please tops that we have in at the moment would be up there,” she says. “They’re super bright fluorescents with huge lips appliquéd on the front – the sleeves are all curved and super Miyake. In times past at Archive we've had some wonderfully unusual items too – pieces from Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçons infamous ‘Lumps and Bumps’ collection. It included padded skirts and jumpers – and the padding was never where you’d expect it to be. Not for the faint-hearted.”
You can also find Shifting Worlds, Archive and Slow Waves online.