First Nations-owned clothing label and social enterprise Clothing the Gap has just opened its very first physical store, and it’s in a prime spot on Sydney Road in Melbourne’s Brunswick.
The shop is stocked with everything from t-shirts and jumpers, to accessories like caps, totes, towels and even face masks.
“We started as health promotion practitioners, we never imagined at all that we’d be running a fashion label and a foundation,” Clothing the Gap co-founder and Gunditjmara woman Laura Thompson told Time Out Melbourne.
She encouraged people to come in and “have the experience of what a Blak shop looks and feels like and to have those conversations in-person about what the t-shirts represent.”
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The shop is open from Tuesdays to Fridays between 11am and 6pm, as well as between 10am and 5pm on Saturday.
Visitors will also be treated to a dazzling, LED-lit ceiling which as designed by Thompson herself.
At Clothing the Gap, 100% of profits go to health projects in Indigenous communities, so each purchase is more than just an important conversation-starter.
True to its mission, the shop also means even more jobs for First Nations people.
“We have just employed 12 additional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to work casually in the shop and distribution centre,” Thompson told Urban List.
“We are stoked to be a hub of Aboriginal Community employment in Melbourne.”
And in case you were wondering, the clothing range instore is labeled as either “mob only” (the kind of thing that wouldn’t be appropriate for a white person to wear, for example) and “ally friendly” (which can be worn by anyone and everyone) just so we’re all on the same page.
You can check the store out for yourself at 744 Sydney Rd, Brunswick. For everyone else you can cop the gear online or visit stockists in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.
