DOVER SOUL: Dover Street Market’s tentacles are stretching down to Australia.
From now until July 28, Los Angeles-based artist Brett Westfall — who is part of the DSM Paris Brand Development incubator program — is staging a takeover the Sorry Thanks I Love You boutique and adjoining café located in the Westfield Sydney mall.
Inspired by Californian roadside strawberry stands, the installation is made entirely from found objects such as wooden freight pallets and discarded bicycles, with Westfall’s fall 2024 collection of tie-dyed graphic hoodies, T-shirts and streetwear hanging throughout the space.
The café is also running a strawberry-themed menu, serving custom pink lamingtons (an iconic Australian cake made from desiccated coconut-rolled cubes of sponge), strawberry brioches and strawberry-based drinks.
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Sorry Thanks I Love You is something of a best-kept Australian fashion secret. Founded in 2013 by husband and wife team Caroline Ball and Ant White, it has operated out of a series of pop-up boutiques across Sydney, only moving to the Westfield Sydney space in December 2023. The pair first expanded into fashion in 2018, offering Bao Bao Issey Miyake bags. Fashion now accounts for 70 percent of the business. The boutique’s more than 100 brands include Comme des Garçons, Y-3, Diesel and Marni, as well as other DSM Paris incubator labels such as Sky High Farm.
Additionally, Ball and White operate the Y-3 license in Australia and opened a Y-3 boutique in Westfield Sydney in May 2023. They plan to expand to four to five Y-3 stores across Sydney and Melbourne over the next five years.
The duo’s next activation will be a festival of fashion, music, art, food, cocktails and film called Ffwd — short for “fashion forward” — at Sydney event space The Machine Hall from Aug. 1 to 4.
“We’re really focusing on creating interesting content and interesting experiences for people, whether that’s in the fashion world or the art world or the music world,” Ball said. “We’re kind of playing in a slightly different space, I think, to traditional fashion bricks-and-mortar.”
