Kit and Ace to open

Kit and AceCanadian luxury retailer, Kit and Ace, has announced the location of its first Australian shop in Melbourne, set to open by the end of July.

Kit and Ace is the brainchild of Lululemon founder, Chip Wilson’s wife, Shannon, and son, JJ Wilson, and began in Canada in 2014 after the Wilson family parted ways with the 250 store Lululemon chain.

Kit and Ace specialises in contemporary and “technical luxury” fashion, whereby technical performance attributes are applied to high end fabrics such as cashmere.

The first Australian store will be located at 146 Greville Street, Prahran.

JJ Wilson spoke to Inside Retail PREMIUM last month, in his first Australian interview, disclosing the company is actively looking for sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and New Zealand.

The Melbourne shop opening is in line with Kit and Ace’s rapid expansion. The company launched its first location in Vancouver, Canada nine months ago and has since opened seven more doors across North America, including New York, and San Francisco.

“Kit and Ace is redefining the traditional retail landscape with each new shop. Anyone can display clothes in a shop, but it’s not as common to offer a distinctive experience that captures the entire brand so well,” says Wilson.

Each Kit and Ace shop incorporates considerate design and hyper-local elements inspired by each local market. The new locations will give customers a chance to experience innovative, technical clothing in an atypical retail space.

Kit and Ace is projecting to open fifty shops worldwide by the end of 2015.

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