Signature Luxury Travel & Style
JEWELLERY
The iconic Tiffany & Co. opens a new Sydney flagship store in dazzling fashion.
Audrey Hepburn may be a hard act to follow, but Lady Gaga certainly made her mark as a Tiffany & Co. brand ambassador during the 2019 Hollywood awards season, stepping out in a series of head-turning pieces from the archives of the 182-year-old New York City jewellery company.
Arguably none was more spectacular than the golf ball-sized, 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond that Gaga wore to the Academy Awards in February.
First acquired by company founder Charles Lewis Tiffany in 1878, and considered one of the world’s most significant gemstones, the piece has been exhibited internationally, but prior to Gaga it had only ever been worn twice – the last time by Hepburn herself, during a publicity shoot for the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
In early April, the Tiffany Diamond was in Sydney for its dazzling Australian debut as the centrepiece of the opening of the company’s latest flagship store, an indication of the importance of the local market to luxury brands.
Australia’s luxury lifestyle revolution started relatively quietly in the mid-1980s, but has moved rapidly into top gear since
2011, with an array of high-end global brands opening stores here.
According to IbisWorld’s latest Luxury Retailing report, luxury retail sales in Australia are expected to grow at an annualised 9.1 per cent over the five years through to 2018–19 to reach $2.2 billion, with international – notably Chinese – visitors accounting for as much as 30 per cent of sales.
Tourists are expected to contribute to a further 7.6 per cent annualised growth through 2023–24, to reach $3.2 billion.
Located on the corner of King and Pitt streets, the new 2,275-square-metre Tiffany & Co. boutique is the largest luxury flagship store to open in Australia, and represents the third iteration of Tiffany’s Sydney store. Sydney has been the company’s key Australian location since it first opened there in 1994 with a store at Chifley Square, before decamping to 28 Castlereagh Street in 2004.
Spanning three levels, the latest boutique includes Tiffany’s new Oceania headquarters, with 1,800 square metres over two floors dedicated to retail – almost triple the size of Tiffany’s previous 650-square-metre store in Castlereagh Street.
The company, which posted a record US$4.4 billion in sales for 2018, currently operates 12 stores across Australia, two more than in Hong Kong.
According to Tiffany & Co. CEO Alessandro Boglioli, who was in town for the 4 April grand opening – along with celebrities including model Kendall Jenner and rapper A$AP Ferg – Australia is not only a key market for the brand, but the Sydney store has also long ranked among the company’s top-10 stores globally in its international network of 300-plus stores.
Australia has also been relatively insulated from the international slowdown in Chinese tourist spending, which affected Q4 2018 global sales. Boglioli puts this down to the country’s large local customer base, which includes a significant Chinese community, but not including record Chinese tourist numbers.
“In Sydney, we are present [for] a quarter of a century; it’s a long story we have here,” says Boglioli. “We have a leadership position in the market and it’s a city we love, where we have a major connection with local customers and also with the culture … On top of this, it’s also a great destination for tourists from all over the world. So really it checks all the boxes as a key strategic city for Tiffany’s.”
The new store features a three-storey façade of carved limestone panels fashioned in the company’s signature wheat-leaf pattern. The entry atrium, which is lined in white marble with accents in Tiffany Blue amazonite, boasts 10-metre-high ceilings.
There are seven private sales rooms and, in a first for Australia, there will also be a large permanent assortment of Tiffany ‘high jewellery’: a rotating suite of the company’s masterpieces designed by, among others, former design director Jean Schlumberger, with top prices ranging from $100,000 to $10 million.
A two-storey digital wall ascends to the upper salon, which is described by Glen Schlehuber, vice president and managing director of Tiffany & Co. Australia and New Zealand, as “one of the most dramatic diamond salons in the world.”
“The store represents … an evolution of our flagship store that’s taken place here in Sydney over 25 years, and it marks the beginning of a new era for us,” says Schlehuber. tiffany.com.au