Scanlan Theodore Canberra and Chatswood Chase
In the beauty world, there’s a saying that eyebrows should be sisters, not twins. The same could be said of Scanlan Theodore’s two newest boutiques in Canberra’s Australian Designer Precinct and the revamped Chatswood Chase in Sydney – while undeniably related, each is assuredly its own.
“We wanted each boutique to feel deeply personal: a sophisticated, immersive atmosphere where every design detail evokes a sense of intimate luxury,” notes the Scanlan Theodore team.
“The brief was to continue Scanlan Theodore’s legacy of gorgeous boutiques with a residential sensibility, in a language that was distinctively Flack Studio.”
The luxury womenswear brand engaged the ever-inventive Flack Studio to create interiors that feel luxurious, eclectic and lived-in. “The brief was to continue Scanlan Theodore’s legacy of gorgeous boutiques with a residential sensibility, in a language that was distinctively Flack Studio,” says founder David Flack. He describes the concept for the pair as “abandoned modernist homes – a suburban villa in Canberra and a more urban inner-city dwelling in Chatswood – taken over and transformed”. And while the two spaces share modernist influences and material touchpoints – terrazzo floors, high-gloss walls, suede curtains and glass bricks – each is shaped by its own setting.
For Canberra, the studio drew from the capital’s lineage and the idealism behind its planning. “We looked to the city’s architectural history, rooted in the idealism of Walter Burley Griffin’s master plan and its legacy of modernist design,” says Flack. “The boutique is imagined as a welcome home for the local community: futuristic yet familiar, with a nostalgic sense of having been here before.”
Monumental blackened-steel doors open up to a warm, elegant interior, where six metres of north-facing windows bring plenty of natural light into the space. The materiality throughout is bold and refined, with Monterey pine ceilings, cobblestone floors and translucent glass bricks adding a soft warmth, while black mosaic tiles, stainless-steel drawer units and polished aluminium mirrors bring a sharper urban contrast. The colour palette leans towards nostalgic, saturated hues – terracotta red, saffron yellow and pea green – which echo the rich tones of Scanlan Theodore’s garments.
Canberra’s show-stopping moment is one that feels unmistakably Flack: an illuminated, mirrored wall in the styling suite that is both sculptural and cinematic. “The illuminated oculi running down the sides take their form from Jean Prouvé’s portholes, a signature feature of his modernist buildings,” he explains. “The mirrored wall acts as a partition, dissecting the space into smaller, more domestically scaled sections.” Pale-blue suede curtains, custom rugs and a Knoll Womb chair grouped around a brick fireplace turn this zone into something between a mid-century lounge room and a glamorous Hollywood dressing suite.
Chatswood, by contrast, offers a more cosmopolitan, structural aesthetic aligned with its locale. “It takes on a different character, celebrating structural expressionism, lightweight fabrication and a dialogue between past and present.” The exterior’s exposed steel beams, slate tiles and deep-red steel doors nod to Le Corbusier’s Zurich Pavilion – and the red door particularly has resonated with the local Chinese community as a symbol of good fortune and prosperity. Inside, slate and terrazzo floors meet brushed stainless-steel walls, glass bricks and a plywood ceiling. A moody, slate-tiled antechamber acts as a palate cleanser before clients step into the gold-drenched, high-gloss styling suite.
Throughout, Flack Studio displays a knack for mixing vintage furniture and lighting with custom contemporary pieces: a spectacular Italian spider chandelier hovers above the aluminium point-of-sale unit; burgundy Friso Kramer armchairs sit alongside velvet ottomans and glossy Ettore Sottsass tables; and adorning the walls are Me and You light fixtures from Flack’s collaboration with Volker Haug Studio.
Art creates a unifying narrative across the two boutiques, with each dedicated to a pioneering Australian female artist – painter Grace Cossington Smith in Canberra and ceramicist Anne Dangar in Chatswood. A curation of modern Australian works that respond to these influences includes pieces by Elizabeth Pulie, Michael Georgetti and David Egan, and speak to Scanlan Theodore’s own longstanding commitment to fine arts and culture.
As the team notes, “These are cultural spaces, part gallery and part home, where architecture, design and art converge.” Ultimately, Flack has created a pair of stores that read like sisters – similarly sophisticated and chic yet bursting with their own character and personality.
