The Season Launch

The rails go up the afternoon before, and for one evening nothing on them has been seen by anybody.

Twice a year we open the new season privately, in our event space on the estate. Fifty people, the collection hung before anyone else has picked through it, and Polperro poured by the people who made it.

You cannot buy a ticket. It goes out by invitation, and the list is the only way onto it.

The wine is Sam's. That is not a detail we can pretend is ordinary, and it is the reason the evening feels like being in somebody's home rather than at a retail event.

What actually happens

You arrive at six with a glass in your hand before your coat is off. The new season is on brass rails and nothing has been merchandised into a story yet, which is the point. You see it the way we see it when it lands.

Then you try things on, unhurried, with the whole room to walk in rather than a cubicle. Somebody who chose the pieces tells you why. If something is right you take it that night, and if we have one in your size somebody else does not.

That last part is not manufactured. We buy in ones and twos.

Most people come with somebody. It is that sort of evening.

The kitchen is Polperro's too, so the food comes from the restaurant rather than from a caterer.

Why we do it this way

A collection arriving into a shop gets absorbed into everything already there. Hung on its own, in a room with nothing else in it, you can actually see what a designer was thinking across a season.

It is also how you learn what suits you. Most people discover more about their own taste in two hours at a rail than in two years of scrolling, because the pieces are in front of you and there is somebody there who knows them.

Shoes are set out beside the rails, so a dress is tried the way it will be worn.

How to be invited

Join the list. That is the whole mechanism and there is no other one.

Invitations go out about three weeks ahead, first to clients who have shopped with us and then to the list. Numbers are held at fifty because past that nobody gets near a rail.

We write a handful of times a year rather than weekly. New season, the launch, the fragrance masterclass, and the occasional letter from Red Hill when something arrives that we cannot keep quiet about.

Sign up at the foot of any page, or write to info@amelieandfranks.com.au and we will add you ourselves.

Private appointments

If an evening with fifty people is not how you want to shop, we will open the boutique for you outside hours instead. One client, the rails, and as long as you need.

There is no charge and no minimum. Write to us and we will find a morning.

Shop 9, 159 Shoreham Road, Red Hill South. Open seven days, ten until five.