WA is the Dubai of Australia for fashion retail, according to one of Australia's leading fashion retailers.
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Myer spokesman Steven Carey is shocked at how Perth customers are receptive and willing to reward pampered and personalised service when it comes to fashion, much like the shoppers of the shopping meccas of the Middle East and South East Asia.
![The Myer lunch for the Perth Fashion Festival. Photo: Jenna Clarke The Myer lunch for the Perth Fashion Festival. Photo: Jenna Clarke](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/690c5c8e-6706-4949-a29b-98fc3a2f15f8.jpg/r0_0_729_544_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Speaking to WAtoday at the launch the Myer spring/summer collection in Perth, Mr Carey has been surprised at the amount West Australians are willing to spend, but admitted the retailer has had to work hard for the support.
"Perth people are about passionate about fashion. You can see it with their outfits that people put a lot of thought into it, but there is a lot, a lot of money here, certainly for fashion," Mr Carey said.
Personalised shopping and styling is burgeoning in the WA retail market and events such as exclusive lunches with designers, parades and private shopping nights are what well-heeled Perth customers are willing to pay for.
"It's a challenging environment, but it is exciting to be involved in retail at the moment," he said.
"We're seeing a definite turnaround, recently we had a shopping night in the Perth store for 300 people. We sent out invitations expecting 150 people, we had 300 RSVPs.
"WA's a good market, you hold the two-speed economy effectively, it was fascinating watching some women at the shopping night with three or four items under one arm then carrying two more coathangers and trying on six other things."
Yesterday's three-course lunch, to unveil the looks from the new campaign which was shot on location in the Kimberley, was also a sell out.
500 people converged on the Perth Convention and Entertainment Centre to dine with Myer designers Kym Ellery, Yeojin Bae, Ray Costarella and Caroline Manning of Manning Cartell.
"Events like this are great, giving us an opportunity to showcase our designers and their looks and engage with the customers, this lunch event has been a sell out for the past two years.
"To stand there and talk to Aurelio about his collection or chat to Yeojin about why she chose certain fabrics, it’s kind of that money can't buy experience which is what we are working on to try and provide as a part of the service,” he added, hinting at retail's mortal enemy – online shopping.
As the most isolated city in the world, Perth shoppers are savvy when it comes to the dot.com spending spree, and market mass retailers, like Myer, are keen to dominate by way of a "multi-channel platform".
"Under Bernie's [Brookes] management a balanced approach to the brick and mortar and online environment is something us as a management team are working towards," he added.
According to Mr Carey, a lot of money and resources in addition to years of research are being sunk into the online branch of the fashion chain.
"You don't get the 'touchy, feely' aspect that you would in store but we want to be across the eyeballs, so wherever they are, we want to be there."