P Johnson’s New Armadale Showroom Will Put Womenswear in the Spotlight

Patrick Johnson debuted women’s suiting in 2019. Lithe silhouettes in sumptuous silks and linens, in shades ranging from black and navy to powder blue and terracotta, quickly made P Johnson Femme a destination for occasional and everyday wear. (And not just for the women who’d been shopping Johnson’s menswear for years.)

Femme has evolved over five years to include a range of ready-to-wear garments, from cashmere sweaters to fluid floor-length gowns to Italian silk mules.

Until now, Melburnians could shop the Femme collection in a compact suite at P Johnson’s Windsor showroom. But this month, womenswear will move to a shiny new home in Armadale, occupying the spacious ground floor of a double-storey Victorian-era shopfront on High Street.

The new boutique means more space to showcase its growing range of refined essentials, while the Windsor showroom will return to being a dedicated menswear destination. (The second floor in Armadale will also house men’s tailoring.)

The High Street site “was a gallery for some time – we don’t know a lot more,” says interior designer Tamsin Johnson, Patrick’s wife and the deft hand behind all P Johnson interiors. The Armadale showroom will be the brand’s 10th, joining two other locations in Melbourne, four in Sydney, and one each in Brisbane, New York and London.

Tamsin’s vision for Armadale is one of luxury combined with homeliness, she says. “It feels warm and continental, with some Viennese-Milanese suggestions, orchestrated like a beautiful living room or drawing room.”

Walls will be treated with parchment-effect paintwork, evocative of a 1920s-style Viennese hotel lobby bar. Versailles parquetry will cover the floor. Antiques will mingle with vintage pieces – Tamsin is particularly excited about an art deco French hall stand she has pencilled in for the centre of the store – and sculptural lighting.

“It will feel decadent and confident,” she says. An ideal backdrop for Femme’s luminous silk organzas, crisp poplin cottons, merino wools and glazed linens. “And a great space to entertain in.”

The High Street location, as well as the fact the building was recently renovated “into something expressly pointed at retail”, appealed to the P Johnson team, says director Tom Riley. The refurb created “a large and light shell” that Tamsin could easily adapt.

“A lot of sites don’t get that tailored-for-retail treatment and as a result are never that ideal to operate from,” Riley says. The old facade remains, however, ensuring the kind of curbside charisma that typifies all P Johnson’s showrooms. Original copper window framing has “come up beautifully”, Tamsin points out.

Femme will take up residence on a stretch of High Street that’s now home to a plethora of Australian designers alongside sleek emporiums filled with international fashion, eyewear and make-up brands.

Recent additions to the terrace-lined main street include London perfumer Jo Malone and Australian fashion house Sener Besim. The new neighbours only help to cement the precinct’s status as one of the best shopping destinations in the city.

“It really is the premier strip in Victoria for womenswear,” Patrick says.

P Johnson Femme is scheduled to open in October 2024 at 1082 High Street, Armadale.

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