Now Open: London Workwear Label LF Markey Finds a Home in Newtown

After almost 20 years of running London-born workwear label LF Markey, founder Louise Markey is bringing it home to Australia. “I’ve been nagging my husband to come back for 10 years. I just really want to come home, I’ve just been so homesick,” she says via a video call from her new Sydney store’s back room. 

King Street in Newtown is where Markey has opened its first international outpost. While LF Markey’s flagship East London store is massive and a “riot of colour”, the Sydney store is about a quarter of its size. At this petite shop, customers can peruse its core workwear pieces alongside a handful of seasonal prints, accessories and pieces from like-minded brands that acquaint themselves with the womenswear label.

The 80-square-metre premises was recently home to a cake shop and bakery, and that charm has rubbed off. The renovation drenched the store’s interior and exterior in peach hues. “Everything’s peach: the frontage, all the walls, the ceiling and the back room, even,” Markey says. In contrast, there are bright red accents cutting through the space; its rails, hangers and shelf borders are punchy and bold. 

At 22 years old, Markey moved to London. It was only supposed to be for six months, but she ended up living there for 25 years. She cut her teeth designing shirts at Burberry and completing a master’s degree at the prestigious Central Saint Martins.

In 2008, her eponymous label launched. It’s what kept her in London for so long. Her practical yet stylish, unfussy yet considered approach to womenswear has made it a wardrobe favourite for creative folk. Slouchy and roomy silhouettes, natural fibres and block colours are signatures of LF Markey, working with, not against, people’s lifestyles. 

“We’ve got a lot of mums [as] customers, and they’re just really, really time-poor. They’re working parents, artists, people who work a few jobs… and LF Markey is kind of like a uniform. You can just throw it on, you don’t need to think in the morning.”

Markey’s label flourishes most in creative postcodes. “Dalston became the home turf for LF Markey,” she says of the locale of the brand’s main store since 2019. When it came to choosing a new international address, she found a concentration of her customers living in Newtown and Marrickville in Sydney.

Despite selling “way more” in Melbourne, Markey is most at home in Sydney. In October last year, her wish to return to her birthplace was granted. Along with her four kids and husband, she packed up her life in London and relocated to Sydney’s inner west.

LF Markey is an established name in the UK, but in Australia it’s only starting to crack through. Its reach is already growing; in June last year, the label opened a third-party logistics warehouse in Australia and, since then, orders have tripled here.

The brand will revive its menswear collection, which is set to hit stores next April. Markey hopes to bring some of the UK store’s traditions to Australia too, like regular workshops and exhibitions spotlighting local artists. That’s all to come in the next year; Markey and her family have only been here for eight months, after all.

LF Markey
569 King St, Newtown

Hours:
Tue to Fri 10.30am–5.30pm

Sat 10.30am–6pm

Sun 11am–5pm

au.lfmarkey.com

@lfmarkey