Aurelio Costarella to open store in Como The Treasury hotel
Six months ago, Aurelio Costarella was ready to walk away from a 32-year career in fashion.
Next month he begins a new chapter when he opens the anchoring store in Perth’s newest hotel development, Como The Treasury. “In November last year I really knew that I wasn’t in a great place,” Costarella told The Australian.
Early this year, overcome with depression, the Perth designer checked himself into a clinic for what he thought would be a week. Instead he stayed for 11. “I had been working too hard for too long and had been operating in burnout mode for quite a period of time and I just did what I could to keep myself buoyant,’’ he said.
“But it got to a point in January this year that I was in a very dark place and I needed to do something about that.
“I really didn’t know if wanted to be in the industry any longer, or what I was doing or where I was headed. I couldn’t see a future.
“And it was during that period I decided I wanted to go public and talk about mental health because there is so much stigma attached. I just felt that I was in a position where I could come out and talk about my experience in the hope of making some kind of change.”
He subsequently became an ambassador for Lifeline, which he describes as “probably the most important thing I’ve done”.
“I obviously needed that time to reassess and really look at what I’ve been doing and where I want to be,’’ he said. “I’m very fortunate that I have a wonderful team of people around me now that share my vision and have been able to really support me.”
Costarella now has a renewed focus on his business, with plans to open a Melbourne store and for international expansion. Before the global financial crisis, half of his business was international, and he was a regular on the catwalks of New York Fashion Week.
His new Perth store covers 135sq m and has a “classical but still very contemporary feel”.
Como The Treasury is located in the 19th-century former State Buildings in the CBD. The restoration and design project has been overseen by Perth-born architect Kerry Hill, whose new City of Perth Library is adjacent to the hotel. Along with a broad range of food and wine bars and public spaces, its retail offering will focus on West Australian products.
As the anchor tenant of the retail offering, Costarella said: “I am so thrilled to be in a space with so much history. We immediately knew it was where we belonged in terms of having a retail presence in Perth city.”
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Source: The Australian, Glynis Traill-Nash, 9th September 2015
Originally published as: Aurelio Costarella to open store in Como The Treasury hotel
