Iconic Australian department store returns after 46 years

For decades the long-running Australian store wars have focused on a battle to the death between Myer and David Jones, but a name that once rivalled their fluctuating glory has rejoined the fray.

Mark Foy’s, which for nearly 100 years represented the epitome of glamour for many Sydney shoppers, before its closure in 1980, has returned to the world of luxury fashion.

It won’t be moving into its former palatial home, modelled on the Parisian store Le Bon Marche, which now operates as the Downing Centre courts building in Sydney’s CBD. Instead, the foundations of Mark Foy’s 2.0 are in a corner of the internet.

“I’ve always wanted to do this and re-establish the family name,” says real estate agent turned e-tailer Mark Foy, the great-grandson of the store’s former managing director Hugh Victor Foy (brother of founder Francis Foy). Foy launched the Mark Foy’s online store last month.

“Growing up I sat around a dinner table many times and my father, my uncle and my grandfather would always talk about Mark Foy’s. What it was and what it could have been.

“The store was always visionary, bringing Dior to Australia, and it had the very first escalator,” Foy says. “For me, it’s now about how we translate that to a website. These are big shoes to fill. Very big.”

After five years of research, Mark Foy’s launched online with women’s and men’s clothing and accessories from luxury labels such as Burberry, Celine, Givenchy and Loewe.

The first sale was a Jacquemus Le Grand Bambino bag, with demand for Prada, Miu Miu and Alaia products growing in the following weeks.

Dior Kids will launch in August, with Foy currently recovering in the South of France following meetings in Paris.

“I just went to Le Bon Marche and to see a store that inspired the boys,” Foy says, “the boys” being a term he uses fondly and regularly for the original store’s founders. “They saw it and knew they had to do this in Australia. It was incredibly moving.”

Foy is dealing directly with some brands and suppliers. “Australia is a great, affluent demographic with a love of fashion,” Foy says. “It’s a great place to clear stock.”

Rather than hold luxury stock, the items come directly from the suppliers in Italy and France, with the store absorbing the bulk of shipping costs.

Compared to the thousands of employees once employed by Mark Foy’s, the department store start-up is a lean operation, with seven staff. For the moment Foy is happy to play David to the Goliaths of David Jones and Myer.

“The timing is interesting out there, given that a lot of the older, slower models are having some difficulty,” Foy says. “Success for us, it’s going to take years. I feel like we’ve got all the right ingredients.

“We feel that we’re doing everything possible to honour the brand and reimagine it.”

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