Aesop Doncaster

Well-aged bottles

In 2008, March Studio transformed 7560 amber bottles into an undulating ceiling for our now-closed Aesop Adelaide store. This was one of the early collaborations between us and the emerging design practice, who had met by coincidence of proximity. Our first Head Office, on the corner of Bouverie and Queensberry Streets in Melbourne, was located next to March’s first studio. Rodney Eggleston and Anne-Laure Cavigneaux were students; we were a small business. They worked together intensely, in a flurry of inspiration.

A stroll through a fresh-produce market, in which wares hung from the ceiling of each specialised stall, led to the Adelaide store’s design. We had recently produced a limited run of olive oil; March collected the surplus bottles and asked a sculptor friend, Geoff Farquhar-Still, to help fabricate a chandelier of sorts. The bottles were suspended by threaded rods from particle-board panels. The whole thing was designed to fit onto a shipping pallet. Once unpacked, the boxes that transported the sculpture became the counter and product shelving. After the store closed in 2014, the bottles were transported back to Melbourne, where they collected dust in our warehouse, surrounded by product packaging and vintage furniture.

These amber vessels slept there for eleven years. They were summoned back into use in the context of Aesop’s reimagined Doncaster store—one of our first retail-centre spaces in Australia, from around the same time as Adelaide. Revisiting this early period of our store design was the catalyst for a renewed relationship with March Studio, who were enthusiastic about the repurposed project. The bottles float across the exceptionally high ceiling, bringing a new sense of grandeur to the installation. The chip-board boxes are re-used, too, supplemented by new ones where needed. Signs of wear and tear communicate the long history of this piece—hints of time’s inexorable passage for the observant visitor.