For those not familiar with our store or past pop-up spaces, imagine a retail-gallery hybrid, a place where you might not necessarily need to buy anything from but need to immerse yourself in for the sensory experience anyway. What started as an experiment in 2014 off the back of one of our featured events has now been a fixture in the Melbourne retail scene for 4 years with a commitment to keep going so long as it remains interesting to both our customers and ourselves.

Meticulously curated by The Cool Hunter team, everything in-store is for sale; art, lights, books, gourmet foods, fashion accessories and so on. Guided by the principle of needing to keep everything fresh and exclusive, we strive to change our selection regularly so that visiting our store is an interesting experience every time and stocked with goods that can’t be found anywhere else.

We get it, as shopping has become more and more monotonous, with mind-numbing sameness across airports, high streets, shopping centres and brands, there seems little point in getting excited about walking into any store. So we know we’ve set the bar high.

But we also know that the sameness is the result of brands, stores and managers choosing to be followers rather than leaders. It is so much easier to produce and sell products in the same colours, styles, and materials as everybody else. They all go to the same trade shows, same fashion shows, same predictable sources – so is it any wonder that the result is dull and boring?

Our approach is different, sometimes risky, and far more time-consuming but we’re trying to un-bore ourselves here, too. We hope that as a result, we will be able to offer our guests a worthwhile experience in return.

The Cool Hunter Store
Shop 3, 274 Conventry St
South Melbourne

Hours
Monday to Friday – 10:00am – 5:00pm
Saturday – 10:00am – 5:00pm
Sunday – 11:00am – 4:00pm

shop.thecoolhunter.net
[email protected]
P: 1300 739 661

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Socks and sandals are a no-no. Except if your socks are of velvet and your sandals the latest designer footwear. Velvet is turning up everywhere right now including in sparkly socks that make even the prissiest granny-heel shoes cool and casual – the prefect, dress-up casual. You always know what to wear and how to wear it while still looking like you and not like some cut-out from a fashion spread. Velvet socks are your ticket.
 

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We are fascinated with the human hand. Long before Leonardo da Vinci created his exquisite studies of the expressiveness and functionality of the human hand, and long before Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel depicted perhaps the best known touch of hands in the world, artists and sculptors had  endeavoured to capture the millions of variations present in our hands.
 

Also, many of our verbal expressions involve hands. We talk about taking things into our own hands, of things getting our-of-hand, we experience things first-hand, have our hands full, give a hand, feel our hands are tied or wash our hands of something.
 

Hand gestures themselves have become expressions as we high-five, give the finger, go thumbs up, keep our fingers crossed or, of course, like something on social media.

So, when we discovered these cool brass hand sculptures, we just could not let them go. We found so many ways to display and use them that we are going to have to call them  hands-down the handsomest and handiest accessories we’ve seen in a long time! Available at The Cool Hunter store and online.

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Wrist watches are no longer needed to tell time. Most of us have several devices on us that play that role. One might have imagined that this would lead to the death of the watch, yet the opposite is true. Now that the watch is predominantly a time-telling bracelet, it has a heightened role as a status symbol, an investment piece, and above all, an expression of an individual’s style and preferences.

Minimalism and pared-down elegance ooze from this masculine wrist watch that has a flat but substantial profile and a car-tire vibe. There’s an intriguing sense of not just speed and power, but also calm, architectural precision, especially in the white-face version.

It’s a 40mm Chronograph Watch made of a black IP stainless steel case and 20mm leather band. It has 3 sub-dials; the left sub-dial is a stopwatch measuring time in minutes with the center sub-dial measuring time in seconds and the third sub-dial measuring time in 24 hour increments.

It is also available with a black IP stainless steel case, black dial and white printing; the opposite of the watch you see pictured here. Available online here 

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Try this test scenario. You are dying to break your shampoo routine, or for some reason cannot find your usual brand. How do you select an alternative? You generally pick a package that appeals to you or draws your attention. Often you do that out of necessity – you don’t have the chance to taste or try most products. The package must do the selling right there on the spot.

Ask retail anthropologist Paco Underhill (author of Why we buy and Call of the mall) and he’ll likely produce studies and surveys on shelf impact, shopping behavior and consumer psychology, all showing that it does matter what the box looks like, even when we say it doesn’t.

Martin Lindstrom’s latest book Buyology – Truth and Lies about Why We Buyc overs the results of Lindstrom’s $7-million study that attempted to figure out what really makes us vote with our wallets. The over-arching revelation – if it is indeed a revelation – is that, more often than not, we as consumers do not know why we buy. We do not know what actually affects us when we make a buying decision.

What we do know – and what marketers know – is that it is all about emotions. How does the brand make us feel, is what matters. Our first impressions, whether about products or people, are strong and quick. In many cases, packaging is the main influencer. The billions spent on packaging and branding annually are not spent on spec. Marketers know it works, although even they don’t always know how or why.

Packaging has a huge impact on many other things as well, not just on our buying decisions. On store shelves, the battle for space and shelf impact is tough. There is a reason why a box of twelve pills is five or more times larger than it actually needs to be to contain the pills.Theft is one concern, possibly also anti-tampering, but mostly it is about taking up space, taking it away from the competition.

As the brand gains shelf space with the bigger box, other things happen as well. The bigger the box, the more shelving is needed. The more shelving is used, the larger the store needs to be. The larger the store, the higher the rent and the more staff is needed to keep it running. We can keep going along this route.

The larger box also means larger cartons to ship the boxes, larger warehouses, larger trucks and so on. A larger box uses up more materials, more trees are cut down, more plastic is used, more garbage is accumulated… And of course, it all costs more. We are not trying to say that packaging is the cause of all ills, but we are suggesting that designing and producing ‘a slightly bigger box’ is not a small decision.

We also feel that we must finally start seriously caring about the environmental impact of unnecessary and eco-unfriendly packaging. Designers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers are the ones that can influence what happens in the packaging world. Packaging manufacturers will follow and start making whatever the market wants to buy. Ideally,of course, manufacturers of packaging should also invest more in developing eco-friendly options, but if unfriendly options keep selling well, why would they change?

Our daily behaviour proves that branding and packaging are important. There is nothing inherently wrong with that.

But there is a bigger picture and it includes the inconvenient truth that much of packaging still ends up in garbage, in landfills or in the oceans.

The challenge is to keep the cool, the impact, the fun and the practical function of packaging, but to do it in a way that doesn’t do any damage.

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Redefining your whisky tastebuds, these spirit glasses have been through hundreds of hours of refinement to create the perfect combination of the traditional whisky snifter with the beloved tumbler. Each batch made, hand-blown glass opens the aromas of your chosen tipple by funneling through, optimising the character of your whisky or preferred spirit. Use these glasses to explore your spirit’s full potential adding ice or creating bespoke cocktails.

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This elegant set of modern cutlery represents an incredible balance of tradition, style, luxury and practicality. Today’s heirloom without the stuffy grandmotherly undertones. Perfect as a wedding gift. Or a splurge for yourself when you know that you will want just one set of ‘better’ cutlery to add a sense of occasion to any mealtime.
A modern, minimalist masterpiece that also happens to be factory made and even machine washable. No polishing, no fuss.

Designed and manufactured in Portugal, the pieces are light-weight but still have a substantial feel. They are elegant, not dainty. Traditional but not dated.

This stunning 24 piece cutlery set with sleek resin handles contains six knives, six forks, six spoons & six tea spoons made of stainless steel with a chic white matt gold finish.

Available online

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Staircase in Hotel de Seze in Paris

Sales Pavilion in Ningbo, China by the One House.

Mirrored Cafe in Gifu, Japan by Band Design

Grotto Private Sauna in Toronto, Canada

Hotel Villa in Honegg in Switzerland

Pocket Watches

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White Animal Life (WAL) tableware, a collection created by Amsterdam-based interior designer Emilie Kröner, attracted attention, for example, at this year’s New York and Milan Design Weeks.

The collection includes a rhino and hippo oil-and-vinegar set, elephants as salt and pepper shakers, a flamingo carafe, leopard napkin holders, and a crocodile serving dish perfect for candy, olives or asparagus.

In all, White Animal Life is a decidedly ill-functioning set of curiosities for the table. Or, if that is too harsh a description, at least Kröner puts form and beauty bravely ahead of function.

Playfully, she has modelled the white beasts on 17th and 18th -century tureens and other serving dishes that were created and displayed as curiosities and conversation pieces at lavish dinner parties. WAL is Kröner’s first foray into product design. We look forward to more. – Tuija Seipell

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