Vogue Living

Inside fashion entrepreneur Erin Deering’s elegant Melbourne office

The fashion mogul and City of Melbourne council candidate worked with architect Sophie Davies to craft an elegant yet playful office space.

By anyone’s measure, Erin Deering is a busy woman. The fashion entrepreneur, author, and mother of four is certainly having a busy year, having just launched her new fashion label, Deering, in September, and in August announced her intention to run for Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne alongside Lord Mayor candidate Arron Wood. The co-founder of bikini brand Triangl, who famously appeared on the AFR Young Rich List in 2015, is something of an unstoppable force and shows no signs of slowing down.

Launching a new fashion brand has been something of an evolution for Deering, who just as famously left Triangl at the height of its success in 2016, vowing never to return. Now based in her hometown of Melbourne after stints in Hong Kong and Monaco, Deering’s enduring love for fashion won out. “I am obsessed with fashion, with personal style,” she tells Vogue Living. “Daily dressing is a form of art to me, it’s a way to express yourself—and to be able to bring my iteration of that to people just feels so right.”

On the website, the label positions itself as ‘personality-driven dressing’ and sees fashion as ‘a radical act of self-care’ which is a mantra Deering hopes to instil in her new line. “I don’t worry too much about being different to other labels, I trust we all have our point of difference, and the idea of lifting each other up through our unique amazingness is one of the things that excites me most about having a fashion brand again,” she says.

With a new label to nurture and an upcoming election to navigate, it goes without saying Deering was in need of an office. So in October 2023, Deering turned to interiors and architecture studio Sophie Davies and builder Davies Henderson to transform a former real estate agent’s office on a residential high street into a base for her upcoming fashion venture. According to Davies, Deering’s brief was for a “chic, fresh, and inspiring creative office” that felt more like an uplifting home than anything corporate.

“I am a bit of a homebody,” Deering confesses, “so it felt like an easy choice to create that kind of space at work, as I’m there all the time!” She steered Davies in the general direction with a few different images and ideas, “but to be honest, I let Sophie come to me with the concept—I trust her, she’s the expert. I chose Sophie because I love her considered approach to design, and felt it was going to lend to a timeless space.”

Deering requested “a space that felt really easy and unfussy—light and bright, warm and inviting”, and Davies responded by focusing on “reflection and transparency through an exploration of materiality”. The pair settled on a neutral white base, but added personality with pops of colour, seen in the vivid blue hue of the desks and the rich merlot-toned hallway and bathroom. “The blue desks in the back office are just a joy to look at,” says Deering.

Every design choice is intentional, says Davies, who highlights how “white walls imply a blank canvas, a new beginning for fresh designs to form; whilst the use of mirror asks us to reflect, scrutinise and perfect the created.”

“The office design—much like its founder—is dynamic,” adds Davies. “The walls are always moving depending on the time of day, allowing light to pass through so that objects behind can be distinctly seen.” Indeed the flow of natural light, especially in the front room, is one of Deering’s favourite qualities—“it makes everything look so inviting,” she says.

Completed in July this year, Deering says the space is a perfect reflection of her own “constantly evolving” style. “I always like to have a little bit of flair, that one bit of ‘Ooh’, and now I think about it, that does fall in line with my interior tastes, and this little creative space,” she says. And with Deering the label off and running, and the election coming up in October, Deering is looking ahead to another bright future.

— Words by Yeong Sassal