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When Zara first opened its first Australian store in Sydney on April 20 2011, stylists, journalists and fashion lovers queued around the block to get their hands on some of the fashion retailer’s infamously affordable yet up-to-the-minute clothes, bags and shoes for women, men and kids.
A Melbourne store followed the next month and today Zara stores can be found in Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Gold Coast and Brisbane. It’s even opened a store across the ditch in Auckland, New Zealand.
Zara might still be relatively new in Australia, but the Spanish company has been around much longer in Europe. Started in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain in 1975, by Amancio Ortega, it was initially named Zorba after Zorba the Greek but there was a bar a few blocks away with the same name so, after a quick name change, Zara was officially born.
Ortega’s aim was to create lookalikes of high-end fashion looks at affordable prices. Throughout the 1980s business boomed and Ortega opened stores all around Spain. Then in the nineties and noughties the brand exploded worldwide opening stores across Europe and into Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea. Today it is the largest company in the Inditex group.
Many A-list celebs have been spotted wearing Zara including Kate Middleton, Bella Hadid, Olivia Palermo and Alexa Chung. Model Emily Ratajkowski is such a huge Zara fan she wore a $279 suit for her wedding to Sebastian Bear-McClard in February 2018.
It’s reputation in Australia is a high street staple for Zara basics such as denim jeans, dresses, workwear, jumpsuits and party outfits. They’ve also branched out into Zara perfume and Zara baby, which has super cute designs. Zara is also know for amazingly affordable accessories, including bags which look surprisingly high end given the price tags.
Today, Zara is not just for Aussies in the capital cities. With the introduction of Zara Australia Online on March 14 2018, it became even more convenient. Deliveries take four to five days and they have a 30-day free returns policy, which can done in store or by post. The cost of delivery is $4.95 if you spend less than $50, or $9.95 by Express Mail, but in store pick ups are free.
Size-wise, Zara can be a bit unpredictable so it’s good to get a few options when ordering. In general, Zara sizes often run a bit smaller than AU sizing and their pants tend to run very long, so often need tailoring for shorter people.
Over the years Zara has had many cult items at the latest is a polka dot dress that’s so popular it even has it’s own Instagram account!
As well as a range for women, men and kids their current Zara Collection 19 range includes TRF and Join Life.
TRF stands for Trafaluc and the collection is aimed more towards the younger customer. While Join Life is a collection geared towards Zara’s 2025 environmental and sustainability commitments.
Zara notoriously never really does discounts, just sales which tend to fall in line with the usual big sales periods – so Boxing Day and June. The first week of the sale is likely to be 10% to 25% discount, the second week 40% to 50% off, while week three can be up to 75%. But be warned, any kind of sale in Zara brings out the hordes so stock doesn’t tend to hand around!
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