During 12 years in business on William Street in Paddington, Andrew McDonald has watched the retail tides ebb and flow.
From a small workshop behind his eponymous store on the genteel shopping strip, McDonald handcrafts beautiful leather shoes for people who appreciate quality and uniqueness over mass production and ubiquity.
But while those values have not wavered, the environment around him ''has changed dramatically'' amid the retail downturn, says the softly spoken shoemaker.
''When I look down the street now I don't really see much sustainability in the businesses,'' McDonald says. ''When I started it was a very healthy market in Australia but in the past 12 months, retail has dropped off drastically.''
To survive, McDonald radically reconfigured his business a year ago from one focused on the domestic market to court sales overseas via online sales and stocking small boutiques in Europe, Asia and Britain.
''There were not enough wholesale sales in Australia for me to sustain a business, so I had to look at other channels, like the internet and very specialised retailers overseas,'' he says.
The strategy is paying off in spades. Most of McDonald's sales are now overseas, where his shoes are sold in fashion capitals including Tokyo, London and Paris, where he is represented by sales agent Showroom Romeo. International sales account for 70 per cent of McDonald's revenue, allowing his niche business to grow in a way that could not be supported by the domestic market.
''Business has never been better, and that's because we are offering something unique to the overseas market,'' he says.
''It's the style of shoes we make, the fact they are made by hand and the fact they come from Australia.''
As big retailers such as department and chain stores continue to suffer here due to the sales slump, small fashion businesses such as McDonald's are enjoying increased success by calibrating their businesses to cater to overseas demand for niche labels with a point of difference. Another who has gone down that successful track is jewellery designer Lucy Folk.
''It's taken a while for my profile to build and for people to get to know my work but now they are really starting to appreciate the fact that it's all Australian made and mostly handmade in Melbourne by me,'' Folk says.
Colette in Paris, Harvey Nichols and Matches in London and Corso Como in Korea are among the prestigious international boutiques that sell Folk's quirky collections focused on food. Gold-plated pretzels and popcorn, penne earrings and necklaces adorned with farfalle bows are among the pieces, cast in solid silver and sometimes speckled with diamonds, that Folk has produced since founding her business in 2006.
As a fine arts graduate Folk began exhibiting her jewellery here in a gallery context but says overseas interest has helped her identify and cater to a more fashion-focused customer.
''I started out as a gold- and silversmith, so I had exhibitions more as an artist, whereas in Europe the consumer is more fashion oriented than contemporary jewellery oriented.''
In the overcrowded accessories market, Folk says the handmade aspect of her craft is one of the strongest selling points for her new Pepper collection of intricate peppercorn-inspired necklaces, bracelets and rings.
''So many things now are made offshore and people are making millions of units per piece, which helps keep prices down, but those products tend to be really trend oriented and perhaps less interesting,'' Folk says.
''There are so many people out there doing similar things that it's nice to find something that is handcrafted and unique because of the design and the materials.''
A piece by Folk can take ''from two hours to a whole year'' to make, as ''you are designing as you go, making models in wax, then getting things cast and sourcing stones or getting them set. It's really hard to put a time limit on it.''
The results of her painstaking work are unique pieces that are finding increased appeal with consumers.
''People are not spending as much money on themselves as they used to, so when they do they want to spend it wisely on something that will last a long time and doesn't have to be turfed out at the end of the season.''
Swimwear label We Are Handsome also labours over its distinctive retro-style digital prints, which have won fans including Rihanna, Cameron Diaz, Florence Welch and Jessica Biel and stockists such as Net-a-Porter, London's Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, Barneys in New York and Colette in Paris.
With names such as The Grizzly, The Hunter and The Showman, the prints including bears, stags and peacocks are composites of vintage and original new photographs and each can be made of up to nine different photographs.
''It's a very time-consuming process but it enables us to see something in our mind's eye and get it out of our heads exactly as we had it pictured, rather than just buying something from a print shop,'' says Jeremy Somers, who designs the brand with his business partner Indhra Chagoury. ''Prints are not a new thing in fashion or swim but the way we've gone about doing it and applying them is a very particular formula.''
We Are Handsome began in 2009 as a niche business producing limited-edition swimsuits but the brand is now stocked in 35 cities in 16 countries and last week won the DHL Express Fashion Export Scholarship for its design strength and potential for further global growth.
The DHL prize includes international freight to the value of $10,000 but given the speed of We Are Handsome's international ascension, it is the tailored export mentoring program that is most exciting Somers.
''As a young label figuring out how to export, there are so few people to call for help about things like what certificate of origin you need for which countries,'' he says. ''Export is becoming a much bigger part of the business and at the moment Europe is the largest market for us, so the real value [of the DHL prize] will be learning how to negotiate all that.''
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