Not many retailers get to collapse into administration and then reopen bigger than before, but that’s exactly the arc Harrolds has pulled off. Australia’s best-known luxury menswear name went under owing creditors more than $16 million, and has come back with a flagship at Westfield Sydney built around Italian marble, private fitting suites and a lounge pouring champagne rather than a quiet retreat to smaller premises.
Who is Harrolds?
Harrolds was founded in 1985 by John, Mary and Theo Poulakis, opening its first store on Collins Street in Melbourne as an upmarket men’s department store. The business later expanded into womenswear with a 2015 Westfield Sydney store and grew to three locations — Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast — at its peak. That run ended in October 2024, when Harrolds entered administration owing creditors $16.3 million and all three stores closed. The Poulakis family is no longer involved: the brand name was acquired by former employees Arasch Enayat, Gino Pagano and Zia Khorram, who relaunched a Sydney-only, menswear-focused Harrolds in July 2025 before unveiling an expanded flagship at Westfield Sydney in August 2026.
Three zones instead of one open floor
Rather than a single continuous shop floor, the new flagship is split into three distinct areas: “Modern Luxury,” “Classic Luxury” and a “Living Room” lounge that functions more like a private club than a fitting area. Italian marble runs through all three, alongside bespoke furnishings and ambient lighting, and the Living Room pours complimentary Italian coffee, Champagne and wine for customers rather than pushing them straight to a register. Managing director Arasch Enayat has described the goal plainly: “We wanted to create a destination that reflects the very best of international luxury retail while remaining distinctly Harrolds” — retail as a place to spend an afternoon, not just complete a transaction.
Shop-in-shops with the brands themselves
The flagship carries dedicated, brand-designed spaces for Brioni, Thom Browne, Stefano Ricci and Lardini, alongside private fitting suites, handcrafted footwear, tailored formalwear and exclusive capsule collections not sold elsewhere in the country. Leadership frames this as “genuine collaboration with the brands themselves” — a step beyond simply racking third-party stock — and it’s a deliberate point of difference from the pure e-commerce model that couldn’t save the original business. Many of the original sales staff were rehired for the relaunch, giving long-time customers a familiar face rather than an entirely new team learning the ropes.
Why this reopening is being watched closely
A few reasons Harrolds’ second act matters beyond one Sydney address:
- A genuine comeback from administration — $16.3 million owed to creditors, all three stores closed, before returning under new ownership less than a year later.
- A sharper focus on menswear only, dropping the womenswear and regional stores that came with the original three-store footprint.
- Dedicated shop-in-shop spaces built in collaboration with brands like Brioni and Thom Browne, rather than standard multi-brand racking.
- A hospitality-first layout — the “Living Room” lounge — that treats the store as a destination rather than a transaction point.
- Continuity through rehired staff, keeping relationships with existing customers intact through the relaunch.
Visiting the new flagship
The Harrolds flagship trades from Westfield Sydney, at the corner of Pitt Street Mall and Market Street in the CBD. Current opening hours, brand line-up and appointment bookings for the private fitting suites are listed on the brand’s own site, harrolds.com.
