Newcastle West has just introduced a new collaborative retail space. 148 Parry St is now home to eyewear brand, Leoide, and jewellery brand, Curtis 925, who celebrated their grand opening just two weeks ago.

Friends, Newcastle locals, and (now) business partners, Thomas Burke and Angus Anderson of Leoide and Cal Lynch of Curtis 925 are excited to embark on this business venture together.

“Our brands really complement each other, and we thought it would be cool to just share a space where two like-minded businesses from Newcastle can work together,” Director of Curtis 925, Cal Lynch said.

Lynch, who originally moved to the space as the sole business owner says the jewellery line started as a passion project.

“I started making jewellery about 6 years ago. It just started out as a hobby and slowly turned into a business in the latter stages of the 6 years. I was just working out of a home studio, and it started to become too big to fit there. I then began looking for a space and this one came up.”

As the name suggests, the Curtis 925 line is composed entirely of pure silver.

“I named it after Ian Curtis out of Joy Division. 925 is the amount of silver… It’s all 100% recycled silver - milled and recycled in Australia. I do everything in here and only work with precious metals and stones.”

The jewellery-maker and brand founder also stocks jewellery from fellow jewellers located internationally, including The Hunt, Stacey Hare, and Nick Whiteford.

It was after Lynch moved to the Parry St location - with original intentions to create a showroom - that he reached out to friends and Leoide owners, Burke and Anderson with an original invitation to stock their products.

Leoide co-founder Thomas Burke says the stockist invitation slowly turned into a business collaboration.

“Cal asked us if we could stock it in-store and then we just thought, ‘Why don’t we do it together?’” Burke said.

The boys, who both come from tradie backgrounds, officially started their partnership in 2018.

“I’ve always had a dream to start an eyewear brand. At the start, it was a bit of pen to paper and nothing serious, but Angus and I started a partnership in 2018 and it honestly took us that long until now to get it launched.”

“We worked really hard to get the right manufacturer and quality. That was our highest priority.”

The eyewear line, which is comprised of Italian Acetate and metal core wiring, is designed by the pair in Newcastle.

As for the collaborative space itself, the trio is open to expanding and inviting more creatives in.

“It’s quite a creative space and we’re open to other people jumping on board. There are no limits. We just want it as a space where we can showcase our stuff,” Lynch said.

Despite both businesses’ online presence and direct-to-consumer selling platforms, the Curtis 925 jeweller says brick-and-mortar stores are important to an accessories business.

“It’s a digital age and social media is important. But there’s something special about going into a place and picking something up.”

For both brands, new designs are constantly in the works as the business progresses.

The newly launched space is open to the public 9am–4pm on a tentative Tuesday to Sunday roster. Hours, however, are subject to change depending on customer feedback.