Marchesi Menswear to close: Family shuts door on two generations of Northbridge history with store closure

Ian Marchesi will close the door on two generations of family history when he and his brother’s eponymous Northbridge menswear store shuts up shop later this month. The business, founded by Ian and brother Rai’s Italian émigré parents, has undergone several major iterations since opening in 1939. Under their parents’ ownership, the store originally specialised in detachable collars, a relic of a time when collared shirts were an unaffordable luxury for many; since the 1970s, though, the two have focussed strictly on men’s clothing with an eye for tailoring and formal attire. Speaking ahead of Marchesi’s closure on July 22, Ian evinced affection for bygone trends — like the power suits popularised by Wall Street in the 1980s — while bemoaning others, like the revival of grunge’s baggy jeans and oversized sweats. Still, at the age of 66, Ian said he and his brother are ready to put their William Street store behind them. “We’ve run a successful business for a long time,” he said. “And the success has been about looking after people, treating people as we’d like to be treated ourselves. “It’s time for retirement. I don’t want to be that 95-year-old person turning the key in the morning; I want to go and spend time with my grandchildren, with my daughters and my sons-in-law, and friends, and do the things I want to do that you can’t do inside four walls.” Marchesi’s closure comes at a fortuitous time for Australia’s small businesses. Spiralling interest rises, ballooning inflation and percolating wage demands are all giving way to a decidedly unfriendly business environment, with default and foreclosures a reality for many. That’s not the case for Ian, though. For him, the memory of his grandmother — who owned and operated a delicatessen for most of her life — was more pressing, recounting how she had told him not to “make the same mistakes” as she had in dedicating her life to working. “It resonates strongly with me,” he said. “We don’t need to be enslaved to where we are. It’s a new chapter. I don’t know what it will be, but there’s a new chapter.” Though he or Ray could have passed the business on to a third generation, Ian professed little appetite in handing the Marchesi baton to their children. “[At Marchesi] we’ve got our stock around us,” Ian said. “They’ve got their stock between their two ears. They’re educated and they can go anywhere in the world.” None of which is to say Ian isn’t proud of what he and his family have achieved in the last 84 years. “I’m leaving on a high,” he said. “I’m not leaving because my my bank told me I couldn’t pay tomorrow’s bill. I’m leaving on my terms.”