Incu x Messina's 18th Birthday Celebration
Our neighbours at Incu are celebrating their 18th Birthday, so we're throwing a party the only way we know how — with loadssss of gelato!
You might not think we have much in common with Incu, the serial purveyors of cool and Australia's leading lifestyle and streetwear hub... but there's more than meets the eye. Although we completely forgot our 18th birthday amidst covid, this year we're both celebrating adulthood. Brothers and Incu founders Brian and Vincent Wu have been friends of Messina for many years, going through a similar journey of creating an inclusive and engaged community, with an obsessively high quality and unique retail offering. From humble beginnings, Incu has grown to operate twelve stores across Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland, establishing themselves as a staple in the Australian fashion retail landscape.
To celebrate, we worked closely with Incu and 5 of their most-loved brands to create 5 gelato specials. From Tuesday 20th October – Saturday 24th October, we're dropping a new flavour daily, developed by the brands themselves, including: Rag & Bone, Café Kitsuné, State of Escape, Paloma Wool and Patagonia.
HERE'S THE LINEUP:
Tuesday 20/10 - Paloma Wool “Island Souvenir”
Born in Barcelona, Paloma Wool has captivated us with an effortless attitude and cool-girl vibes. This flavour is inspired by a traditional dessert from Mallorca in the Balearic Islands – Ensaimada – a favourite of the designer. The brioche-like pastry forms the base of the gelato, which is then layered with chocolate custard. Paloma says it reminds her of trips to the Mediterranean and tastes like breakfast in summer.
Wednesday 21/10 - Café Kitsuné “Tea-ramisu”
A melting pot of cultures, Café Kitsuné brings you a take on tiramisu. The French-Japanese brand is known for its unique fusion in fashion, as well as food with cafe outposts in Paris, Tokyo and Kyoto to name a few. Marrying their signature flavours, Japanese matcha gelato is layered with biscuits soaked in coffee, which is brewed from Café Kitsuné beans flown in from Paris just for the occasion.
Thursday 22/10 - State of Escape “Wanderlust”
Reminiscent of hot summer days and starry nights growing up on the coast of Australia. The promise of ice cream at the end of the day, your taste buds tingling in anticipation. The transformative experience of fresh sweet mango, sherbet dancing around your mouth, coconut crunch, finished with lime to cut through the heat of the day.
Friday 23/10 - Patagonia “Save takayna”
Ever the activists, Patagonia brings you a consciously-minded flavour to help raise awareness of the takayna/Tarkine region in north-west Tasmania, the home of Australia’s largest temperate rainforest. Decadent fair-trade dark chocolate and ethically-sourced leatherwood honey forms a rich sorbet that is layered with nougat. This area, which is home to rare and endangered wildlife, as well as some of the richest Aboriginal heritage in the hemisphere, is currently under threat from deforestation and mining. Read more.
Saturday 24/10 - Rag & Bone “A Piece of Cake”
You might know the denim stalwarts for their New York attitude and downtown-cool Founder and Chief Brand Officer, Marcus Wainwright, actually hails from the UK. Paying homage to his British roots, this flavour riffs on quintessential afternoon tea delights and was conceived with his kids. Clotted cream gelato is layered with sponge cake and swirls of strawberry jam to reflect the tea time theme.
But that's not where the delicious fun stops. We've banded together to offer a suite of prize packs that quite frankly we'd all like to win. All you have to do is either spend over $150 at any Incu (or online) store between 23rd-25th October, or be in the first 20 people to spend over $50 at select Messina stores (Bondi, Darlo, Surry, Darling Square, The Star, Rosebery, Tramsheds, Fitzroy, Windsor, Richmond, Braddon, South Brisbane or Fortitude Valley) on 24th October, to receive a Birthday scratchie, for your chance to win. Prizes range from Messina scoops to clothes and accessories from each brand, to a grand prize worth over $1000. There's even a chance to win an exclusive sweatshirt produced in collaboration with artist goodfoodcrapdrawing, featuring our iconic mushroom cake, made by Incu's inhouse brand, Incu Collection. If you aren't making a purchase in any of our stores, you can also enter the general prize pool HERE.
Which leads us onto one last thing. After dabbling in our self designed merch range last year, we decided to get some advice from the experts themselves. Incu have co-created our new merch range launching later this year, developed using their inhouse designers and Incu Collection stamp of approval. The range will be available in November, online and in select Messina stores.
