Aesop is brining it’s Queer Library to Sydney in celebration of Queer conversations and literature, aptly timed as a preamble to Mardi Gras. After a successful event in Melbourne, the library is now in-store at their Paddington location from February 23 through to March 1.

All shelves will be cleared of stock, instead replaced with literature written by more than 60 LGBTQIA+ local authors, inviting customers to take home a book of their choice, free of charge. Among those spotlighted through the initiative included writer Benjamin Law, Indigenous author Gary Lonesborough and poet and filmmaker of Wiradjuri heritage, Jazz Money.

Transgender writer Dr Yves Rees and author Ellen van Neerven will also be showcased through Aesop’s Queer Library, aiming to demonstrate how literature and the art of the word has the ability to unite, liberate and empower.

Aesop often looks to literature as a means of inspiration, and it is always prevalent in an Aesop store through the books peppered into the design features and as vendors of the Paris Review. The brand also established the Aesop Foundation, a philanthropic platform to help marginalised communities tell their stories. The Queer Library continues this tradition, with an extended emphasis on the experiences of the Queer community in Australia.

To ensure the Queer Library was authentically Aesop, the company’s retail and office teams across the nation were invited to recommend their favourite Queer authors and titles and by way of supporting independents businesses, the books have been purchased from Queer bookstores: Hares & Hyenas in Melbourne and The Bookshop in Sydney.

You can indulge in the Aesop Queer Library at the Paddington store, located at 3A Glenmore Road, Paddington, 2021.

Founded in 1987, Aesop’s objective has always been to formulate products of the finest quality for skin, both and hair as well as ventures into fragrance and home accessories. All formulations are vegan and are not tested on animals.