Our Story

Welcome to Respectfully Melbourne, where you'll effortlessly find meaningful gifts for any occasion, made right here in Victoria, Australia with care and respect for people and our precious environment.

I’m Sarah, the founder, a busy mum of three who knows how challenging it can be to find quality, stylish gifts for friends and loved ones that are locally, ethically and sustainably made.  My search for products that ticked these all-important boxes was incredibly time-consuming.  Too often, I’d settle for mass-produced items that didn’t align with my values.  These gifts, intended to show appreciation and love, lacked care and respect for our natural surroundings and potentially exploited workers overseas.

These harmful implications lead me to create Respectfully Melbourne—a platform for talented local artisans and producers who genuinely care about the health of our planet and the well-being of people throughout their supply chain.  These local makers create in small batches, committed to minimising their environmental impacts and ethical sourcing while striving for excellence. We passionately support them and handpick products with purpose and a sophisticated, timeless aesthetic to ensure our gifts leave a lasting impression.

Our motivation to exclusively support makers and creators who consciously produce where we’re located is multi-faceted.  Apart from promoting their incredible talent, here are some other key reasons:

• To support small local businesses; promoting local economic growth, jobs and opportunities that benefit our community. 
• Representing a small number of known and trusted local makers allows genuine transparency into how they create and their supply chain of ethical suppliers.
• Our Australian employment laws ensure ethical production; workers are entitled to working conditions which respect their health, safety and dignity.
•  We value the quality, reliability and integrity of local artisan craftmanship over mass-production, which is rarely sustainable.
• To reduce our transport carbon emissions.

After extensive research, we have curated a truly unique product offering of consciously made gifts that emphasise quality, functionality, and style. Our gifts include premium chocolate and wine, all-natural wellness, skincare and baby products, naturopathic tea, knitted blankets and socks, ceramics, candles, cocktails, gourmet snacks and more.   

We have met with the makers and learnt about how they create, their considerations and material choices.  With a strong focus on our products being gentle on the environment it evolved that most of our products are vegan friendly and proudly cruelty-free, due to their pure ingredients sourced from nature. The only exceptions are our warm, woolly socks and milk chocolate offering—two essentials for some Melburnians!

We carefully handpick our consciously made gift items based on quality, purpose and effectiveness, ensuring they will be valued and stay out of landfill. We also prioritise impressive, sophisticated design aesthetics to ensure our gifts create joy and make an impact.

We offer a wide range of thoughtfully curated, ready-to-ship gift boxes for various recipients, occasions, themes and price points.  Most have the overarching purpose for your recipient to slow down and make some time to enjoy the moment.  Whether that be to celebrate and have some fun, get cosy indulging on the couch or stepping away from it all to relax, replenish or recharge.  

We also offer Care Packages for illness, loss, and other difficult times, designed to provide a thoughtful lift and show support. Additionally, we have New Baby & Parent gift boxes to warmly welcome their little one with love.

For each Curated Gift Box, we carefully select products that complement each other and align with the gift box's purpose or theme. They are chosen to communicate care and respect for both the recipient and our natural surroundings. There is also the option to create your own custom gift, selecting from Respectfully Melbourne’s wide range of locally and consciously made gift products, that are useful, simple and stylish.

Respectfully Melbourne gift boxes arrive beautifully presented to create a lasting impact. Our premium contemporary packaging design and shipping materials are made from recycled or plant-based materials that are 100% recyclable or compostable.  You can read more about Our Impact here.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the climate crisis and powerless to make any real impact. However, at Respectfully Melbourne, we passionately believe that conscious lifestyle choices, no matter how small, can collectively make a positive difference.

By choosing our gifts, you’re making a positive impact on the environment and supporting ethical working conditions. You’re also embracing the quality and integrity of local craftsmanship and helping sustain our vibrant community of artisans and small businesses.

Let’s choose gifts that reflect our values and communicate care and respect. Thank you for joining us in making a positive difference, one gift at a time.

Warm regards,

Sarah