HOT: Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, Designer Series Show 3, Melbourne Town Hall, Swanston St, Melbourne

Another night of fashion at Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, this time for the young and fresh looks of Alice McCall, Arabella Ramsay, Bettina Liano, Gorman, Leopold, LIFEwithBIRD, Manning Cartell, Nevenka, Nicolangëla, Obüs and Wayne Cooper.
My tongue-in-cheek conclusion: quiffs are in fashion. Big quiffy fringes are not really my look, but they sure add height to [...]

HOT: Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, Designer Series Show 2, Melbourne Town Hall, Swanston St, Melbourne

You’d be forgiven for not realising with this cold and rain that it’s actually Spring in Melbourne from today.
With Spring comes Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, the fashion festival that’s the baby of the bigger Loreal Melbourne Fashion Week in March.
I was lucky enough to be invited to watch the collections being shown in the Designer [...]

HOT: Little Shop Of Handmade, 8 Woorayl St, Carnegie

Today we have a guest post from Celeste from Travelling in Mary Janes, who’s here to share her love and passion for handmade crafts with you and her favourite littles shop, Little Shop Of Handmade. Thanks Celeste!

Hi everyone! A quick background on myself. I am a Music Teacher by day, and a Jewellery Maker by [...]

HOT: Magnolia Square, Malvern Town Hall, cnr Glenferrie Rd and High Street, Malvern

Magnolia Square is a pop up market that comes to Melbourne a few times a year (and goes to other Australian cities) and it’s full of stylish goods aimed mostly for women. It’s mostly babies/kids stuff, with really ups the cute quotient, but there’s also handmade crafts, jewellery, clothing and gourmet food.
On my most recent [...]

HOT: Design Made Trade, Royal Exhibition Building, 9 Nicholson St, Carlton

Design:Made:Trade was a 4 day exhibition (2 day trade, 2 day public) set up in the beautiful heritage listed Royal Exhibition Buildings and a keystone event of State of Design 2010, Victoria’s annual design festival.
The grand vaulted space was segmented with 3×3 metre VISY cardboard booths, each containing fabulous furniture, fashion and industrial design brands. [...]

HOT: Preston Zly and the Red Shoes, Preston Zly Studio, Rear 219 Smith St, Fitzroy

I first saw the movie The Red Shoes as a child, fascinated by the beauty of the ballet, the fabulous costumes and the ultra-glamorous London-Paris-Monte Carlo life it depicted in scratchy 1940s Technicolour.
So I was very excited to see that one of the free events being held as part of State of Design 2010, Victoria’s [...]

HOT: Buttonmania, Level 2, 37 Swanston St, Melbourne

It amazes me that Melbourne can support a business that specialises in buttons. But then again I think out of all the cities in Australia, Melbourne is the home of the artisan, the handmade and the unique, hole-in-the-wall shop.
Not generally being the crafty type I’ve never had reason to visit Buttonmania until now. Their website [...]

HOT: Costco Wholesale, 381 Footscray Rd, Docklands

Costco was nothing like I expected.
What I was expecting was an outsized version of Aldi, full of cheap generic goods imported from random Eastern European countries, rather than name-brand products. I was expecting it to be large, but not the size of a football field. I was expecting an eclectic assortment of items, but not [...]

HOT Chat: Stef Dadon and Elise Kausman of Up & Comers Fashion Market

We interrupt our usual blogging schedule today to bring you this week’s HOT Chat a couple of days early. That’s because Stef Dadon and Elise Kausman are launching the Up & Comers Fashion Market this Saturday 15 May, and of course you need to know about it now rather than on Sunday.

RMIT Graduate Stef and [...]

HOT: Mozi Autumn Store, Shop G03, Collins Two3Four, 234 Collins St, Melbourne

Today’s post is Public Service Announcement: it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday.
And if you’re stuck for a gift idea, let Mozi help you.
Melbourne-based homewares and gift brand Mozi has set up an autumn store in the CBD until 13 June. From kitchen essentials to bathroom items, stationery to accessories, everything produced by Mozi has a gorgeous [...]