HOT Spots Winter 2010

Once again the City of Melbourne have produced a free pocket-sized booklet full of lots of ideas to inspire you to get out of the house and enjoy winter in Melbourne. This is a post to bookmark!
I sat down with a cup of tea and flicked through the booklet, which you can pick up at [...]

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: The Social Studio, 128 Smith St, Collingwood

Fitzroy/Collingwood seems to be the hotbed of social enterprise businesses in Melbourne (see my review of restaurant Charcoal Lane), and in late 2009 another one opened around the corner from me – The Social Studio.
The Social Studio is a non-profit fashion studio space staffed by approximately 20 young members of Melbourne’s refugee community and overseen [...]

HOT Chat: Ashley Tell from Golden Palomino Vintage and Darling Clementine

Today’s HOT Chat is also a guest post by Poppy, a Melbourne blogger who I met at the Nuffnang Christmas Party and the author of Poppy Gets a Life (which you’ll see is a MEL: HOT Read). Poppy’s blog is all about her move off the corporate ladder into a job where she has the [...]

HOT: Angelucci 20th Century, 113 Smith St, Fitzroy

Smith Street has no shortage of cool vintage stores to browse (see reviews of Lost and Found Market and 84 Smith Street) and the latest addition is the Fitzroy outpost of Windsor shop Angelucci 20th Century.
For over 15 years the owner Dean has sourced vintage furniture from Denmark and France, flatpacked it for import and [...]

HOT: Launch of MEL: Heat Map

For those of you who may not have noticed yet, there’s a new little button on the top menu of MEL: HOT OR NOT -  MEL: Heat Map.
What’s that, you ask? Well, I have been spending my waking hours putting every review on MEL: HOT OR NOT onto a single map. So that means you [...]

HOT: Suzuki Night Market, Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne

For me summer in Melbourne heralds long bright evenings, Moonlight Cinema and the Suzuki Night Market at Queen Victoria Market. Evidently I’m not alone as the night market has become a bit of a summer institution for young and old alike and in peak time (between 6-8pm) the crowds swell to almost uncomfortable levels.
Nevertheless, it’s [...]

HOT: 84 Smith Street, 84 Smith St, Collingwood

I love to catch up on my window-shopping at 84 Smith Street. This vintage collectables and furniture shop has a constant rotation of eye-catching items in its storefront, from a plastic drinks-serving robot to mid-century Danish dining chairs to old-fashioned metal filing cabinets. Wendy Dracoulis and her husband only sell pieces that they like and [...]

HOT: Melbourne Op Shop Tours (Part 2), Inner West, Williamstown to Footscray

Read Part 1 of the tour here.
Another quick train ride to Spotswood then St John’s Op Shop (612-614 Melbourne Rd, Spotswood). ‘Great variety of household goods’ is an accurate description, with ‘variety’ being the operative word. This is an OCD sufferer’s nightmare.

The rabbit warren of a shop was full of surprises – an extensive collection [...]

HOT: Melbourne Op Shop Tours, Inner West, Williamstown to Footscray

Fashionistas know that the surest way to score a one-of-a-kind outfit is to scour old shops and vintage stores. Melbourne Op Shop Tours helps you take up the op shop challenge by running small group (max 10 people) tours through various areas of Melbourne. What makes it different from other op shop tours is that [...]