Every time I tell someone I am going to Melbourne they tell me I simply HAVE to go to Chapel street and how much I am going to love it.
So today I went.
A lot of anticipation and preparation went into this day. I had waited and dreamed of coming home Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman Style arms laden with bags and boxes. I dreamed of unlimited choices and dilemmas over what to buy and what to put back on the rail with a heavy heart due to budget constraints. I dreamed of remortgaging the house because I had found some magnificent piece that simply had to be mine with a pricetag to the moon and back, but what the hey. I imagined going back home wearing unique expressive outfits that everyone stopped me in the street to ask me where I got them from.
I came home with nothing.
Nothing but frizzy hair and crushed hopes.
The day started out pretty bad. I put on a lovely dress and fixed my hair all pretty. I know the way shop assistants work - the better you look the better the service. I learnt this when I was obese and found out how invisible I was especially when I used to shop with my skinny friends and the sales ladies would fawn all over them right in front of me and I would barely get a hello. They didn't even want me wearing their clothes let alone wasting them time on me. Anyways, now I know if I am into a serious shopping day I have to look the part. So, dressed in my carefully chosen finery, hair beautifully groomed, make up artistically applied, perfume delicately sprayed, looking like a million dollars, I stepped out of our building...
right into a rainy, windy, cold but still awfully humid nightmare.
Turning around with a miserable wave of defeat, right back into our apartment I went to put on some boring, ugly, warm pants, a t-shirt, and cardigan.
We walked to DFO as the lady from the Sketchers store around the corner had a pair of Black sneakers held in my size there for me. In the 10 minute walk the sky opened up and literally started bucketing down. Despite that we still got to really soak up the sights. It was my first time crossing the Yarra River, aptly nicknamed the 'Upside Down River' because it is so dirty and muddy people believe it looks like the muddy bottom is actually on the top.
We got inside all frazzled and damp and found the Sketchers store. I asked the lady for my sneakers (I wanted to wear them today for something comfortable to walk in) and she passes me a box white sneakers.
Me: These are white. I asked for black.
Her: Oh are they? They don't come in any other colour.
Me: Yes they do, I tried the black on yesterday.
Her: Hang on, let me look them up online. Nope, nothing in the website, you sure they weren't another model? Were they these?
Me: No.
Her: These?
Me: No.
Her: What about these?
Me: No. They are exactly the pair in the box you just handed me but black.
Her: But I have no record of these in black.
Me: Well then, you clearly do not have the same stock as the other store as I clear as day tried that exact pair on over there. I asked the lady in the other shop to tell you to call me if what i needed wasn't in this store - why haven't I heard from you?
Her: Must be a mistake.
Me: No shit. Yep. Mistake. The mistake was my trusting you. *YOU HAD ONE JOB. TO HOLD ME A PAIR OF SHOES!*
Why is it so fucking hard for shop assistants to get one little thing right? I ask this because it happens all the bloody time, and they don't give a shit, you know they don't because they say 'sorry' like they are asking you what the time is, with not a care and with the knowledge that no matter how you feel or what you do or what you do or don't walk out the store with they still will get the same shitty minimal wage with little appreciation from their manager or the company they work for. They aren't sorry at all. You walk out empty handed and they will sell their shitty leftover shoes to ten other people who walked in the store. Only those ten other people didn't traipse halfway across town in the pouring shitty rain on one weeks holiday from the other side of the country hoping to buy a nice pair of sneakers.
AAAAAAAANYWAYS.....
So, with a shit morning brushed aside and the hopes of a better day in Chapel street we hailed a Didi and went on our way.
We arrived at Chapel street and decided to walk all the way up one side and then walk all the way back down the other, finishing with a stop at the Prahran Markets.
We walked and walked and passed many stores but so far they were all designer label. I wondered where all these quirky, unique, one-off, vibrant little stores were that I was imagining. All these labels are not me, I've never liked designer label and I have never liked paying ridiculous amounts of money for something bland and cookie-cutter just because it has a little strip of fabric on it on the inside with someone's name on it. Not only do I not like those looks I also don't like the people who get into that kind of thing. I am not Carrie, this is not Sex and the City, and this devil does not wear Prada.
Then, like a dazzling ray of sunshine in all of this greyness, out of nowhere and completely unexpected up pops something that has forever been on my bucket list....
Yeah, I know, my bucket list isn't overly extravagant if a feed at Taco Bell is among it, but seriously, for someone who has always loved Mexican Food above and beyond anything else, and I have always heard it talked about on American television shows so it has always been the one take away I have wanted to try. I didn't know there was any in Australia, I thought they were just in USA so to stumble upon this gem I was jumping for joy right there in the street - in the drizzling rain! hahaha. As it was too early in the day for lunch I wasn't hungry so I just got a $2 taco but I tell you, my friends, it was the BEST taco I ever had. Not because it tasted better, but just because it was freakin TACO BELL!!!!!!!
As we put foot to pavement leaving Taco Bell behind to further explore the Chappel Street treasures, the sky opened up again and we got caught in a really heavy downpour so at this stage my tousled hair turned to golly-wog steel wool and all I could do to salvage my dignity was put it up in a bun. There was nothing I could do about my fringe, which now resembled a scene out of a 1988 year book. Had my photo been taken I would surely have ended up on some sarcastic Meme circulating the social media world.
We found a little store to fossick in and I saw my reflection in the mirror and realised that the only attention I was likely to get today was the careful gaze of the security guards as they watched me ambling across their turf, looking like a homeless beggar LOL!. Well, i just have to push on, dignity long lost, perhaps these magical stores have to be just further up.
As I got to what looked like nearly the end of the street I realised I was yet to find a shop or even come close to buying anything. Bummer.
Then I found SHAG.
Beautiful, quirky, glitzy, wonderful Shag.
Oh my gosh, this was exactly what I was hoping for. Excitement PLUS! I spent a long time in here cruising every rack and shelf, touching the sublime fabrics, admiring all the ultra awesome retro vintage prints, and moving them in the light enjoying the sparkles, metallic threads, and satin sheen. I really love the ones that have that bit of a worn in look about them, especially when they are a late 60's early 70's piece that looks straight off the set of The Brady Bunch. I always am drawn to those drop waist mini dresses, the lime greens, great big collars, and metallic paisleys. Even when I know I wont fit them and really don't want to buy them some pieces I simply have to try on so I can seem myself in the mirror and imagine myself as the 4th Brady girl running down those wooden stairs in my knee high socks with hair in pigtails yelling "Marsha Marsha Marsha!" I can't get enough of that show just to oogle the set wardrobe. I wonder what happened to all those clothes?
I totally understand with vintage shopping that you have to go through much heartache finding pieces that you totally adore but have to leave behind because they are not in your size, but this makes you really appreciate the little nuggets you do find that are perfect and fit you. Today was no exception. So many spectacular dresses I could have bought then and there that were too small (they had really tiny waists in the 50's and 60's, probably because they didn't have HJ's and KFC). But the most tragic one of all was this magnificent pair of just above the ankle sheer mesh boots with beautiful glistening sparkling diamantes running all the way up them in stripes. Size 9. I am a 91/2. By god did I try to stuff my big ol foot into those poor little shoes but for this life of me there was no way I was going to become Cinderella today. The shoe simply wouldn't fit. Devastated!
Speaking of the shoe not fitting, Poor Hobbit, his only shopping list item was some Cowboy Boots. OK, so lets get this one thing straight - Cowboy boots are HIS thing, not mine. I think they look ridiculous on city folk and when he wears them I always tell him "What the hell are you wearing cowboy boots for? You don't own a horse and you work in an office" to which he always replies "Coz they're cooooooooool" with a proud grin. So, that's his thing (a bit of a 1980's BonJovi flashback nonetheless) and if my man wants cowboy boots I'm sure gonna help him find some. I think we tried on every single boot around-about his size in the whole length of Chapel street and alas, not one that was nice looking would fit. There were a couple that fit but they were kinda dowdy. Poor Hobbit, the one little item on his list and he couldn't check it off. So that is going to have to be a huntable item when we go to USA. I am sure being cowboy country they will have his precious cowboy boots.
Moving along we found a few other little stores with no luck, but nothing to sing home about.
Coming back down the other side we found a really cool band shirt shop where I picked out 3 really fabulous band shirts for Hobbit (Led Zepplin, Johnny Cash, and Metallica).
We then found an ultra quirky tardis shop called Chapel Street Bazaar
Chapel Street Bazaar is a place I literally needed ALL day to get through. I marked that off as a place to return to another trip. It is an arcade that once had many shops but it looks to me like this place moved in and got more and more popular and bought out all the other shop space. There are loads of little rooms and stalls each with a scattering of assorted 2nd hand items. Not just clothing, but also records, furniture, ornaments, collectors items, bric a brac, literally anything and everything you can think of is in here. But there is no order to it, there is just stuff everywhere which means you need to search every nook and cranny to really find your gems.
As we were strapped for time we had to rush it, but I did try on some clothes (which didn't fit, damn!) but ended up buying a pair of crystal earrings. Hobbit bought a load of really cools records.
We then made our way to the Prahran Market . Now my Dad, who knows my taste in food, had told me this was a really good one for finding tasty continental foods. He wasn't wrong, it was a massive beautiful old building which had been cleared out and was one big warehouse of food stalls. Unfortunately most of it was all fresh food which would be amazing to visit regularly if you lived there but as someone with 4 days left and having to fly home we couldn't really buy much. We found a couple of wax wrapped cheeses (Red Leicester with peppercorns and chilli - YUM) as we know these transport well having brought several home from Amsterdam.
Hobbit decided to visit Greville Records store that was on his to-do list that was next to the markets so as he ruffled through records I wandered up and down the street determined to find the ultimate clothing store. I did find one lovely little store which had the loveliest guy behind the counter. I really enjoyed talking to him and there were some unique pieces in this store. I can't for the life of me think of the name of this shop but it was inbetween the markets, record store, and Kookai near the markets and Grattan street. Looking at google maps now I think it might have been The Collective Boutique. I bought a gorgeous little corset top and it fit like a glove, was very different to anything I had ever seen, and was only $20! It had some weird writing "I.AM.GIA." on a sewn on tape across it. I thought that it was kinda ugly so I thought I might unstitch that part when i get back home. When I got home I googled the writing and found out it was some Australian designer and that my new little top was called a Chelsey Corset top was still on sale for $150 new - so I kinda got a fabulous little bargain.
We made our way back to Chapel street and looked through the last stores as they all started shutting their doors for home time. As I passed the windows feeling defeated one last glimmer of hope pulled me in. A pair of medium heel, ankle high, black leather boots totally covered all the way over with magnificent shiny sparkling swarovski crystals. And this was no 2nd hand store, so they HAD to have my size. I went in, had a look through the whole store to be sure there was nothing else I wanted, and finally asked to try on the shoes. They don't make them in a 41, only a 40.
Crushed!
I tried on the 40 to be sure, they could run big, but nope, they actually ran small and I couldn't even get my bog bloody foot into them :(
That's it! Call the uber. I want to go home.
And so we did.
On our lovely little home street, the Degraves street Cafe Strip, we always saw a massive line at the Pidapipo` Gelato Stand. Today after the day we had, we thought we would treat ourselves to a ruddy big serve of gelato.
Because Gelato ALWAYS fits hahaha.
Spearmint & White choc, Meringue & Rose.
Beautiful.
We were going to go to the edge walk tonight but I canned it because I was in a crap mood and I looked bedraggled. I wanted to just have a shower, wash my hair, sit around and eat. Which I did.
Tomorrow is another day.
One more little memory to share, before I drift off. There was this one store, and for the life of me I have no idea where it was, but the owner had her little doggy in there. My Hobbit, the Animal Whisperer, always attracts the animal cuddles.
I thought I would share with you the gorgeous photos ...
It is these moments where I look at this man and love him more than my own life.
#prahran #melbourne #southyarra #chapelstreet #forgoodtimes #prahranpubs #melbournepub #australia #stkilda #chapelstreetprecinct #shag #opshop #secondhand #thrift #vintage #preloved #opshopping #thrifting #opshopfinds #sustainablefashion #slowfashion #thriftstorefinds #secondhandfashion #ilovetoopshop #thriftstore #retro #shoplocal #vintagestyle #opshopper #Gelato
Afternote:
Today's blog is dedicated to my favourite metal band: The Chapel st Transvestites
May they always reign and always be awesome. You know who you are ;)