Melbourne is known for its laneways.
RACHEL NICKLESS
Venture up some grubby stairs away from the bustling office workers on Melbourne’s Bourke Street and you arrive at a garden scene of pink walls, synthetic turf and white wrought iron furniture. Hipster waiting staff in retro outfits, who look as if they have just stepped off the croquet lawn, are serving pink cupcakes and bubbles to an assorted crowd relaxing in the spring sunshine.
This is Madame Brussels, one of Melbourne’s many roof-top bars, which serves everything from high tea in the day to late-night drinks.
“I call it Wisteria Lane meets Alice in Wonderland meets Peggy Guggenheim in her palazzo in Venice” announces the husky-voiced Miss Pearls, who is a co-owner of the bar she presides over.
There is something deeply politically incorrect about Miss Pearls, a former actor who sees the world as her stage. The Melbourne eccentric is fond of throwing fur parties in her back room – decorated as a gentleman’s club – and on the day I meet her is proud of several pairs of white ’70s tennis shorts she has bought and is determined to squeeze her young male staff into.
Miss Pearls is no stranger to taking a fashion risk herself. She has commissioned a young taxidermist to create her race-day hat and shows off a beautifully crafted headpiece made out of rather a lot of a dead magpie.
Welcome to Australia’s quirkiest city, where many of the best destinations for those visiting during the spring racing carnival are not at eye level.
“What I find about Melbourne is the hidden aspect, whether it’s dining, shopping or cocktails, has become really important to the city’s identity,” says shopping blogger Lady Melbourne (it seems honorifics are very de rigueur in this city).
“Melbourne makes you work for its shopping but if you are prepared to do the work you will be very well rewarded,” says the Lady, otherwise known as Phoebe Montague.
Dressed in a long cardigan and sporting glittering blue nails, Lady Melbourne takes us to the GPO for a spot of designer shopping, then we wind through beautiful arcades, up stairs and down alleys to discover out of the way shops such as Alice Euphemia, which stocks only Australian and New Zealand-designed fashion and jewellery, European designer store Marais and the Scandinavian store Somewhere.
For male punters, Henry Bucks in Collins Street and City Hatters at Flinders Street station are good destinations to pick up a hat.
For well-heeled women seeking race-day accessories, the perfect stop is Christine’s at 181 Flinders Lane. Down some steps and with a red tartan hallway entrance, the uninitiated could mistake this treasure trove – which is fit to make Carrie Bradshaw swoon – for a cheap vintage clothes shop.
This is the passion of professional bowerbird Christine Barro, who spent a quarter of a century buying glittering things for the former Melbourne destination store Georges, before opening her own store.
There is a bouquet of Philip Treacy hats, including his signature gondola hat, and the pillbox hat of the style worn by Victoria Beckham to the 2011 royal wedding. A $6950 pillbox studded with hand-sewn Swarovski crystals is the most outrageous of the collection. There are also Lanvin and Celine bags and shoes, and Adrian Lewis jewellery made from horn and quartz.
Melbourne’s changeable weather may be the butt of many interstate jokes, but Barro, who grew up in Sydney, insists that “the weather in Melbourne allows people to be more stylish because you can layer up”. She says that “it allows Melburnians to be more creative, because you are not outdoors as much, you are indoors doing something”.
To explore your creative talents it is worth booking a hat-making workshop. To find milliner Serena Lindeman, we leave Swanston Street behind and take a rickety lift up through quaint little artisan workshops. Her creations are perched like colourful birds around her small, old-fashioned studio overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral. They include the sculptured red and cream hat that won her the Myer Fashions on the Field millinery award at Flemington in 2006.
Among all this finery, the creator herself, with her red-framed glasses and grey bobbed hair, is down to earth, looking very much like the art teacher she once was.
We are here not to buy but to make our own headpieces in a three-hour class run by Lindeman. We are not there to make fascinators, she says. “A lot of crimes have been committed in the name of the fascinator.”
Time flashes by in Lindeman’s over-stuffed workroom as she helps her students select beautiful materials, curl quills, strip back feathers and affix netting. We walk away with wearable headpieces and an insight into the work that goes into handmade race-day fripperies.
Fashion is not the only quirky thing in Melbourne. Small bars worth a visit include Eau De Vie, which is down an alley and hard to find. Its secret room is where those in the know buy and store their liquor.
For those who want a tipple before heading to the track, a pre-race breakfast the Conservatory at Crown Towers is a perfect spot to sip champagne and overlook the Yarra. Crown splashed $8 million on this room by designer Blainey North and the result is a light-filled, art deco-style space that makes you feel as if you’ve stepped back in time.
Among a throng of quirky Melbourne dining gems suitable for groups is The Sharing House on South Wharf Promenade, the latest from restaurateur Paul Mathis. With its bar made of Lego blocks, the restaurant’s aim is to replace “fine with fun” in the dining experience.
South Wharf is often bemoaned by Melburnians for its too-new vibe, but The Sharing House makes a visit worthwhile. Head chef Mark Briggs, previously at Vue De Monde, has gone for a casual approach, but the flights of fancy are still there. There is a chicken and snail spring roll and “fish fingers” – Spanish mackerel wrapped in sourdough. When we were there, we had a melting lamb ragout, which delights when paired with a Fat Sparrow Triple Blend from Heathcote. We finished with the “ice-cream man”, a selection of ice-creams in mini cones lined up on a wooden frame.
Then for pre-race pampering for both men and women, there is the retro-styled Miss Fox, which offers beauty treatments from threading to gel manicures and make-up, along with champagne or cocktails. When I visit, I spend my time chatting with corporate glamour pusses and a punk having her nails decorated with green balls. How very Melbourne.
The Australian Financial Review
Time seriously flies! This is the first time in probably 6 years where I am actually here in Melbourne ~ when I was at Uni, I’m usually in HK visiting family and enjoying the hot and humid summer over there ~ but nope…i’m an official working gal now so no more holidays >_< Do you celebrate Christmas in July? I didn’t really have the time, but next year I have made a promise to myself to make a big deal about Christmas in July hehe it’s important I get to celebrate Christmas twice a year because it’s one of my favourite holidays 
so he particularly liked the bar and how it was all built with Lego interesting fact I found from 
