LOST AND FOUND VOLUME 4 ISSUE 5
Guest Editor – Perks and Mini
Ever since they sold their debut collection from a suitcase on their honeymoon, Melbourne-based duo Misha Hollenbach and Shauna Toohey, aka Perks and Mini, have consistently defied convention. By playing things their own way, PAM have carved out a niche that allows them to create clothing, accessories, footwear, toys, books, music and artwork – all awaited by a captive international audience. Apart from running their own store, Someday, and recently launching a new collection, Pop! Eyes, Misha and Shauna have just become parents. Amid all this, they treated us to a characteristically strange, sophisticated and humorous take on their hometown.
ARTS – Y3K Gallery
The most intriguing, multi-faceted new gallery around the northside is Y3K. Currently showing Christopher LG Hill’s Never Werk and Masato Takasaka’s psychological exploration of rock guitarists Post Structural Jam, Y3K holds regular openings and events that are somehow both cerebral and chaotic. The space also houses artist studios and doubles as a retail space for high-concept, hard-to-find clothing and accessories from ffiXXed, ne ff by Rob McKenzie, A Constructed World and other designers who tread that thin ridge between art and fashion.
Current exhibition showing until 12 September. 205 Young Street, Fitzroy.
PAM:
Y3Kkkkkk all the way! An exciting stable of forthcoming and upcoming thinkers and non-thinkers – conceptual contemporary and confusing! (Check Chris Hill’s show!) Also Utopian Slumps and Uplands‘ new space (check Matt Griffin’s show); and The Narrows for consistently hi-end hi-level hi-nice shows. (Hi-end galleries are cool, but only sometimes. Y3K is ALWAYS cool, so if you don’t have time, skip the others and go there!)
EVENTS – Glitzern’s spring exhibition
Chronique Scandaleuse – sounds like a Zoolander outfit, looks like a spellcheck error. But the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week program promises it’s a jewellery exhibition curated by Moi and Caroline of Crossley Street’s contemporary accessories headquarters Glitzern. Jeremy Bryant brings us Swarovski popsical sticks; Luke Warm makes Jasper Ware-inspired Wedgwood-esque handbags; Tessa Blazey’s Fiction label offers Barbarella-style crystal slices; and Lia Tabrahs of O.T.T. channels the ’60s with peephole pendants. All on display until 12 September, but don’t tell your mum unless you feel like scandaleusing her, in a chronique kind of way.
Until 12 September. Glitzern, 1a Crossley Street, Melbourne. Tel: 03 9663 7921.
PAM:
So Bamboo Musik issue 5 is coming up on 19 September at the Mercat. The Dream Team DJs are always changing. Costumes. Dancing. Stimulatuion. Please come and dance if you want to. Safe from jerks. Bamboo for gooood vibes and cheap sangria. Underground for underdog underpant undulating undaground dance.
FASHION – All of the Above
All of the Above is collective workspace that marries pattern-making with custom design projects, and screen printing with fashion retail – all in a light-filled studio-meets-shopfront off Brunswick Street. In the vein of an open-plan restaurant kitchen where you can see if the chef is picking his nose, every Friday and Saturday All of the Above opens its doors to the public and lays the production process out for all to see. Witness the scissoring of patterns and the sweat and tears behind that architecturally inspired scarfigan you’ve been coveting.
109 Victoria Street, Fitzroy.
Tel: 03 8415 0461.
PAM:
I buy clothes from hardware stores: getting into safety gear: goggles, earmuffs, respiratory gear, and knee pads for extended kneeling. Gloves (both disposable and heavy duty) are pretty cool too. Toxic waste (art) calls for the ‘right’ stuff. Someday is good too of course – new stuff consistently. (Subscribe here!) Props to ffiXXed for their show at Y3K. Yes props to Max of course, and props to anyone making costumes for Bamboo Musik.
RETAIL – Comeback Kid
Like most great shops in Melbourne, Comeback Kid has opened in a magical upstairs warehouse that is impossible to locate. (Tip: get a coffee at Brother Baba Budan, wait until the espresso clears your vision then peer down Rankins Lane.) Greta Larkins and Patrick Roberts have colonised Mirka Mora‘s old studio with their favourite independent menswear labels. Does Not Equal, Limedrop, Trimapee and more. Note to shop-shy XY chromosomes: the changing room is larger than some apartments. And Greta might give you a beer if you look tired.
Level 1, 8 Rankins Lane, Melbourne.
PAM:
I like Baker for treats and Kenzan GPO for snacks. And Kenzan proper for a sashimi fix. BBB for coffee, Cookie for drunken noodles and Laksa King for laksa (derrr). Geoffrey Hatty Applied Arts and DesignAge for BEAUTIFUL things for your home. Records and books online, and the occasional visit to Licorice Pie. Someday for stuff like zines, tees, or a mink USB stick by Bless. Damien Pike at Prahran market for BLACK garlic and special mushrooms (frozen fresh porcini…;)).
PAM:
MELBOURNE rules. I’m waiting for it to get big BIG bigger. People, let’s all support the little guys and allow for more little guys to take back what’s ours. Cycle to Coburg Velodrome and beyond, eat at Africa Town and go bush – anywhere there’s bush. Go there and camp and look for what nature has to offer. Leave your clothes at the door of your campervan. Cheese and second-hand bookshops, country style!!!
