Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Melbourne - day two

Our day started with breakfast at Madamimadam (Madam I'm Adam), in one of our favourite Melbourne lane ways off Collins Street, before heading up to the Ian Potter Centre at Federation Square to see the "200 Years of Australian Fashion" exhibition. 

All of us enjoyed seeing this comprehensive collection of clothing from the earliest days of the colony right up to the present, including pieces from the most recent Melbourne Fashion week.

Our favourites were the exuberant fashions of the 80s - when a really distinctive Australian aesthetic started to be evident - especially in the fabulous creations of Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson et al.
.....and the wonderful designs of Akira Isogawa whose Japanese inspired aesthetic is a dominant theme in all the current collections. 

Afterwards, while we were still in the mood for fashion we took ourselves off to Cose Ipanema at the Paris end of Collins Street, on Jeremy's recommendation. A big thrill here was seeing an inspiring collection of Kate Durham's jewellery. We didn't buy anything at this high end store but rewarded ourselves all the same afterwards with a pot of Cloudy Wheat Beer from Young & Jackson (home of the iconic Chloe) on the corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street.

We met Fiona W. and Elizabeth for an early meal at Mamacita on Collins Street tonight. Mamacita is a small but very popular contemporary inner city Mexican restaurant - beautiful fresh flavoursome food but wildly crowded and noisy - even at 5.30pm in the evening. There was already a long queue waiting for tables as we left the restaurant around 7.00pm.

With the night still young we made our way up to the 34th floor of the quietly opulent Sofitel Hotel for a drink and a chat and a chance to admire the sumptuous surroundings.



This pic below of Fiona and Maxie was taken in the Ladies loos - with one of the best views you'll find in the CBD - overlooking Fitzroy Gardens out towards the Dandenong Ranges.

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