Hi y’all. The good news is I am technically still alive. The bad news is that I’m currently in a big ol’ pile of postgraduate wah, and thus have been ignoring my previously semi-regular bloggy habit. 

But I have self-exhumed to inform youse guys of an approaching vintage/crafty/handmade market which I’m sure you’ll dig: Sonny & Coco market, in Preston.I def recommend heading to the website for information and to ogle at the pictures of potentially-available goods n’ chattles, but the basics are that this marche is scheduled to happen on Sunday, May 24, from 10am – 4pm at the Preston Town Hall. It looks as though it will feature a good mix of vintage wares, handmade jazzamatazz, and those plushy things that seem to be all the rage at the moment. You know – half care-bear, half that wack rabbit in Donnie Darko. What’s not to love? 

As Dipper would say, ‘Be There!’  Burnt orange tencel shirt and oily mullet optional. Party.

(PS I hope to re-emerge sometime, but as I’m not exactly hitting the vintage circuit at the moment, I am sorely lacking in blog-fodder at time of press (here’s an embarrassing factoid: my $4, opshop, high-waisted Supre jeans, which I bought to go horseriding in and THAT WAS ALL, are currently on high rotation as I burrow away in the library, subsisting on recirculated library air and my desire to make sense of anything Julia Kristeva says…well, that and ’smart buy’ oats)).

See you on the other side, vintagettes.

Hooray! Another question to rouse me from my sleepiness. From JS:

Hi Detective

I have just moved t Melbourne and am looking to buy some nice, restored fifties or sixties dining chairs to go with a beaut of a table I got for half price last weekend at a closing down sale.  Can you recommend some ‘top end of town’ mid 20th furniture dealers?

Well, if you’ve got the cash to splash, there are some pretty amazing furniture specialists around Melbourne.

The first thing to mention is Chapel St. Bazaar.  I know they can have truckloads of crap and it can get seriously overheated in there etc etc, but it’s ginormous, tends to focus on the era you’re interested in, and if you continue down Chapel St (towards Windsor, not towards the pounding techno music) there are many other interesting little boutiques.

Another top-end style place is on Elgin St, Carlton. It’s called Bbold 20th Century Furniture and Effects, and it’s right near the Shell service station. This place may be slightly overpriced – I know I’ve balked at the prices they charge for the small range of Lea Stein/Pavone/bakelite jewellery they stock, but there’s no denying they have some fabulous furniture, which dates from the 30s to the 70s. So if, Liza Minelli style, price is no object, this place could definitely be one to hit up.

Another place (or zone really) worth mentioning is the non-Acland-st (so towards Elwood and Balaclava) side of St. Kilda. There’s a well-known shop on the corner of Barkly St and Inkerman St called ‘The Bitch is Back’ which stocks loads of retro furniture goodness (lurid colours, shagpile, a million different types of plastic…those were the days). But that whole area seems to have a revolving door of retro-style shops, of varying degrees of quality, so it’s worth having a cruise around if you’re in the area anyway.

A final ‘top end’ style boutique is Geoffrey Hatty applied arts on Malvern Road in Prahran. This place has a whole lotta love for the best (and most extreme) in twentieth century design. It’s high on atmosphere and authenticity, so definitely worth a look.

Anyway, I’m off to mark about forty million essays, so I’ll throw this one open to the floor: where in Melbourne can you get the best mid-twentieth century furniture? Are there any dining chair specialists out there? We need your expertise…

A new shop has opened in my suburb. It’s this sort of wine/fine foods/scented body lotion/gifts for epicureans kind of joint, where everyone runs around in aprons describing things variously as ‘gorgeous’  and ‘naughty’. And recently, they’ve decorated their space by sticking a giant taxidermied ram in the window. This means that if you’re walking one way, you get a view of the Majestic Horns etc, but if you’re coming from the other direction you get a good look at the dun, matted wool of its immediate ass-area. Not ideal, I would have thought. 

Any way, the point is – are vintage taxidermied animals some kind of cool postmodern  design accent that you would happily stick in your living room? Or are they still to reminiscent of the room full of stuffed birds of prey in Psycho?

Lately, I’ve seen bars with stuffed peacocks, a home-beautiful-style magazine spread where a bear rug (a freaking BEAR RUG) was hailed as chic, and seen a dedicated dog owner produce a dusty taxidermy of one of her previous best friends.

The taste for taxidermy has been around for a long time. In the nineteenth century, when interest in natural history soared, there was a fashion not just for stuffing one’s beloved pets, but for purchasing exotic stuffed animals from Africa or Asia (the days before conservation….) to prove one’s cosmopolitanism. There were even ‘theatrical’ taxidermied pieces, where animals would be shown fighting, or a lion would be poised pouncing on a gazelle, etc etc. 

Then, of course, there were the more, ahem, practical objects….think of the elephant’s foot umbrella stand, the aforementioned bear rug or, more recently, the decanters made out of squirrels:

One of the most famous taxidermy artists of all time has to be Walter Potter, a Victorian gent who would amass the bodies of birds, kittens, mice, squirrels etc and turn them into tableaux; some of the more famous of these include ‘The Original Death and Burial of Cock Robin’ and ‘The Kittens’ Wedding’. They are quite amazing in their grotesquerie; if you’re interested, you can get a squiz at a wide selection of Walter Potter’s works here.  In the meantime, here’s a picture of the Kitten’s Wedding, which still gives me the heebie jeebies:

The sale of Potter’s works as individual pieces in 2003 raised a lot of questions about the value of taxidermy-art. Contemporary artist Damien Hirst apparently offered one million pounds for the collection, but was rebuffed by Bonhams. Hirst (himself an artist who works with the medium of taxidermy…who could forget The Kingdom, his dead shark floating in a tank of formaldehyde? Let alone the calves, sheep, foals etc etc) claims that the piecing off of Potter’s oeuvre devalues the collection. But, especially when viewed in conjunction with Hirst’s own art, it raises an interesting question – when did taxidermy stop being an eccentric Victorian curiosity, and start becoming fashionable as artistic decorative object/fine art again?

 When vintage rabbit’s foot jewellery (which seems to be everywhere) starts looking less like a statement of one’s Edgy Attitude, man, and starts looking like mainstream fashion…you gotta wonder. 

What do you guys reckon? Is taxidermy a Hottie or a Nottie? And can you believe I managed to work a Paris Hilton reference into this post?

A veritable flood of questions has come pouring in of late…well, at least two, which I shall now attempt to answer despite my shambolic haze of phd work/teaching (oh yes, I’m teaching first years now…and they expect me to Know Things, and not about napoleon dynamite/costume jewellery/garfield/dessert/the video game Civilization III, which are pretty much my only Mastermind topics) either. 

Here’s the first one. It’s from KD…

Hello

I am a kiwi vintage fashionista about to hit Melbourne for the first time in May

Never having been to Melbourne –where can you recommend to buy good vintage attire – especially the elegant numbers from the 50s?

 
Good question…as I seem to mostly spend my time rummaging around on the floor in grubby op shops (i say this with love – the grubbier the better, as far as i’m concerned), what does a lady do when she’s ready to step the class factor up a notch?

Well, first, there are a few specialist vintage boutiques in Melbourne that deserve a nod. Circa, in Fitzroy, sells many-a classy gladrag from the era you’re interested in. This is a total grub-free zone: everything is restored and clean as a whistle. The clothes waver lazily in rows of delicious colours and tactile fabrics. You will probably sigh a bit and leave feeling happy. It’s also on a street (Gertrude St) where there are plenty of interesting shops, so I highly recomment a gander.

In a different vein, there’s   Retro Star,  in the city. For quantity, RS can’t be beat. The place is Gigantor (on the first floor of the Nicholas building in Swanston St, near the Victorian Writers’ Centre….OK, above the Subway, which stinks) – and stocks a huge range of stuff dating from the 40s to the 80s (i also think there’s some 90s stuff creeping in…).  They’re a little more laid back about the stock being pristine, though, so check all the underarms/seams/buttons etc etc before you buy. 

One place I’d definitely recommend is the legendary Chapel St. Bazaar, a huge repository for all things collectable and 20th century. It’s not always the cheapest, and it needs better ventilation (i always overheat like a woolly mammoth in there, even in winter) but the clothes, my god, the clothes! And the jewellery, accessories etc. That whole Prahran/Windsor end of Chapel St (ie not the tacky South Yarra end) has heaps of interesting vintage boutiques, and some op shops too. Make a day of it, I reckon. 

A couple of other boutiques in the CBD that might be worth a try are Shag, (Shop 20, Centreway arcade) though there’s not too much in the way of 50s stuff here – i always think of shag as the shop for people who believe David Bowie is/was the last word in style – and Anonymous Posh (Shop 43, Royal Arcade) which is a tiny shop and therefore has a small range, but they have a few really lovely things.  

But another thing to remember, KD, is that often it’s not the boutiques, but the fairs and markets that have great merch. Camberwell market, on every Sunday, is always worth a look – though the good vintage will be mixed in with a good proportion of junk. The Hello Sailor fairs are pretty cool, and are ’semi-monthly’ at the moment (what?), so check their facebook page to see if there’ s one on while you’re here.  If you can get out of town, the Geelong and Daylesford Mill Markets are a great source of vintage…and the antiques centres in Melbourne (Malvern, Camberwell) sometimes have great stuff as well. 

Hope that helps!

On to question two, from JO in the northwest of Melbourne…

Hello,

I am wondering if you can point me in the right direction of any Op Shops that have a large range of kids clothing? I do visit all five Savers stores but I’m wondering where else I might go. 

Ooooohhhh, good question. As I never have to buy for kids, this is one area I usually skim past in op shops (unless I see some sort of ridiculous/cute knitwear that I fool myself into thinking I can squeeze into). The only advice I can offer is that following the Savers model is probably a good idea – try targeting the larger op shops (in particular the St Vincent de Paul and Salvos family stores) which, like Savers, have a big range of everything. If the overall scale is larger, there’s a decent chance that the shop will stock a good range of kid’s clothes. On  that note, be aware of the Salvos pricing system…there’s always one ‘colour’ tag that’s half price (it’s older stock – i describe this process in detail here) so it’s a great way to get bargains if you have to buy a lot of clothes for the kiddiewinks.

 How about some of the readers out there who have kids? Know anywhere that specialises? I open this one up to the floor for comment…
 

Well, as you all probably know, I live in Victoria, where the bushfires have left a trail of devastation and there has been an amazing outpouring of community support from Everyday People , who’ve been donating their time, money, and second hand goods to help people affected by the fires.

I’m also a vollie at the RSPCA, where we got so many pooch/kittie/barnyard-animal-related donations that we filled over seven shipping containers with the booty and had to put signs up all over the place thanking people for their support but letting them know that we were now inundated (!) and to try to donate the goods to another charity. There are still calls going out to find additional volunteers to sort through everything. The generosity has been unbelievable. The problem for the organisation, now, is that there are a lot of logistical difficulties involved in sorting everything and getting it out to those who need it, pronto.  

And apparently, the same thing has been happening to op shops near bushfire affected areas. This article spells out the problem – well intentioned folks are doing their best to help, but the charity has to use a lot of manpower sorting through donations (many of which are sadly not in usable condition), and then has to use its own resources to  dispose of those goods which are unsuitable (they can’t do much with electrical goods etc) or in terrible condition (note - if it stinks to the heavens or has irreparable damage, it probably belongs in the bin).

So the op shops, and the charities that run them, are now biting the bullet and asking people to make cash donations instead wherever possible – especially because this will be able to fund longer-term relief efforts, where goods n’ chattles are more of an immediate thing. Just thought I should let y’all know, in case anyone was about to donate a huge bag of soiled wigs or whatever. Not that you guys would do that, or anything.

This is just the word on the street, tho - if you know of any bushfire-affected communities that are still seeking donations of clothes/household items, feel free to leave a comment below and get the word out to a bunch of peeps (I include myself here) who seem to have waaaay too much stuff, no matter how much they donate…

P.S. While I’m on the subject of community service, I’ve been contacted by Sara at the Fresh Air Fund, an American organisation that runs camps for underprivileged kids, who’s asked me to let youse guys know that they’re now accepting applications for counsellors. They accept international counsellors, so if you’re planning on heading to the US of A anytime soon and feel like doing a good deed, check out the fresh air fund website.

I wear glasses. In fact, I kind of need new glasses, because I’m blinder than I used to be. But due to my fear of being told just how blind I am, I’m avoiding the optometrist. Let me put it this way - I’ve put the kybosh on driving at night.

But it’s high time to Face My Fear, not least because the other night, when I was glasses-ed up in a room full of Tragiquelly Hip dudez and dudettes, someone said ‘Hey, are those your glasses? You look like a secretary!’

I do not think this was intended in a sexretary/Miss Moneypenny sort of way.

So, to get inspired, here are my all time favourite vintage glasses looks, in no particular order:

1) Elvis Costello. You know how much I love a good nerd, and this guy basically has nerd superpowers. I particularly liked his look during the ‘This Year’s Model’ phase, though come to think of it, it’s possible that phase never ended:

Note: in a less iconic fashion moment, I believe these glasses were also seen on Garth in Wayne’s World.

2) Brigitte Bardot in Une Parisienne. Ooh la la. Ps, don’t you love the mixed messages of ’serious career laydee’ and ‘meow meow’ going on here?

3) Grace Kelly. Looking as though she couldn’t care less about being glamorous…despite being ridiculously glamorous:

4) Janine, the receptionist from Ghostbusters. Was she sassy or what? I have never seen a rounder pair in my life.

5) Lisa Loeb. OK, ok, maybe it’s not ‘vintage’ yet, but who didn’t enjoy the heartfelt strains of ‘Stay (I missed you)’? 1994 wouldn’t have been the same without these bad boys:

6) Finally, the man himself, YSL:


Looking a little intense, I’ll admit, but what spex. And what tude.

Whew, I’m already feeling better about my next sesh of blurry chart-reading and that weird test where they hit some mini hammer against one’s eyeball (tell me this is a legitimate test…)

There’s definitely a trend going on here in the shape and size. Looks like bold, black, and block shaped is the way I should be rolling. As if I wasn’t nerdy enough.

Party on, Wayne.

Cruising some old posts, I realised that on this here blog, I really seem to love things a lot. Like, a lot. Every era, every medium, every major movement or designer. I heart them all.

But this isn’t actually the case. So I thought, you know what? Maybe it’s time to be a hater for a minute or two. There is some vintage/antique stuff out there that I won’t be cladding myself/cluttering my domicile with anytime soon. And here it is…

1) Toby jugs. You know what? Toby Jugs FREAK ME OUT. Why do people love/collect these things? Think about it – some gnarled old evil looking dude with a massive head and absent brain is staring evilly at you as you drink out of him/dust him lovingly. Whitney Houston would say that it’s whack…like crack.

2) Macrame. To hell with macrame. Guys – what is the appeal of macrame? It looks so cluttered and dingy. Whenever I see one of those magazine spreads about the ‘crafty look’ and they’re hailing the chicness of macrame, I shake my head in disbelief. Except, of course, for this:

which is the definition of awesome.

3) Gathered elastic waists. They make everyone look hideous. Quite a feat. If you must wear one, please belt it – for your sake and mine.

4) The ‘Annie Hall’ look. As much as you try and sell me ill-fitting shirts with tapered, pleated buff-coloured pants, I ain’t buying.

6) Lumpy glass – That ‘art glass’ which is all covered in lumps. They try to pass it off as ‘beautiful’ and ‘unique’. I call it lazy and repulsive.  

7) Anything ivory or made out of a bear head or an elephant foot or whatever. The only thing grosser than fur is when you start dangling the dismembered body parts all over the place. Ditto things with ‘fox hunt’ patterns. Why do I want to eat from a plate with a picture some barbaric ’sport’ on it? Yuk. I don’t even see why people who dig on fox hunting would enjoy this.

OK, well those are most of my pet hates covered…whew, feels good to let out the jive. What about y’all? Any vintage/antique things that make you go ‘blurgh’?

Oh, how I love a question…this one’s from LM, new to Melbourne:

“Hi Chloe, I am new to Melbourne and wonder if you can tell me if you know of any vintage fairs around Melbourne coming up…I can only find blogs about ones from previous years. I am getting married in Oct., and am looking for vintage accessories specifically, but also love anything vintage.”

Righto, LM, there are only three specifically vintage fairs that I know of: the ‘The Way We Wear’ Fairs, which are held around Australia in each capital city twice a year, the ‘Hello Sailor’ fairs, which are held at the Carlton Hotel in the city, approximately once a month, and the ‘Round She Goes’ vintage maket. Here are some details:

Firstly, you’re in luck – the first of the Hello Sailor fairs for 2009 is happening this Sunday, the 8th of Feb! The Carlton Hotel is at 197 Bourke st, Melbourne, and it’ll run from 1pm-7pm. I hear that there’s sangria and food happening, as well as vintage-related festivities, so it sounds like a winner.

Next up will be the Round She Goes vintage fair – the next one’s happening on March 22nd, which is a Sunday. These fairs are held at the Tivoli (291 Dandenong Road) in Prahran, and run from 10am-3pm. Entry costs around $2, and there are further fairs happening in July and October.  

Lastly, there’s the ‘The Way We Wear’ fairs , which are held at the Williamstown Town Hall. The next one’s on June 20-21, and there’s also one on November 21-22 this year. Obvs, the November one is too late for the October wedding, but the June one should suit. If peeps from other cities are interested in finding out the dates for their hometown, all the 2009 dates are listed on the The Way We Wear website. 

Of course, the other thing to bear in mind is that regular antiques fairs often have great accessories (especially jewellery). There’s a whole lot more collectable poodle figurines and hideous lumpy vases to sort through, but there are often some gems, and it attracts a totally different crowd who probably won’t be searching for the same thing you are (this is a plus). You can find a list of the upcoming ones here – it’s not complete, and covers all of Australia, but there are Victorian ones in there.

Hope that helps! And keep the questions coming! Might see some of youse all at Hello Sailor this weekend…

You know, I really thought I had the measure of antiques fairs by now. The running order is usually as follows:

1. Go to some regional town.

2.  Find the town hall/leisure centre.

3.Wander around thirty to fifty stalls, gawping at stuff and making banal comments such as ‘that’s nice’ or ‘gee, that’s a big one, isn’t it?’

4. Remark that the same things are for sale that you saw last time.

5. If you’re feeling frisky, buy a lil’ somethin; if not slowly gorge yourself on scones/sausages/vanilla slice and then go home.

Right? Well, not  exactly. Fryerstown is not your run-o-the-mill antiques fair.

But, thinking it was, I had made the mistake of a) not bringing much cash and b)wearing normal shoes/clothes. Why were these things mistakes, you ask? Because it’s a Gigantic Freaking  Mofo of an outdoor fair held in the middle of god knows where, that’s why.

I started to get worried as we drove into Fryserstown and I realised that people were paying to park in locals’ front yards. Then I realised that people were parked all along the side of the road. There were cars (and - ah, the grey nomads - caravans) EVERYWHERE. It was total automotive madness. Sort of like those ads for car city, without the wobbly eye thingy. Though I guess everyone was keeping their eyes open for a bargain (boom-boom!)

So we parked on the road, and it was once we got out onto the sweltering tar that I realised that wearing nice patent leather shoes was probably not my wisest move. At the end of the day I looked down and both shoe and the exposed parts of foot were covered in a serious layer of brown dust.

See, except for a small and overcrowded hall in the middle of a reserve, the entire fair takes place outdoors. And this would be fine if it were on, say, concrete, or rolling green pastures. But instead it was on dirt. Miles and miles of hot brown dirt. Many stallholders’ wares were as dusty as my feet-shoes. And good lord, were there a lot of stalls. Maybe over 100.

So there I was, without a whole lot of cash (there’ll be an atm nearby, i blithely thought), and without any sort of hat to stop the sun searing my face off (the person at the entrance selling hats must have been making a killing). But, I sunscreened up and soldiered on, helped along by a homemade rissole in a kind of makeshift sanger with cheap mustard…at  least the food was what I was expecting.

But here I will stop complaining, because it truly is worth making it out to this fair if you can stand the dust, the vastness and the fact that there’s nowhere to sit.

Why? Because it’s rare to see a fair with so many stallholders, so much stock and so much competition. Bargaining is de rigeur, and people really did seem to want to offload their old stuff, so it’s a great chance to grab some decent antiques at a price well below retail and quite possibly below what you’d pay at other, more comfortable fairs.

The type of stock was average – loads of china and glass, toys and dolls, advertising material, books etc. There wasn’t much in the way of quality jewellery and there were hardly any clothes/shoes/accessories, so if that’s your thing then it’s probably not worth the trip. But this is definitely the place to be for any decorative/homewares-related stuff. As an aside, I’ve never seen so much Brownie Downing junk in my life…perhaps the global financial crisis has slowed sales of politically incorrect collectable miniature plates.

Still not convinced? Ok – other than the stock and price info, here’s how I know it was a good fair:

1) I saw antiques dealers who I’ve seen selling wares at other fairs wandering around here as punters (looking for stock? That’s got to be a good sign)

2) This is the only fair that I’ve been to where Alan Carter (of the antiques guides) bothered showing up. He had a stall and was peddling wares like a pro. (As an aside, I saw someone selling a 1985 Carter’s for $450! Unbelievable. Something to keep an eye out for in op shops.)

I get the feeling that the Fryerstown fair, which has been running since the early 1970s, is they type of fair attended by Serious dealers and professionals/collectors, as well as snotty plebians such as yours truly. I was there on the first ‘official’ day, but was told by more than one person that everyone sets up in the week before the fair begins, so most big-time/organised dealers have had a gander at everything by the wednesday/thursday before the fair legally opens.

This was a bit of a bummer, because it gives one the feeling that all the best bargains have already gone. The plus side, however, is that now I (and you) know about this unofficial wheeling and dealing, so we can be smarty-pantses and get there early next year.

I’ll be the one wearing dingy old runners and a giant hat.

This is something I don’t say lightly, so get ready. Op shops in Tasmania are old fashioned.

That’s right. They’re the op shops of yore. So while I know that most of you are probably like ‘bleh, I am nowhere near Tasmania and I heard it’s full of incest and weird miniature villages anyway’, heed my words – Tasmania, in a lot of ways, is like stepping into a time warp. Some of these ways are good. Some of these ways are…not so good. But when it comes to thrifting, this Olden Days-yness is definitely a plus.

The funny thing about Hobart (can’t really comment on Launceston, as I went there once and the only thing open was a Dominos and people kept offering to drag race with us…please tell me I was there on a bad day) is that there are excellent, well stocked op shops in the city centre. Admittedly. this is partially because the concept of ’suburbs’ doesnt’ really exist in Tasmania. In Hobart there’s just ‘Hobart’, ‘North Hobart’ and ‘South Hobart’ and if you cross the bridge you’re on something known as the Eastern Shore, which is a few suburbs very close to the city (by Melbourne standards), which ‘Hobart’ people tend to think of as being Way Over There.

Anyway, the two St Vinnies in the city centre (one in North Hobart, the other on Argyle St in the CBD) and the Lifeline megastore (also on Argyle St, and they don’t call it a megastore, but it is one) are all well-stocked with retro/vintage goods, as well as reasonably priced contemporary garb; you can be just about guaranteed of at least one good find. Even the ’expensive’ pieces aren’t all that expensive, partially because there are so many of them, and partially because the total commercialisation of op shops hasn’t quite hit Tasmania. Young people seem to be a bit snobby about op shopping in Tasmania, too – once when I was making conversation and said something along the lines of ’sheesh, you guys have awesome op shops here’, my ebullience was met with pitying glances and ‘oh…you shop in op shops? Are you dirt poor? Would you like directions to a soup kitchen?’ (slight exaggeration). Perhaps this ‘tude is one of the reasons that there’s so much great stuff.

In other news, the only not-so-great op shop in central Hobart is the Salvation Army store in the main mall. It’s one of those stores that gets plundered regularly and seems to sell as much in the way of new bulk cleaning products and shoelaces as it does secondhand goods. The Salvos in Bellerive is a much better bet - I highly recommend checking out the china cabinet there.

OK, I have been saving the best for last. The op shop that you don’t want to miss if you’re in Hobart is the Uniting Church (i THINK it’s the uniting church, this has been driving me mental, it’s definitely a church one) just between South Hobart and the city. It’s awesome – cluttered, deserted and ridiculously cheap. I bought a 1950s black crepe dress there for $4 (it did have a small patch near the zip, but Who Cares). Moreover, there’s a second shop owned by the same charity a few doors down, which sells books and bric-a-brac, and is AMAZING. The amount of reasonably priced collectables I saw in this shop is second to none – there was Staffordshire and Royal Winton china, decent glass, figurines (non Copperart, woo hoo), and books up the wahzoo - and Iwas the only person in there (other than The Beau). Be there, as Dipper would say.  I have attempted to find the details in the phone book/on google to no avail, but Hobart is small, so i have Every Faith you’ll find it.

Finally, a note – there are ops in the outer suburbs of Hobart, especially in Glenorchy, where there are about half a dozen in a single (long ) street. But, while such shops are always worth a gander, they’re nothing special (and the mormon shop is really bad and weirded me out and smelled vaguely disconcerting, just saying).  Also, the more ‘country’ ones (in Deloraine or Huonville, for example) are great, but expect people to spot you as a city slicker from miles of and jibe you gently accordingly. It’s a price I’m willing to pay.

So, in short, don’t expect to come home from the land under the land downunder with various treasured antiques that will make your fortune Indiana Jones-style, but expect a much higher median quality of op shop in the Apple Isle. That and great pinot. And what’s not to love about such a winning combination?

Any other Tasmania lovers out there? Even without the op shops, the Taste of Tasmania fest was enough to win yours truly over…