Tag: featured
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Bassike: Creating Quality, Authentic Collections, Honestly Made
Ahead of the Australian Made Runway, Stephanie Vigilante sat down with bassike’s Co-Founders, Deborah Sams, Co-Founder & Creative Director, and Mary Lou Ryan, Co-founder & Director of Sustainability and Supply Chain, to discuss the brands’ evolution over the years, and how bassike are creating high quality, timeless collections that are authentically Australian Made. You’re based…
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I Can’t Stop Thinking About: Al Dente Enoteca’s Torta Sabbiosa
It’s 4pm on a weekday in the early 2000s. I’ve dumped my school bag in nonna’s “good room” and – like clockwork – a tall slice of sponge cake and a glass of chocolate Nesquik is waiting on the sink for me. It was an afterschool ritual – one that friends, who’d often visit for…
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First Look: Inside the NGV’s Spectacular Gabrielle Chanel – Fashion Manifesto, a Retrospective of the Work and Legacy of the Visionary French Designer
Illuminated light frames lead guests down a long, runway-like corridor into the NGV’s monumental Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto exhibition. Panels are marked with significant dates from the couturière’s life – 1909, when Chanel first opened a milliner’s shop; 1921, when perfume Chanel N°5 was created; 1955, when she made a quilted lamb’s leather handbag and named it…
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In a Room Full of Ostentatious Furniture, Melbourne Icon Franco Cozzo Still Looms Largest
“Megalo, megalo, megalo!” It’s the slogan Italian-Australian Franco Cozzo used to spruik his Baroque-style furniture in low-budget ’80s TV ads. But “megalo”, meaning “large” in Greek, is just as true of the 85-year-old’s charismatic personality. The furniture mogul, who came from Sicily to “Foot-is-cray” in 1956, commands the (show)room with his tongue-in-cheek humour, unmistakable thick accent and…
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Show-Stopping: Has the Pandemic Changed the Australian Fashion Industry Forever?
Written for Broadsheet In the past decade, many aspects of the fashion industry have gone digital, including retail and publishing. But one thing that has endured IRL – and has remained crucial to how business is done – is the fashion week, which occurs in multiple cities around the world biannually. Labels have relied on…
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First Look: A Vibrant South American Eatery in North Fitzroy
Written for Broadsheet Melbourne Huitaca is a South American goddess of happiness, pleasure and drunkenness in the religion of the Muisca (indigenous to Colombia). The rebellious goddess was known for indulging and is the inspiration behind Citrico’s fiery, citrusy, Chilean-inspired menu. “I think I was her in my past life,” owner Nan Kroll says, laughing.…
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First Look: “Alternative” Pizza and New-Wave Wine by the Founder of DOC
Written for Broadsheet Melbourne It’s 3pm on a rainy Friday afternoon when I step into Italian Artisans. A father and son carpentry team is working out the front crafting circular dining tables. Out back, in the newly renovated dining room, owner Tony Nicolini is entertaining a large group. Nicolini is best known for championing artisan…
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A Modern Take on the General Store for Trentham
Written for Broadsheet Melbourne Resting above the mantelpiece in Trentham General’s main dining room is an oil painting of “General Smith”, the store’s fictitious CEO. The portrait is one of many collectables co-owner and interior stylist Lynda Gardener has kept stored away for years, and now sells at her new cafe, homewares and furniture store…
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A Cannolificio (Cannoli Bar) for the North-West
Written for Broadsheet Melbourne “My passion for cannoli started when I was little,” says Cannoli Bar co-owner Carlo Mellini. Growing up in Italy, every Sunday his nonno would bring the family a box of Sicilian desserts. “The ricotta cannoli,” he says. “That was always my favourite.” Before moving to Australia, Mellini’s father Achille worked at…
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A Very Cosy Woodfired Pizza Bar for Strathmore
Written for Broadsheet Melbourne Manuel Masia grew up on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, Italy, working as a pizza maker for ten years before moving to Australia in 2013. “Love brought him to Australia,” his business partner, Marc Kovacic, teases – just four months after moving, Masia met his now wife. Masia and Kovacic decided…
Stephanie Vigilante 