De Mille – 7 Crossley Street, Melbourne

Tucked away on what posh people like to call ‘Bourke Hill’, Crossley Street is a mini cornucopia of niche purveyors and artisans. One of the earliest settlers into this lane is De Mille antiques. Specialising in the heady early 20th century: edwardian, deco and nouveau seem to be the dominant milieu of this shop; De Mille is not by any means what one would consider cheap but the scope and uniqueness of the items contained renders a pricetag immaterial.

The 20s and 30s particularly are an iconic time for design, and De Mille’s collection dips into clothing, glassware, luggage, lamps and furnishings, statuery plus of course all manner of oddments and curios which fall under the ‘useless but exceedingly pretty and/or odd’ banner, including paperweights, decorative throws, wall hangings, cigar boxes, mannequins: you name it, they have it available, and possibly in a size/shape/style you’ve never seen before. Like many of our underground havens, De Mille is not equipped with a website or an email address, but their details are as follows: follow the cobble-brick road to the paradise of classic ephemera that is De Mille!!!

The best thing about De Mille: ask me on any given day, and my answer will be a different curio or miscellaneous piece I find there! Some days it’s a classic shoe, others it might be an amazing lampshade with a woman in repose carved into it, and yet another a piece of luggage which looks like it has accompanied Noel Coward to New York and back.

The worst thing about De Mille: it is pricey: an antique store run by an enthusiastic and savvy collector, there might be more look than buy for many, but just the chance to nose away at these extraordinary relics of a past age and style provides pleasure in itself, no?

Details:

Address -
7 Crossley St
Melbourne VIC 3000

Phone -
03 9663 9666

Wunderkammer – Lonsdale Street, Melbourne

Aaaahhh Glorious Wunderkammer.  Jewel in the crown for collecters of the strange and priceless.  The ultimate Cabinet of Curios, this tucked away gem is a must visit for anyone with even a slight interest in oddities.  It’s not a very practical shop (although you could use some of their bones and fossils as paperweights) but it is a very beautiful one, and caters for collecters of the unusual in many different fields. 

 

On display there are: bones and fossils, scientific marvels, antique medical equipment, astronomy tools – particularly antique and antique reproduction, stuffed animals, mounted butterflies and insects and odd tomes.    You’ll definitely see items here you’ll never find anywhere else, and frankly the visionary behind Wunderkammer truly classifies as Mad Genius for constantly sourcing it all for what must be a most intriguing list of clients.  If Bernard’s Magic Shop can give you a temporary sense of playing at magician, carny folk or magic, Wunderkammer can really show you artefacts from these subcultural vaults. 

 

The Wunderkammer website:  has more info about the shop although it is, sadly, rarely updated. 

 

The best thing about Wunderkammer:  the astrolabes, antique scientific glassware, scientific wonders.

 

The downside:  it’s not overpriced for what it is, but there will be many more things you want than you can afford, guaranteed.

 

Details:

439 Lonsdale StreetMelbourne, Vic, 3000Ph: 03 9642 4694Fax: 03 9642 4695Opening Hours:Tue-Fri 10AM-6PM

Sat 10AM-4PM 

Email: info@wunderkammer.com.au

 

Bernard’s Magic Shop – Elizabeth Street, Melbourne

Another of Melbourne’s great institutions not to get with the online programme.  The best reference we have is their City Search site: http://melbourne.citysearch.com.au/E/V/MELBO/0047/05/09/1.html.

 

Bernard’s is a relic of a time when there was no Wii or Guitar Hero – when boundary-breaking entertainment was pulling flowers from your sleeve or magically swallowing ten eggs.   Not only does Bernard’s revolve around this culture it actually sells the paraphernalia to set up your own magic act and also is a great place to catch up on the surprisingly numerous magazines devoted to the subject.  

 

Alongside the serious stuff of optical illusions Bernard’s caters for the kitsch freak and fancy dress party goer – and hooray say all of us!  This means Bernard’s is the best place to find (at a reasonable price) that silly hat or mask or rubber spider or KISS makeup or fake vomit or…. you name it if it’s about camp vaudevillian prancing about in silly outfits Bernard’s can help.  

 

A completely unique staple of the Elizabeth Street Golden Culture Strip (From Flinders St to the Markets, you can find more cult and collectable related material than anywhere else in Melbourne!), even if you’re not a trinkets type it’s obligatory to pay at lease one visit to Bernard’s Magic Shop: it is guaranteed to bring out the inner carny in everyone!

 

What exactly  do they sell? according to the City Search site they’ve got:  

• Magic Supplies
• Novelties/Jokes
• Juggling Equipment
• Masks/Costume Accessories
• Ventriloquist Dolls
• Whoopie Cushions

• Fake Doggy Poo
• Drinking Birds
• Wigs and Hats
• Make-up and Accessories
• Masquerade and Horror Masks
• Costume Accessories
• Balloon Modelling
• Juggling Equipment

Professional magic items for the serious performer and novice alike.Instruction and History Books

• Brass Tricks
• Coin Tricks
• Card Tricks
• Rope Tricks
• Stage Illusions
• Close-up Magic
• Videos

The best thing about Bernard’s:  that it still exists and thrives.   Halloween collectables.

 

The downside:  perhaps people having to make cheap plastic gimcracks in a sweatshop overseas isn’t so great. But other than that, I really don’t think there is a downside to Bernard’s!

 

Details:

 

211 Elizabeth StMelbourne, VIC 3000 Mon-Fri 9:30am- 5:30pmSat 10:00am- 3:00pmTel: (03) 9670-9270Fax: (03) 9600-4545Email: info@bernardsmagic.com.au

 

Heartland Records – Peel St Melbourne

Heartland Records are another place so underground they don’t even bother with advertising or websites.  Plebians one might say.  I think their theory is that they don’t really need to.  All the more reason to give them a jolly good write up here. As far as music goes, they’re the most thoroughly  gothic and industrial shop in Melbourne, hands down.  (any challenges welcome as comments to this article). 

 

Heartland’s main music genres are Indie/Indie dance/Soundtracks/Metal/Gothic/Industrial. They do new and second hand vinyl and CDs.  they also do a small market in collectibles and tshirts, plus badges and the occasional gig tickets.  

 

Not only is Heartland one of the best places to look for new indie releases on vinyl plus classics from artists like Pulp, Suede, New Order, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Nirvana, Placebo and many more, it’s a gold mine of independent 7″ singles new and old .  Having tried desperately hard to find recent UK 7″ singles from bands like The Horrors or Arcade Fire, or even Jarvis or Morrissey, the Good the Bad and the Queen – I found them at Heartland!  While there are plenty of great indie record stores in Melbourne – this is the only place I found with many new UK titles on the shelf on 7″.  

 

The best things about Heartland:  

 

1. as above, the indie 7″ collection is without peer in Melbourne – Missing Link do a good US and Australian selection but for UK Heartland is King. 

 

2. an amazing array of second hand collectible gothic and industrial vinyl, plus a great selection of new stuff on CD. Not as experimental a selection as Peril, but definitely great for goth/popular industrial/metal.

 

3. The downside – well, my biggest gripe is that they do absolutely no advertising so it’s difficult to know when new shipments are in… I guess you just have to ring or drop by.  There is a tiny lack-of-convenience factor as well, but whinging about having to pay the Queen Vic Markets a visit or Flagstaff Gardens is churlish. It’s just not easy when you’re in a hurry running around town.  

 

Heartland Records:  

61 Peel St West Melbourne

Contact: 03 9329 9636

Inferno DVDs/Videos – Elizabeth Street

Inferno’s website says the following:

SPECIALISING IN RARE & DELETED DVDs & VIDEOS:Cult Movies, Horror, Sci-Fi, World Cinema, Animation, Music Videos,Wrestling, UFC & Pride, Drive-In Movies, Blaxploitation,

HK & Martial Arts, Classics from 1940s to 1970s, Films of Great Directors

It’s one of those shops you really don’t find much anymore – where product placement hasn’t yet slimed its insidious way into the shop arrangements, slickness and strategy are lacking completely.  Comparing Inferno to alternaculture counterparts like Minotaur, it seems almost quaint and old fashioned in decor.  If it’s like the shop time forgot visually, that’s because all the effort is going into the video, cd and DVD selections.  Inferno sells CD albums, compilations and soundtracks from psychedelia to heavy metal – always with an emphasis on the alternative. Their selection of CDs is smallish though and by no means comprehensive. What they do have an astonishing range of is actual new Videos of cult cinema.  In the day where it seems to be DVD or dodo, it’s really rare to see such a comprehensive range of new videos.  I’m not sure whether they’re legit or dubs, but regardless they’re sitting there on the shelves, winking at you.   DVD or video format  - whichever you prefer there’s a jaw dropping array of schlock horror,  fantasy and art house films on display.  My partner’s cultometre was going crazy over the horror/scifi collection of zombie, robot and killer alien films, plus an impressive array of  Russ Meyer sexploitation.  My aesthetic spider senses were tingling over the arthouse collection from Europe and the UK 65 to 75:  films like the Quiller Memorandum, Fellini’s Satyricon, staples like Quadrophenia, Performance, Blow Up, Get Carter.  They also stock second hand cult books: including rarities, film books, and a whole lot of other sections you’ll just have to explore for yourself.  The obligatory collectables abound: magazines, metal cases, rare packaging, figurines etc sit behind the counter squashed into a monolith of dreams,the occasional discernible name or title peeking out like a diamond in a coal stack – except in this case what is diamond and what is coal is definitely in the eye of the collector. 

Open odd hours during the week and weekends, it is definitely worth seeking out Inferno – it sits resolutely between the narrow cracks of the major chain stores by maintaining its idiosyncratic obsessive collector’s approach. It differs from counterpart further down Elizabeth Minatour by aiming unashamedly at a more specific collector crowd  and in many ways a more adult demographic interested in the truly obscure. Of course, their second hand section is also lovingly curated.  

A weighty and impressive kookster anachronism in the gloss-age of the 21st century and all the better for it.  

SHOP:1st Floor349 Elizabeth St.Melbourne(near LaTrobe St., opp Melbourne Central)   SHOP HOURS:Tues 12:00 – 5:00Thurs 12:00 – 5:00Friday 12:00 – 6:00Saturday 12:00 – 5:00 PHONE/FAX 03 9640 0304 EMAIL: infernovideo@hotmail.com