Spring Racing Advice - Keep Yourself Nice, Kittens

The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival is in full swing Kittens! I just love this time of year.

If you are lucky enough to be heading to the track this year, I have some advice to help get you through the long days and subsequently long festive nights in tip top shape.


Rule number one Kittens: Nightclub wear is NOT appropriate race wear. Decorum and etiquette go hand in hand. Remember, this is a day time event - try to head more in the feminine, pretty direction, rather than man-eating vamp direction. Less is definitely not more.



2. Colour is your friend. There is nothing wrong with the classic black and white ensemble (after all, B&W is the traditional theme for Derby Day), but this is a great opportunity to to let colours show off your skin tone:


Sigh. I just adore Nicolangela dresses (above).


3. Be prepared! Keep bandaids, Hollywood tape, tampons and aspirin in your purse. Generously offer them to others 'caught short' during the day.


4. Check the weather report well in advance. Don't freeze to death for the sake of fashion and for heaven's sake - wear sunscreen all over lest your shoulders and back end up matching your garish hat/sash/shoes:

(I have nothing nice to say regarding these ensembles, so I shall remain silent...)


5. (and this is a big one) EAT as well as drink. Imbibe H2O as well as the free flowing champagne.

You'll not only feel better the next morning, but you'll also avoid scenes such as the wreck below:

Not a good look Kittens. Not a good look at all.


Finally, rule 6. Think about your shoes. Try not to trial brand new ones that slice through your tender tootsies after an hour's wear. Wedges are ideal for standing on grass and there are many choices available this season. If you cannot get the right colour to match your accessories go for a neutral or nude colour - these will go with everything in your wardrobe and keep you looking nice long after the last race is run and the last train home has pulled away from the station.


What are your tips for keeping your self nice during the racing season?

The Way We Were - Vintage Magazines

A little while ago, I came across quite a magnificent find: an original copy of The Australian Home Journal from 1954! (click on the images to make them larger)

I just adore real vintage magazines. They are a true snapshot of not only the fashions of the day, but of the societal attitudes and cultural norms - so fascinating!

This one edition contained so many interesting stories, articles and advertisements that I want to share with you, kittens, that I have decided to do a series of posts on the "Way we were" topic.

The magazine was also a reinforcement of the fashion cycle theory - that past era styles come back into fashion every so often and that some are always in vogue (and thus, 'classics').

For example: The shirt dress:

First seen in the 1940's the shirt dress has been a staple fashion classic ever since. Above, we see the 1954 take, including the belted waist and flared skirt, as well as a more tailored look.


Here are two examples of the modern shirt dress, from Spiegels in the US and Dorothy Perkins from the UK.

What styles do you think never go out of fashion, Kittens?

J'adore....

Mirka Mora

Mirka was born in Paris in 1928 and immigrated with her husband Georges to Melbourne, Australia in 1951.

Her early training was in mime and drama at the Ecole Jean-Louis Barrault, but she had already begun to focus on painting by the time she reached Australia. She and Georges were instrumental in the re-establishment of the Contemporary Art Society in Melbourne from 1953, with their apartment on Collins Street being the meeting place and gallery for the CAS in the early years.


In my opinion, she has been one of the key drivers of what has come to define Melbourne as an Australian City. Her influence on Australian Art and Melbourne culture has cannot be understated.

She was a colleague, mentor, muse and friend of artists including Arthur Boyd, John Perceval, Joy Hester, Charles Blackman, Laurence Hope and Dawn and Ian Sime and John and Sunday Reed. The Reeds founded the Heide Museum of Modern Art located in the then outskirts of Melbourne in Bulleen.



Georges and Mirka were largely responsible in bringing sophisticated European dining to 1950s Melbourne, opening the Mirka Café in Exhibition Street in 1954, then the Balzac in East Melbourne in 1958 (the first Melbourne restaurant to receive a 10pm liquor licence) and finally Tolarno in St Kilda in 1965. In the photo of Mirka Cafe above, you can see Mirka in the centre of the shot, her hand on her face with Georges crouching down.

They were the originators of the true bohemian and artistic flavour of St Kilda, with the heart based at Hotel Tolarno.

Guy Grossi, one of Melbourne's premier Chefs opened his homage to her at the newly refurbished Tolano Hotel in 2007 naming his restaurant after her: Mirka

Mirka Restaurant is a living, breathing canvas-in-progress of Mirka's work, with her whimsical and instantly recognisable friezes and murals decorating the walls of the Fitzroy St eatery:




The food is wonderful, the service sublime. I highly recommend a intimate dinner here with those you love.

In a wonderful interview with Andrew Denton in 2007, she discussed her life, her loves and her philosophy. In a moving moment she told the tale of how she managed to escape the Holocaust and endeared the audience with her explanation of some of her more outrageous public behaviour:

"I don’t like to follow order. And the director of the tapestry workshop, with all due respect to her, had told me what to do when my turn would be to pull the curtain... And when my turn came I said, "I can’t just pull the curtain like all the other people. I have to do something funny." So I organised myself to drop my pants..."

To know about her is to be delighted by her.


Sunburned but happy, here I am at Mirka Restaurant after the races earlier this month.