AMY CHOI
REVIVAL
I have twenty-five pairs of underpants. I didn’t think I’d ever have to tell anyone that, but then I got chatting to a couple from my children’s kindergarten and they wanted to know how I managed to get away with doing just two loads of laundry a week. The husband, in particular, found my response a revelation - he’d thought seven pairs per person was some sort of legal limit. Of course, I didn’t tell them that I bought my underpants from op shops, so I didn’t have to explain that packets of unused underpants weren’t actually all that hard to find. I found this packet in a shop that was well-stocked with irons, plate racks and evening gloves, and had a hardware section.
Target bikini briefs, $10, Mount Pleasant Uniting Church Op Shop, 333 Canterbury Road, Forest Hill, Wednesday and Friday to Saturday, 9.30am-1pm.
REVIVAL
When I visited Las Vegas as a teenager I woke up at 5am on my first night. The room was pitch black so I went back to sleep, but when I woke up again the room was still pitch black. Puzzled, I went to the window and lifted a corner of the curtain. It was midday, and a beam of sun shone hotly into the room. It was my first experience of real jetlag, and my first brush with real, superior quality thermal-lined drapery. Aside from double-glazing, heavy curtains are the best way to keep summer heat out and winter warmth in. These ones come from a recycled soft furnishings concept store in which all the curtains have a minimum drop of 2300mm and most are made of designer fabrics
Curtains, $540, The Curtain Exchange, 549 Glendferrie Road, Hawthorn, Tuesday – Friday 10am – 5pm, Saturday 10am-2pm, 9819-0602
REVIVAL
There are things you get for free. I never buy packing boxes because the greengrocer has dozens of sturdy boxes to give away each day. And I rarely run out of mascara before another fashion magazine has a free one stuck to its cover. This Nescafe Joe’s cup must have been part of the promotion for the coffee sachets originally, but I was happy to pay for the cup at the op shop because I loved the colour and design. It holds 230mls - a standard take-away coffee - and if you remember to use it you could save untold numbers of disposable cups from landfill. Also in store were photo frames, assorted overlocker cones and two 1920s Singer sewing machines.
Travel cup, $1, Pandora’s Box Opportunity Shop, rear 266 Yarra Street, Warrandyte, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 10am-3pm, Tuesday and Friday to Saturday, 9am-4pm.
REVIVAL
When I choose to watch a TV show I’m not choosing to watch all those ads, nor am I always prepared to drop everything at precisely 8.30pm. Instead I set the timer on the VCR, watch my shows at my leisure - especially if there is a newborn in the house as there isn’t a lot on at 3am - and fast-forward the ads. This head cleaning kit represents my bid to keep the humble technology needed to do this in good working order, though sometimes, as I’m sitting there applying the scientifically-formulated alcoholic fluid, I do feel like a bit of a throwback. Fitting, I suppose, since the kit comes from a shop with good stocks of Perry Como albums and a large assortment of Houndstooth apparel.
Audio/Video Cleaning Kit, $4, Orana Opportunity Shop, 868 Canterbury Road, Box Hill South, Monday-Friday 9am-3pm, 9898-6773.
REVIVAL 14/6/08
A few years ago a charity invited knitters to create winter woollens for overseas recipients, but the operation encountered logistical difficulties and some of the baby knitwear ended up at an op shop. And what an op shop! If you were to wander into this one you would think you had stumbled upon the den of a savvy second-hand dealer, and second-hand dealers do come here, but as customers - the place is a treasure trove of upmarket and designer clothing. A vintage winter coat might set you back $40 but most items are $5 or $10, in keeping with op shop tradition. The shop benefits the ALSO Foundation, which provides support and advocacy for Victoria’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.
Jumper, beanie and booties set, $3, All So Fabulous Op Shop, 259 Smith Street, Collingwood, Monday-Saturday, 10am-5.30pm, 9419-2696.
REVIVAL 7/6/08
Every little bit counts, so they say. But even if it doesn’t, I still feel like a bit of a dill every time I buy a coffee in a cardboard cup, accept a magnet or key ring or yo-yo with a corporate logo on it, or allow someone to write my name on yet another sticky label. But no more! The next time I go to register my presence at a conference or AGM or self-help spectacular, I plan to say to the person wielding the marker, “No thanks, I made one earlier,” and point to my very own reusable name tag (an outright refusal is generally deemed to be not in the spirit of the occasion). This one comes from a shop with good stocks of twill jackets and trousers.
Convention card holder, 20 cents, Don Bosco Op Shop, 368 Sydney Road, Brunswick, Monday – Friday 9.30am-4.30pm, Saturday 10am-4pm, 9381-2271.
REVIVAL 31/5/08
I’ve never been tempted to wander into a Colorado store. From the doorway the clothes look so safe – even dull – and the cookie-cutter shopfronts are located so predictably inside every major shopping centre. But then I saw this shirt and the delicate mattress stripe featuring three shades of blue, two shades of brown and some green, grey and white for good measure immediately struck me as a thing of beauty. It was hanging amongst a motley collection of flannel and business shirts in a shop with good stocks of cookbooks and winter scarves, as well as somebody’s collection of souvenir dolls from around the world. So, now that I’ve officially overcome my bias against Colorado, I suppose I’ll be taking a closer look at Gazman next.
Colorado shirt, $3, Lions Club of Waverley Op Shop, 55 Wadham Parade, Mount Waverley, Monday-Friday, 9.30am-4pm, Saturday 9.30am-1pm, 9807-6038.
REVIVAL 24/5/08
Swing sets are an ebay perennial. After all, children are forever outgrowing them and they’re not the sort of thing you want to lug from house to house. On my first attempt at securing one I bid a ridiculous $270. Luckily I lost out, and a week later purchased one for $75. I was still congratulating myself on my internet savvy when I saw one at a garage sale for $25. Then I saw one on a hard rubbish pile that would have cost zilch - the owner even came rushing out of the house to offer to help me shift it. “Just looking,” I smiled wanly. Then a friend moved into his new home and found one stored under the decking. Ah, bargain hunting. You win some, you lose some, then the children don’t even want to play on it.
Hills swing set with slide, $75, ebay, www.ebay.com.au.
REVIVAL 17/5/08
I don’t generally think of myself as a hobo but once or twice a week I can be found with my head down a bin in a public place. More specifically, the plastic bag recycling bin at the supermarket and the paper bin by the photocopiers at a university library. I need the bags for lining my kitchen bin and the paper is for my children to draw on. When I came across this stack of old dot matrix printer paper, however, I got a brief break from rummaging for the latter, though I did miss turning over the children’s artwork and learning a little bit about life in an eighteenth century French fishing village. The paper comes from a shop with good stocks of zippers, greeting cards and children’s clothes.
Printer paper, 50c, Children’s Protection Society Op Shop, 43 Beetham Parade, Rosanna, Monday-Friday 10am-4pm, Saturday 9.30am-12pm, 9458-5420.
REVIVAL 10/5/08
I once dreamed of opening a shop and when I described to my partner what I would sell he quipped that perhaps I should call it The Mother’s Day Shop. You see everything I planned to stock was easy on the eye, only a little bit useful, indisputably but blandly feminine. And so it is with this glass bowl. It could be filled with pebbles and used to grow hyacinth bulbs, or filled with the layers of jam roll, jelly, custard and whipped cream that make up a trifle. Personally, I’m still devastated that trifle seems to have gone the way of black forest cake and free city parking. The bowl comes from an op shop with good stocks of new donated merchandise, such as Havaianas thongs and stylish girls’ jeans.
Selezione IVV glass bowl, $4, Animal Liberation Op Shop, 1355 Toorak Road, Burwood, Monday-Friday, 10.30am-4.30pm, Saturday 11am-5pm, 9889-9435.
REVIVAL 3/5/08
It never occurred to my five-year-old to want tap shoes. After all, tap shoes aren’t advertised on TV, don’t line the shelves at Target or Toy Kingdom, and don’t come in shades of Barbie, Disney Princess or The Wiggles. And it never occurred to me to want her to want tap shoes until I was reminded that yes, you can spoil your kid rotten without resorting to Barbie, Disney Princess or The Wiggles. The makers of these tap shoes haven’t diversified into dolls and pencil cases and tissues and yoghurt, so I haven’t accidentally bought into the building of brand loyalty in pre-schoolers. Yippee! The shoes come from a shop with good stocks of dining chairs and leather jackets, and a rather luxurious one-to-two ratio of volunteers to customers.
Bloch tap shoes, $3.50, Salvation Army Thrift Shop, 3 Flodden Way, Greensborough, Saturday 9am-12.30pm, 9434-6990.
REVIVAL 25-26/4/08
The key to getting around the use of Glad Wrap is a wide variety of plates and lots of plastic containers. A plate fitted snugly over a bowl is all that is needed to keep things like leftover mashed potato from drying out, and an assortment of plastic containers will take care of the rest, including school lunches. This piece of vintage Tupperware comes with a draining rack, and is just the right shape to stop your spring onions from wilting in the fridge. What’s more, you could take it to the bakery and ask for your loaf of bread to be put directly inside it in lieu of a plastic bag (some bakers will, some bakers won’t). It comes from a shop with a good selection of stationary, watches and glass platters.
Tupperware container, $1.50, Kindilan Op Shop, 9 Hamilton Street, Mont Albert, Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm, Saturday 9.30am-12.30pm, 9899-5431
REVIVAL 19/4/08
There comes a time in many a woman’s life when everyone she knows is either pregnant or breastfeeding. This brilliant book by British author Rachel Cusk is my stock-standard new mother’s gift. Published in 2001, the author “anatomizes motherhood as Montaigne anatomized friendship or Robert Burton anatomized melancholy. She observes her own sensations and transfers them, still bleeding, to the page where some alchemy of her prose renders this most fascinating and boring of all subjects graceful, eloquent, modest, and true,” according to the Daily Telegraph. I buy my copies online at Amazon Marketplace, where pretty much any book you care to name is available second-hand. This is bad news for authors but good news for trees. And good news for authors whose books are out of print.
A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother, $1.10 plus $12.50 postage and handling, Amazon Marketplace, www.amazon.com.
REVIVAL 12/4/08
Someone once said, “I like flowers but that doesn’t mean I want to lop off their heads and put them in bowls of water around the house.” My partner never buys me flowers and I couldn’t be happier because I can’t stand the idea of cut flowers. Plants, however, are a different matter. I have houseplants that have been to the brink of death and back many times over and their resilience never ceases to thrill me. This whitewashed plant stand is a shabby chic classic. It comes from a shop with good stocks of jewellery, especially brooches and threaded necklaces, and a startlingly diverse collection of plasticware, from the days when we all thought it was a nifty idea to cook entire three-course meals in the microwave.
Plant stand, $2.50, Harrison Community Services Op Shop, 293 Springfield Road, Nunawading, Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm, Saturday 10am-1pm, 9877-4107.
REVIVAL 5/4/08
Remember Johnson of Australia? No, me neither. But the ladies at the op shop do and they’ve put a premium on this gift set. I like the delicate flower motif on the dish but the thing that makes me truly misty-eyed is the packaging. The two-tone cardboard is unwaxed and free of UV coatings and the display holes are just that – holes. Nowadays, plastic inserts or all-over shrink-wrap are de rigueur for gift sets and they are neither necessary nor recyclable. This gift set comes from a shop with good collections of silver, glassware and prams. And judging by the number of stereo speakers, cassette tapes and cassette tape holders in stock, the vicinity probably saw its fair share of one-gloved dance-offs in its time.
Butter pad and knife, $5, Doncare Op Shop, Shop 38, 66-104 Springfield Road, North Blackburn, Monday to Friday, 9am-5.30pm, Saturday 9am-5pm, 9878-6479.
REVIVAL 29/3/08
The Chinese region of Shiwan has been famous for its hand-painted earthenware statuary for thousands of years. This fisherman is a favourite subject and he is to be found in many Chinese homes. Together with the farmer, scholar and woodcutter he represents one of the four main pursuits of ancient Chinese society. But he is the favourite because the word for fish is a homonym for abundance, and while the Chinese are really into the idea of abundance they are really, really into their homonyms. This figurine comes from a tiny shop that is well-stocked with clothes and shoes and often has strange and unusual household items on its shelves, such as amateur pottery and eighties candlesticks.
Chinese fisherman, $2, Eltham Uniting Church & St Margaret’s Anglican Parish Church Combined Op Shop, Corner Main Road and John Street, Eltham, Thursday and Friday, 10am-4pm.
REVIVAL 21-22/3/08
Buying your material needs second-hand wherever possible takes foresight, because you never know when you might come across another dustpan/curtain rod/12C bra. But is there such a thing as too much foresight? Possibly. When I saw this heavy ceramic jar with its close-fitting lid and sombre colouring, I thought urn. But if there’s one thing my kids ought to be able to rely on when I’m gone, it’s that I won’t be able to tell them what to do anymore. The jar comes from a shop with good stocks of furniture, bedding, umbrellas, strollers, candle sets, exercise books, slippers and thongs; as well as trinkets for children such as buckets of bouncy balls and rubber dinosaurs. Oh, and the jar could be used to store potatoes.
Ceramic jar, $5, St Vincent de Paul, 20 Crewe Road, Oakleigh, Monday to Saturday, 9am – 4.30pm, 9568-1034
REVIVAL 15/3/08
The toiletries aisle of the supermarket is an environmentalist’s nightmare. Panty liners for everyday freshness? Just change your underpants at lunchtime if you want to! Hand wash that comes in a plastic bottle and routinely contains petrochemicals? I’ll stick to soap. And if I want up the ante I’ll buy a French-milled bar and put it on this stone dish. The dish comes from a shop with particularly good stocks of porcelain dolls, raincoats and footy boots. Out the back is a shelf laden with car radios and collections of doorknobs and a sign saying “Men’s Business.” Oh, the things men get up to these days.
Stone soap dish, $2, Austin Health Op Shop, 42-44 Main Hurstbridge Road, Diamond Creek, Monday, Thursday and Friday, 10.30am - 4pm, Tuesday and Wednesday, 10.30am – 3.30pm, 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month, 9.30am – 1.30pm, 9438-2426.
REVIVAL 8/3/08
After spending an afternoon at a suburban ballet academy my three year-old announced that she wanted a yellow tutu, and I told her she could have one when I found one in an op shop. In an attempt to stem the tide of pink that was flooding my world, I’d told my second-born from a very early age that her favourite colour was in fact yellow, not pink like her sister. Well, it’s now almost eleven months since that first dance lesson and all I can say is, Thank God for the Salvos. This particular Family Store has sections for label clothing and designer ties, stocks the odd piece of early twentieth century furniture and has a costume rack that almost always includes a wedding dress or two.
Yellow fairy dress, $10.25, Salvation Army Family Store, 529 Riversdale Road, Camberwell. Monday to Saturday, 9am – 5pm, 9882-3774.
REVIVAL 1/3/08
I love decorative tins, but I don’t love the idea of overpriced, over-packaged foodstuffs. So I’m very grateful to the person who enjoyed the Paton’s Macadamia Royals out of this lovely tin. I have always appreciated Target’s Christmas merchandise using artwork by Paper d’Art, but I’ll be using my tin all year round to store postage stamps. It’s the perfect size and shape for either sitting on the desk or slipping between volumes on the bookshelf. And you will need a receptacle for your postage stamps if you eschew packaging at the post office and buy your stamps loose or by the sheet. There were at least twenty tins of assorted shapes and sizes in store, as well as furniture, bicycles, walking sticks, vintage Tupperware, handbags and netball skirts.
Skinny Santa tin, 50c, Sally’s (Salvation Army) Thrift Shop, 45 Wantirna Road, Ringwood. Monday-Friday 9am-4pm, Saturday 9am-2pm, 9879-7263.
REVIVAL 23/2/08
When Laura Doyle’s The Surrendered Wife was published in 2001 there was concerned talk that the 1950s housewife was back. But nope, she’s dead. And this Ranleigh tray has been popping up in op shops all over town. I bought this one for a friend who’d decided to kit out her new home with genuine mid-century vintage combined with the odd piece of genuine IKEA. The tray comes from a shop with good stocks of fabric remnants, coffee makers, table lamps, badminton racquets and ex-Crown Casino playing cards with the requisite hole drilled through the middle. There are also oversized tote drawers filled with kitchenware, including one devoted to glossy wooden bowls, servers and platters.
Chrome tray, $6, Doncare Op Shop, Shop 11, Macedon Plaza, Corner Manningham Road and High Street, Lower Templestowe. Monday to Friday, 10am – 4pm, Saturday 10am-1pm, 9850-9769.
REVIVAL 16/2/08
A woman with long hair will always need hair bands. A single hair band has a limited life span, even if it doesn’t get misplaced before it’s time is up. So when I came across a box of remaindered hair bands I grabbed one handful, then two, then picked up the whole box. The price I was quoted for the lot was so absurd that I told the shopkeeper she’d better double it. The shop has good stocks of jigsaw puzzles, framed pictures and old-style clothes brushes - a better choice than the roll-on adhesive tape variety. Unfortunately, a lifetime supply of anything does tend to bring to mind the rather sobering fact of our mortal coil, but a bargain’s a bargain.
Box of black hair bands weighing 4kg, $4, Rotary Clothesline Op Shop, Shop 4, 432 Mitcham Road, Mitcham. Monday, Wednesday and Friday 10am-3.30pm, Tuesday and Thursday 10am-4pm, 9872-5665.
REVIVAL 9/2/08
The stylish man about town maintains the full complement of party clothes in his wardrobe. A lounge suit, a tuxedo, a toga, a kaftan, and, of course, one or more Hawaiian shirts. From Cup Day to Australia Day, the man in the Hawaiian shirt brings a sense of occasion to the alfresco events of summer. I found one with a subtly-coloured print on a cream background, in 100% cotton, in a many-roomed building that was once a dormitory for people with disabilities. People with disabilities continue to visit the complex to attend Churinga day programs, and the op shop that supports the service has good collections of remaindered children’s tights, greeting cards (including Valentine’s Day cards), and ex-display fabric swatch books. Perfect for patchwork enthusiasts.
Fishbone shirt, $3, St John of God Op Shop, 108-130 Diamond Creek Road, Greensborough. Tuesday – Thursday, 9am – 3pm, 0409 359 615.
REVIVAL 2/2/08
My four year-old is a huge Peter Combe fan. When she got this CD she sat stock still on the couch to listen to it and even examined the liner notes, noting her hero’s thick head of hair in the circa 1991 photographs. Some of Peter Combe’s songs are especially enchanting to adult ears, but best of all, his heyday as a children’s entertainer came and went with nary a trademarked plastic toy nor cheap polyester top in sight. I found this CD in an enormous establishment that houses dozens of antique stalls. Most stallholders had supplemented their stock of meat safes, wall pockets, bed jackets and Bakelite canisters with cast-offs from their own lives. Hence the CD. And last month’s issue of Vogue next to a 1940s planter.
The Absolutely Very Best of Peter Combe, $1, Mornington Antique Centre, 65 Tyabb Road, Mornington. Monday – Sunday, 10.00am – 4.45pm. 5977-0155.
REVIVAL 26/1/08
It often strikes me as absurdly luxurious that drinking water comes out of virtually every tap in town. Whether you’re washing your hair at home or cooling the deck of a wok cooker in a restaurant kitchen, out comes the same crystal clear water. This drink bottle is small enough to slip inside a handbag and good-looking enough to pull out of one, and together with a little foresight and some public restroom derring-do, you may never need to buy bottled water again. It comes from a huge shop that stocks furniture and also has good collections of skis, straw hats and buttons, which a past volunteer has painstakingly sorted and sewn onto cardstock by hand.
Aluminium bottle with karabiner, $3, Knox Community Care Op Shop, 48 Parkhurst Drive, Knoxfield. Monday to Friday, 10.00 - 3.00, last Saturday of the month (except December and January) 9.30 - 1.00. Phone 9887-4268.
REVIVAL 19/1/08
It is not always clear why an object might strike you as immediately appealing. In the case of this stool, I realised afterwards that it was because it resembled a piece of furniture in the 1920s painting Studio Party, which is set inside the Russell Street landmark that has twice housed the NGV. The stool was actually for sitting on – not for selling – but it took the kindly proprietor just two seconds to decide to let me have it. The shop is particularly well-stocked with paperback books, pressed bedlinen, and men’s jeans and trousers. Either men with a penchant for pants are known to frequent the area, or the proprietor knows a lot of men with a lot of spare pants.
Cane and seagrass stool, $2, Proceeds to Monash Medical Centre Op Shop, 95 Switchback Road, Chirnside Park. Wednesday to Friday 10.30 – 5.30, Saturday 10.30 – 5.00.
