HOT: Coco Avant Chanel, Sun Theatre, 8 Ballarat St, Yarraville

Gabrielle Chanel wasn't just a seamstress who made pretty clothes. She deserves respect for being a canny and ambitious businesswoman who freed generations from corsets, crinolines and big patisserie hats. By doing so, she also helped bring forth the kind of feminist thinking that was ahead of her time.

This film covers the beginning of her amazing life from her poor childhood, dumped at an orphanage, to couturier and fashion celebrity Coco Chanel. The film is a beautiful set piece for the deep dark eyes and poised elegance of Audrey Tatou, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Chanel and who manages to bring some depth to a thinly written character.

The pace of the film is also a bit unbalanced. We spend an inordinate amount of time with her when she is the lover/protegee of the rich, middle-aged Etienne Balsan, only spend a little bit of time on her ill-fated romance with the English aristocrat Arthur Capel, who funded her first stores, influenced on her style and who's death was probably the most devastating event in Chanel's life, and when she leaves Balsan's chateau for Paris, it's like all of a sudden she's a success! The film has also been criticised for glossing over the more unsavoury aspects of Chanel's life in her later years, but her life was so full of drama that one film could only ever cover a segment of her life.

The film isn't terrible or fantastic, and it's a nice girly day out (lots of beautiful clothes to admire), especially in the Art Deco surroundings of the Sun Theatre. The wide leather seats (some double love-seats) were incredibly comfortable and reminded me of the plush surroundings of the Electric Cinema.

HOT: Vinnies Centre, 121 Johnston St, Collingwood

Yesterday a thought popped into my head that I should buy a baking dish.

Today I spotted the perfect dish in the window of my local Vinnies Centre. It was meant to be - a $2 white Corningware dish! My charitable contribution to St Vincent de Paul Society also extended to:

• one clip-lock plastic container $1;
• two glasses beakers to be used as bud vases $1 each;
  
• one set of plastic cup measures $1; and
  
• Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb $2 (a un-Valentines Day present for RM)
  

NOT: Tony the Tailor, 313 Smith St, Fitzroy

Tony the Tailor is one of the few old-school shopfronts remaining on increasingly gentrified Smith Street. The signage is chipped, the windows are dusty and overall it presents an indifferent attitude to the hipsters.

When RM's pants needed mending, it was an opportune time to support a local long-standing business. I thought that despite the dingy exterior, the business must have survived for a good reason.

Sadly, Tony the Tailor was a disappointment. When I first entered, Tony was extremely crotchety. It may have been his bad back giving him trouble, but I was a bit put off by his cranky attitude, like I was disturbing him from his important work (he appears to make police uniforms) and when I tried to pin down a pickup time, he just told me that I should just come by and they might be ready. Secondly, all that was needed was a sewn patch. When I came to retrieve the trousers a few days later, I was told the week after. Then again, the week after that. Tony's attitude didn't improve over the three weeks, and when the pants were finally ready to pickup, he handed the garment to me with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

I don't care if the repair only cost $25, and I should support a one-man band running his own business. I just don't want to wait three weeks for a simple repair, nor do I want my clothes polluted with cigarette smoke. I'm going elsewhere next time.

HOT: Melbourne Design Market, Federation Square, Melbourne

I adore markets, whereas RM isn't so much of a fan of the hustle and bustle (unless it's a book market, but there's not normally a noisy scrum of people at those). However, I did manage to drag him to one of my favourite Melbourne events - the biannual Melbourne Design Market at Federation Square - as it's full of cool stuff and cool people.
This year, our favourite finds included the ingenious stick-on photo display system from The Curator Company; the adorable and environmentally friendly KeepCup; racks of heavily discounted slinky dance-inspired clothing from well-known Melbourne label Body; the funky bowlboard, a wooden chopping board with four white bowls fitted into recesses, from Ute; and delicate pastel scarves from Ella Sanders.

HOT: Dressed to Rule, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Rd, Southbank

The second half of my very informative (and one-on-one) fashion-focused tour with the NGV guide was to the Dressed to Rule exhibition.

I never knew that the NGV had such a well-preserved collection of Chinese imperial robes, and this exhibition includes robes worn by members of the imperial court and even the Emperor, as well as various accessories such as queasy little shoes for bound feet.

Each of the robes is laden with magnificient, jewel-coloured embroidery, with each design containing some special meaning. You can be overwhelmed with all the symbolic commentary on the display plaques, so I think a guide, who can point out the various features on the garments as they talk, is a better way of absorbing their beauty. My favourite robes were the summer robes featuring embroidery on delicate gauze, as the filmy material revealed a further embroidered robe in a contrasting colour underneath.

HOT: Persuasion, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Rd, Southbank

I’m a keen devotee of BBC costume dramas and I’ve just finished a marathon screening of the delightful Lost in Austen - so I was pretty sure that Persuasion: Fashion in the Age of Jane Austen would be right up my alley.

The free exhibition is a small and well-curated examination of the fashion cycles that dominated during Austen’s life. The focus is mainly on women’s fashions, with its vagaries of waistlines up, waistlines down, military styling here, slashed sleeves there. There are a few instances of men’s fashions on display, including the tour de force – Colin Firth’s tight wool jacket, breeches, leather boots and top hat for his role as Mr Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Yes swooning ladies, the one where he comes striding out of the duck pond, wet shirt and britches clinging to his manly muscular physique.

What impressed me most about the exhibition was the clothes’ extremely well-preserved condition. The fine Indian muslins were still snowy white, the burnished satin pelisse still held a polished sheen and the delicate handiwork in some of the embroidery looked freshly pressed and ready to be worn.

HOT: The Sartorialist at Cutler & Co, 55-57 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

The Sartorialist's blog is so famous that even my mum follows him. So you can imagine the tsunami of anticipation that engulfed Melbourne's fashionistas when Time Magazine's top 1oo design influencers announced that he was holding a party to meet his Melbourne readers.

Oh dear, what to wear???

Given that most of my wardrobe was still in shipping boxes, I didn't have much of a choice of outfit. Never mind, I briefly practised my model posing, then skipped off excitedly to the hot new Andrew McConnell restaurant, Cutler & Co.

Never have I seen so many zany hats, colourful pocket squares and androgynous men in such a small area. Everyone was trying to be cool and nonchalant, while clearly eyeing everyone else's outfit. RM and I claimed a spot at the bar and entrenched our position by ordering a couple of tapas. The food at Cutler & Co was not cheap, but it was impressive. We had a delicious squid escabeche, some neanderthal cutlets of extremely tender duck confit and narrow wafers balancing shreds of crabmeat.

And then ....there he was, Scott Schumann in the flesh. People started jostling to get near him (in a cool, nonchalant way) and at one stage there was even a queue of admirers waiting to talk to him. To his credit, there was no diva attitude - he seemed quite at ease with the crowd, freely answering questions and talking about his experiences in Australia. I didn't push to get closer to him because I discovered that I didn't have any intelligent thoughts other than 'OMG, he's really really short!''. But I do wish I'd elbowed aside some of the groupies so I could have gotten a photo with me towering over him - probably the only time I'm ever going to look like a model.

HOT: ********, * ***** **, Melbourne 3000

Dear Mum

I think I've just found my wedding dress! Right now I can't say where the shop is though, as RM also reads this blog. Let's just say it's from my ever-reliable dress shop - every time I've needed a special occasion dress I've popped in 'just for a look' and come out with something wonderful, in exactly my size. And this dress? Well, it's white and long and just right.

Love Jetsetting Joyce

HOT: Lost and Found Market, 12 Smith St, Collingwood 3066

RM has been very patient with my new found penchant for retro lamps, so off I dragged him to Lost and Found Market. This indoor market is smaller than Chapel St Bazaar but runs on the same idea - stall holders have a small space to display their secondhand wares, ranging from clothes, accessories, furniture, books and prints. Obviously you need to have the patience to trawl through a lot of stuff, but there were lots of treasures to be found. Kartell cabinets and stacking tables, old school desks, Planet lamps, and a red toy car all caught my eye, but luckily RM was much more practical than me and we didn't end up buying anything

HOT: Chapel St Bazaar, 217 Chapel Street, Prahran 3181

Poking around a market is the perfect Sunday activity for me, and luckily RM was happy to indulge in my new-found passion for retro furniture. Chapel St Bazaar, a treasure trove of unusual vintage everything, yielded not one, but two wonderfully restored and reasonably priced 60s lamps - a blue one for him, a red one for me. I was thrilled with our purchases, but unfortunately it just got me started on the whole retro furniture thing. We've just begun our season of Mad Men, and while I enjoy the story and like the costumes, I've developed the annoying habit of squealing 'lamp!' 'chair!' 'table' every time I spot something I like...