Meet Mary Lipshut

Late last year I had the pleasure of meeting Mary Lipshut and viewing her extensive vintage clothing collection. It’s nothing short of breath taking and I was reminded as such when I saw Essie Davis appear on the cover of the age (melbourne) magazine and in the subsequent shoot wearing clothes from her collection last week.

In partnership with her grandson Mary has set up the ML Vintage online store where you can take a view inside the collection and purchase pieces that haven’t yet seen the light of day. But just how you may be asking?

ML Vintage’s founder and owner, Mary Lipshut, has been collecting designer vintage fashion since the 60s. After opening her own stores to great success, Mary was invited to open boutiques within both Georges (Innovation) and Myer to offer to their customers the best of European prêt-a-porter. The Myer boutique – The Internationals – met with immediate positive reaction and, despite the store moving the boutique from one spot to another, clients sought it out.

Thanks to historical events, many of the garments Mary imported were destined straight for her warehouse, never to see the shop floor.  One shipment came in a week after the French tested their bomb in the Pacific and, as a result, Australia initiated a black ban on anything French. When the shipment was eventually allowed to dock, the clothes were out of date and were locked in a warehouse and all but forgotten. Not long after Mary diverted another shipment of clothes to the same warehouse due to a disagreement with the then fashion director at Myer about payments.

Years later, in 2002, Mary decided to offer her unique collection to Melbourne’s fashion scene by opening an appointment only boutique in South Yarra. And with this decision, ML Vintage was born.

What you see in the photos below isn’t even a fraction of the collection so you can imagine how overwhelmed I was when I had a chance to rifle through racks of clothes and boxes and draws of accessories. Sporting labels such as Pucci, Courreges, Versace, Missoni and Roberta di Camerino, it’s an honour to have such a collection housed in Melbourne and now it’s all for sale. Go!