Recently, the entrepreneurial retailer snapped up two 1960’s Fiat 1500s for a new business venture which sees her hosting vintage tours around Melbourne. With business partner Danielle Pumo, Lyn takes small groups of vintage lovers to the best retail outlets in the city, and they get around in the lovingly-restored Fiats. How cool is that?
The half-day tours, called A Vintage Outing with Betty and Miss Shirley, started in September and run on weekends [Saturdays, 9am and 2pm; Sundays, 10.30am]. They’re the latest addition to the stable of Hidden Secrets Tours, a boutique tour company which takes participants straight to Melbourne’s best kept secrets, be it laneway bars, specialty retailers or art and design hot spots.
When Living Creatively spoke to Lyn last month, she said the tours would offer a lot more than just a chauffeur-driven service. It’s an opportunity to discover places that most Melbournians would walk past every day without a second glance. “It's going to be furniture, frocks, homewares, toys ... little quirky places people wouldn't know about. We'll go to Circa, which specialises in vintage clothing, and Arthur's Circus where you can buy vintage toys,” Lyn says.
The tour extends beyond the city’s renowned laneways to retro hot spots in Albert Park, South Melbourne, North Melbourne, Fitzroy and Collingwood. The insider information Lyn and Danielle give their passengers is what you always hope for when visiting friends in foreign cities – but their unique brand of 1960s glamour is an added bonus. "This outing is for people who love vintage but don't necessarily know where to find it," says Lyn. "If I went to Paris right now and had to get in a taxi and then on public transport to find all the great vintage places I couldn’t be bothered. These tours are so people don't have to think about all that.”
One of the city stops will be at Madame Brussels, the kitsch cocktail bar above Bourke Street which is modelled on an English village green in high summer. One room is carpeted with artificial turf and decorated with rose trellises and hedges. Waiters wear Fred Perry tennis outfits and serve Pimms, punch, and cucumber sandwiches among other old-fashioned fare. Vintage bubbly, anyone?
Along the way, cupcakes and other homemade treats will be served, and at the end of the nostalgic journey, the dedicated shoppers will receive Betty and Miss Shirley's Personal Journal which is Lyn and Danielle's version of a little black book for vintage – in itself, worth the price of admission.
"People who come will get a beautiful little book with all the details of our favourite places to shop in it. We just want to tell people about what we love.”
Cost: $245 per person, limit of 7 people per tour. Bookings : www.hiddensecretstours.com.au
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Lyn Gardener understands the beauty of a vintage car. The owner of 
