In an overcrowded world of fashion choice, just off the top of my head I can think of Black Milk, What Katie Did, Kitten d’Amour, L’ecole des Femmes, even some old Mambo stuff second hand. But look, Wheels & Dollbaby has always been a bit special. Across the road there in Sydney at the time, opposite Route 66, dressing people such as Deborah Harry, Dita von Teese, Scarlett Johansson, Kate Moss, Jerry Hall … Please make welcome the grunginista, who’s always fashion forward, Melanie Greensmith.







Melanie Greensmith Wheels & Dollbaby 2022





We’re not retail, we’re vibe, we’re hanging’ out…Melanie Greensmith







Mel: Oh, hello, that was a nice introduction!







Maynard: You deserved a great introduction, because we thought you were gone. In 87 you set up there in Hay Street in Perth, you brought the whole thing to Sydney and then off you went in 2017. We thought we weren’t going to see you again, but you’re back!







Mel: I know I’m back! Well, I needed a break. I thought I deserved a holiday after 30 years.







Maynard: I would have thought that a lot of people in retail would’ve thought they needed a break, and just gone away because retail is tough.







Mel: Yeah, but we are not retail. We are Vibe. We’re hanging out.







Maynard: You’ve been making stuff. I like the fur coats you’ve been putting out.







Mel: They’re pretty glam, aren’t they? Very popular.







Maynard: I like the colours you come up with too. The “Elizabeth Taylor Eyes” one, that’s a nice name for a colour.







Mel: Oh yeah, lilac, her eyes were supposedly lilac. I’ve always thought that’s amazing.







Maynard: Why did you decide to get into selling fashion? People could love you this week and hate you next week. To be in it as long as you were in it, and people never went “Oh, that’s just so done”. How did you manage that from 87 onwards?







Mel: Oh gosh, I don’t know. I mean, it really all just came from a scene, you know, an organic scene that was happening in Surry Hills. When I went to live there, it was myself and all my friends. I just wanted to make stuff for band members and my friends, which is what I started doing. And then people liked it and I thought, well, shit, I’m not really qualified to do anything, I can’t get a job. And so I started the tiny shop. Well, the first one was in Perth, and I used to have The Johnnys come in and The Damned, and everyone that came to Perth came there, and it was just a little office upstairs in Hay street. So I thought, wow, I think I’m gonna go to the Big Smoke, I’m gonna go to Sydney. So I went there, and we all lived in this huge artist kind of house on Cleveland Street. Tex Perkins lived there, Stu Spasm, myself, Brett Ford who’s no longer with us. It was pretty crazy. I was like the Straight Nanna in all of them.







Maynard: You were the Straight Nanna???







Mel: Compared to those guys, yeah …







Maynard: That’s true. And Tex did what you told him to do? That’s amazing!







Mel: No, I don’t know about that! I remember they were actually a bit older than me, Tex wasn’t, but all the rest of the guys were. I guess I kind of learned a lot about music and arts from them, and it was a great scene then, you know, we all used to go to the Trade Union Club and all those old pubs and it was grungy. You know, it’s funny when I look at Surry Hills now, I think, oh my God,