Local Faces: Melanie Ashe of Clementine’s on Degraves Street
As a tour guide in Melbourne, I’m often asked where to buy souvenirs.
I say that Swanston Street has several shops that offer a range of rulers and fridge magnets. Queen Victoria Market is the place to buy boxing-kangaroo flags. The only place I recommend without reservation is Clementine’s in Degraves Street.
It’s a gift shop rather than a souvenir shop, but, to the discerning buyer, the quality of goods makes them ideal to take home as keepsakes. It helps that most items are relatively small.
Related reading: 14 Delightful Gift Shops in Melbourne for Something Special
Meeting Melanie Ashe
I meet the owner of Clementine’s, Melanie Ashe, in the shop before opening time on a recent Thursday. We had first met before Covid, during my original stint taking walking tours through the city’s lanes and arcades.
Often my guests wanted a peek inside Clementine’s before we continued along Degraves Street. Yet until this recent morning, I’d never asked about the origins of the business.
A Lifelong Love of Melbourne
Melanie grew up in the suburbs of Melbourne. As a teenager, she thought the city was the most exciting place on the planet. She could always find something in the secluded shops of the city that she would never have found anywhere else.
For her final year of school, Melanie studied art at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (now RMIT University). In those 12 months, she was captivated by the lively street life near the campus.
She has fond memories of meeting friends under the clocks at Flinders Street Station or on the steps of the General Post Office.
“The thing I remember most is walking up Swanston Street in the wind while carrying my art folio,” she says.
“The folio would get caught in the wind. I used to get blown away!”
Mel had plans to study art at tertiary level, but she started work and never looked back. Her parallel interests in art and business would serve her well in the years ahead.
Discovering Local Makers
As a young woman, she developed an interest in seeking out items with an aesthetic quality that had been made and crafted in and around Melbourne.
Her interest deepened when she spent a lot of time near Bright, at the foot of the mountains, and took to scouring the state’s North East for locally made products.
A French Epiphany
When Melanie was in her late forties, she was the chief executive officer of an arts and craft organisation. While on holiday in France, she experienced an epiphany.
In France, the specialist nature of village markets appealed to her. In one village they made gloves. In another they made lace. In Laguiole, she was struck by the exquisite cutlery for which the village is famous.
But rather than buy up and lug purchases around the country, she decided to wait until she reached Paris before buying the things she wanted to take home.
Paris, however, was a barren place for village wares.
“There was nothing in Paris except souvenir stores,” she says. “That was the lightning bolt.”
Melanie resolved to turn her interest in sourcing locally made artisan goods into a business.
“I was nearly fifty – it was now or never!”
Finding the Perfect Location
Melanie’s ambition was to bring the products of creators from throughout the state under one roof in the heart of Melbourne. She spent 12 months combing the city for the right location before, finally, she found it in Degraves Street.
The southern end of Degraves Street, near the train station, was full of quirky small businesses, such as Il Papiro, the Italian artisan paper store. The northern end had become Melbourne’s alfresco heartland, featuring a canopy of umbrellas that shielded café patrons from the elements.
The street was a popular thoroughfare between Flinders Street Station and the retail district. It was the perfect place to open a gift shop aimed at curious tourists and discerning locals.
Opening Clementine’s
Melanie opened Clementine’s in the southern end of Degraves Street in late 2011. The early years were fruitful, but Covid was a stumbling block. On some days between lockdowns, not one shopper entered the shop. Melanie, however, was able to draw on her business knowledge to emerge through the crisis.
She says the fact that sixty creators relied on her to sell their products was part of her motivation. “If I failed, that would have been sixty businesses with no outlet.”
Supporting Local Creators
Some of Melanie’s producers have been with her since the start.
- Andrew Cope, a ceramicist from Victoria’s North East, continues to create kitchen classics.
- Robyn Oswin, creator of soft toys made from mohair and recycled blankets, sells her products under the label Sillee Billee.
- Choco Mama, based in North Williamstown, sells boutique chocolate; the most popular line is chocolate-salted pretzels.
- Atypic, based in South Melbourne, also makes chocolate. For the current line, they use beans sourced from the Solomon Islands.
All products, no matter their provenance, are beautifully presented. The shelves of Clementine’s have a look that epitomises the appeal of the laneways.
A Final Touch of Charm
As I make to leave, Melanie gets her orange bike from the back of the shop and places it on the path outside. The bike serves as an inviting prop. It adds colour to the street’s famous tableau as always.
Paul Daffey takes the Under the Clocks tour through the lanes and arcades every Friday at 10am. Book here.
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