Makers and Shakers Melbourne March 2022 Highlights!

The Makers and Shakers Melbourne came back with a bang!

I visited Makers and Shakers Melbourne, a real life market, for the first time in over two years. It felt like something I didn’t even know I needed. The stars aligned to make this a truly memorable day. I even took my Mum with me.

Emma and Lee of the Makers and Shakers Melbourne have upped the ante this year. After two years of event cancellations and all round uncertainty throughout the community, and indeed the country.

With a sparkling new venue, an event now happening over two days and combining the Makers and Shakers and their sister event, Slow Fashion Markets together, we were all in for a massive treat.

The weather was a perfect fit for a seaside location. The tunes were appropriately chill, the coffee hot and the stallholders buzzing with anticipation. With the number of folks enjoying the sunshine between bouts of shopping, there was a lot of smiling.

I was so impressed with the need to show vaccination status to enter. It made me feel a lot safer within the venue and importantly I felt the safety of stallholders was being addressed.

Many fresh faces to the market scene with a few favourites blended into the mix of stalls meant it was super fun to traipse the aisles to take a few snaps. With stallholders coming from all around the country, after a tough couple of years, I’m sure there were some nerves amongst the designers.

Thankfully they needn’t have worried. Emma and Lee put together another stellar event and the venue is fabulous. (My first thought was that it looked like it would have been an easy bump-in. Apparently the venue even has dedicated stallholder parking close by!).

Highlights for me?

Getting my mitts on a brand new leather and hemp strap for my camera handmade by Melbourne designer Hey Laidy. Buying a sumptuous jar of velvety moussey body butter in carefully considered packaging made by the lovely Misturat from Butter Routine (and a lip balm for mum). I nabbed some colourful laser-cut plant stakes for my growing indoor plant collection made by Jessica from Yano Designs.

The market debut of birdrock ceramics certainly made an impression on me. Refined, geometric and simply crafted items from a ceramicist that’s new on the scene. A vase made its way into my own personal collection.

I got to meet some illustrators I’ve seen around the traps on Instagram too. The ambience is cleverly captured in images like “At The Gallery” by Lilin Chung of Draw Me In Style. The gorgeous patterns by Fabric Drawer in eye-catching notebooks, glasses cases and more. Dancing with Juniper with lovely bold florals.

The sea breeze, the music, the bar, the delicious coffee and the fresh food stalls made the smiling faces of visitors, weary after years of lockdowns in this town, even bigger. A wonderful event!

Did you go? What did you like? Did you buy anything? Who were your fave stalls?

Have a look at the Makers and Shakers Instagram for some more pics. Can’t wait for the Sydney event in May!

Event Recap and Images by Angela D’Alton
Makers and Shakers Market
Slow Fashion Market
Seaworks, Williamstown Victoria
Saturday 26th March 2022
M&S Website

All images captured by Angela D’Alton: Birdrock Ceramics, Hey Laidy, Edenwilde, Funky Funyou, Butter Routine, Dancing with Juniper, Fabric Drawer, Farn, Alpaca Yarn, Ellmabee, Yano, Draw Me In Style, Artichoke Designs, Upswitch