I have so much to share about our Melbourne trip but because I have something time-sensitive to share with you guys, I need to start with this topic first.

Before we went to Melbourne, I posted a photo on Instagram and asked for suggestions on where we can go shopping for Laurent’s clothes.

#LaurentL’s #ootd for a wedding dinner last weekend. Gonna start packing his clothes before we fly this Friday and I’m already thinking of all the new clothes that I’m gonna buy… For him! Any suggestions on the brands/ shops we should not miss in Melbourne for kids stuff?? ?

A photo posted by Dawn (@daprayer) on Nov 17, 2015 at 2:35am PST

We got some awesome suggestions from Instagram and Facebook and I thought I’ll compile all these suggestions and add on with my own after our trip so you guys check out these shopping places for your mini arm candies!

1) dfo south wharf

Thank you to Gina for this one! DFO South Wharf has quite a number of children’s clothes outlets and the items there are really cheaper compared to their stores in the city, even for the same stuff! We bought a pair of Converse shoes for Laurent at $30 and the exact same one cost $60 in town.

Remember to check out these outlets when you are there – Cotton On
Kids, Pumpkin Patch, Bonds, Witchery (mummies can get some lovely clothes and footwear too), Quicksilver, RipCurl (daddies can get some really awesome board shorts for about half the price of that in town too), Platypus Shoes, Adidas, Converse.

Souvenirs for the little girls, Tong Tong and Emma!

One of my fav buys!

If you didn’t bring along your pram you could conveniently borrow one from the mall at their
management office. It’s completely free and the process was practically fuss-free. The pram came in extremely useful when Laurent wanted to take his afternoon nap!

2) bonds

You can find Bonds at a lot of places in Melbourne and they have some really cute rompers and tees for the kiddos! At pretty awesome prices too 🙂

3) h&m Kids, zara kids

Not ALOT cheaper there, maybe just some savings from the good exchange rate that we are currently enjoying. If you’re lucky, you may be able to find some items that you can’t find in Singapore too!

Zara at Bourke Street is really big and has an entire mezzanine floor of kids clothes while H&M at Bourke Street is HUGE, much bigger than the flagship at Somerset! On a side note, pleaseeee check out H&M home while you are there because there are so many gorgeous and cheap home decor, I wanted to buy a luggage just to bring them all back!!

4) departmental stores

The 3 major ones which we went to at Bourke Street are Emporium Melbourne, Myer and our personal favourite, David Jones.

The children section located at the 5th floor of David Jones houses brands like Armani, Ralph
Lauren, Guess, Petite Bateau, Industrie, Witchery, SEED, just to name a few. Besides clothings, there are also toys and kids products.

Laurent loved the car so much he refused to get down and even tried to climb back in after we carried him out.

Sit in it all you want dude, it’s not coming home with us.

Their Christmas decorations and fringe events are already up when we were there so children can pop into the Santa’s shop, make appointment to meet Santa Claus, get their face painted, and receive free balloons.

5) AUSSIE-designed brands

Mamas who love shopping online for their little ones will be very familiar with some of the Melbourne-designed children’s brands like Huxbaby.

We stumbled upon one of their stockist, Hawkeye, when we stopped over at Apollo Bay along our Great Ocean Road drive towards Port Campbell. Most of the Huxbaby items we got there were about $38-$40 so very close to the price on Huxbaby website. But we liked that we could feel the material (which is of great quality) and better gauge the size we want to get.

If you have been following Huxbaby’s Facebook page, you would know that just yesterday, they are stocked at David Jones too!

Check out this article for more Aussie kids brands! Many of them have online shops so if you are staying at an accommodation long enough, you could, as suggested by the ever-resourceful May, shop online and get them to deliver to your apartment!

Now this is the the time-sensitive bit of info I wanted to share. I stumbled upon the website of Swagger Child Design Market – Australia’s Biggest Independent Children’s Style Market. If you are going to be in Melbourne this weekend, I believe you will be in for such a treat! Their upcoming market is on 6 Dec (Sunday) 10am to 3pm in North Melbourne, with over 100 participating designers!!

STOP! SWAGGER TIME. SCDM15 SUMMER15 See you at SCDM SUMMER15 • Sun 06 Dec 15 • 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM • @meatmarketmelb • 5 Blackwood Street Nth. Melbourne #swaggerchild #swaggerchildstylefile #designmarket #melbournemarket #childrensmarket #kidsdecor #handmade #kidsfashion #funkykids #fashionkids #kidsinteriors #kidsclothing #melbourne #australiandesigner #exclusivemarket #australianmade #events

A photo posted by Swagger Child Design Market (@swaggerchildmarket) on Nov 8, 2015 at 1:47am PST

Cool kids clothes, amazing decor for the kids’ rooms, toys, and so much more, honestly, I’m pretty bummed we couldn’t be there 🙁 So if any of you happen to be there, could you please please take some photos and leave a comment below to let me know how it went and whether it is really worth going?

BONUS – Baby Food

I guess “shopping” for baby food is also considered, well, shopping?

For those of you who love the Bellamy’s brand (we Laurent loves having their food pouch added to his cereal for the extra taste), since it is an Aussie brand, you can actually get it cheaper at the supermarkets there.

Another brand, introduced to us by 2 of my Cynthia friends (it happens that both of them who mentioned the brand to us are named Cynthia!), is Rafferty’s. It was only $1+ at Woolworths (promo price), we bought 1 flavour each for Laurent to try and it was an instant hit! I pinched some too, while feeding him, and they do taste pretty yummy! NTUC sells it here, but at $3+ per pouch so yeah, definitely worth it to stock up there.

I guess that’s all from me on shopping for kids stuff in Melbourne, do link up or leave a comment below if you have more tips to share with us!

Let’s connect on Facebook and Instagram if you have enjoyed this post, I would love to know more about YOU too!