Australians all, let us rejoice – and welcome rock wallabies, honeyeaters and flowering gums to our dinner table. Not so much on the plate, mind, as on the table itself. Sophie Tatlow and Bruce Slorach, the powerhouse couple behind Utopia Goods, celebrate our antipodean landscape with their richly screen-printed Horizon collection of fine heavyweight linen tablecloths, runners and napkins. Consider it a slightly subversive invitation to turn our cultural cringe into a cultural binge. “We have to focus on what’s unique about Australia: our environment, culture, heritage,” says Tatlow. “Our native animals are weird, special and Jurassic, and our native plants are fragrant, beautiful, hardy, edible and medicinal.” The lively, dynamic prints resonate with the rich, vibrant colours of the rainforest, ocean and bush, creating a cumulative effect joyful enough to have your dinner guests cackling like kookaburras.
The height of good taste
One Ladurée macaron, good. Two Ladurée macarons, twice as good. Oh, who are we kidding – how about an entire tower of the dainty little creatures, cleverly fashioned into edible baubles, just in time for Christmas? Order from Ladurée’s opulent new French-inspired tea room at Melbourne’s Chadstone, or in Sydney at Woollahra and at Westfield in the city. Towers range from 20 macarons for $148 up to a very festive 370 macarons, which will set you back $1250.
Sign of the times
Bubbly champagne house Veuve Clicquot gets its wanderlust on, inspired by the original Madame Clicquot's great thirst for adventure. The famous widow sent her first shipment to far-flung Australia in 1859, a fact celebrated in its travel-themed Arrow Collection of Veuve Clicquot Champagne Yellow Label Brut NV. Sydney is among the glamorous global destinations signposted; distance from Reims, 16,829 kilometres.
