The streets of Melbourne on Saturday night were abysmally dry, empty and uninspired. The reason? Every last hot person in town was at 524 Flinders Street, siren-called to the bowels of the CBD by Oniomania’s launch party.All traces of the launch party’s promotion have been wiped off of Instagram; the account’s grid has been returned to its former state of mysterious idiosyncrasy. Just a bunch of stills from God-knows-whose houses, hoarder-cluttered with clothing, knick-knacks and assorted objects – a nod to the brand’s namesake. The captions are ominous, like a mire of patience brutalised into submission and the bus goes round it does. Whatever Oniomania is, the launch party was fabulous.
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Walking into the space, rows of white chairs formed a U-shaped runway, seating the beautiful and cunty masses. Located down the forgotten end of the city, beside the deteriorating relic once known as Sea Life Aquarium, 524 Flinders is somewhere between a DIY venue and nightclub. And this mysterious event promised a runway show and afterparty — standard fare for Melbourne’s club kids.I’d never seen such a concentration of hot people, in hot outfits, as I did at the Oniomania launch party. It was overwhelming. I wanted to cry, scream, hurl myself against the wall in rapture. But I didn’t. Instead, I decided to capture what I saw, so that the memory of that night could live on.Here it is:
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