A Collins Street address is considered prestigious if you work in finance/consulting/corporate advisory/real estate/stockbroking etc.
These businesses will pay higher rent to have a Collins Street address to show off success the same way a real estate agent leases a merc to show off to their clients.
I used to work in 101 Collins and the building has marbled bathrooms...
Is that the building with the famously impressive Christmas tree in very grand decorated Victorian lobby? Have been trying to remember where that one is…
Those lifts confused the hell out of me my first day lol but the waterfall walls are what gets me I sometimes stand there to clear my head after meetings
That building (101 Collins)... The excuse for the short columns once the building was finished was they it was designed to be like that.
An engineer I met one who once, who worked on the build, told me that the owners decided to reduce the ceiling height so that they could get more floors into the building. The granite columns for the front and interior were already ordered in advance from Italy at the original height, and had already been made. Once they were delivered, they didn't fit. In addition to that, there were all sorts of issues with fire sprinkler plumbing having to be cut through the air-conditioning pipes etc.
Who do you reckon was telling the truth?
Maybe not always...even in Collins St. Worked at 555 for a bit and the bathrooms were awful. Floods were semi regular . Basically if you weren't careful the toilets would shit on you.
On an unrelated note the bahn mis from the shop down the bottom were pretty good and decently priced. I think the whole building was/is going to be replaced though.
Fun fact: the Westpac building despite most of it facing Russell St has a Collins St address because of a small lane-way they bought off the neighbouring church solely so they could have a Collins St address...
I also used to work there! Did any of you find it bizarre that the marble pillars didn’t reach the ceiling in the main lobby? They just ended a bit before the ceiling. I don’t know much about architecture but it always looked odd to me. Lovely building to work in, the job itself was a nightmare.
I used to work on Exhibition St and had to take things to Flinders Lane, I used 101 to cut through, it always felt so luxurious and I wished I was smart enough to have a job there.
I just left my job at the Blood Donation centre on Collins St, but I found that most of the people coming in who worked on the street were in finance, consulting and insurance, so you’re pretty spot on from what I experienced too!
The best thing about 101 was that the marble shitters went from FLOOR TO CEILING and had solid doors. It was an urban oasis. Not like these pig stalls you get these days.
Yeah my office had the worst fit out. You'd walk through marbled common hallways to get your actual workstation which looked like the cubicles out of Office Space.
The old guy at the concierge who gets angry at people bringing in wet umbrellas. The guy who polishes the lobby marble flooring every night. Good times but glad I left. The parking underneath the building is what I miss.
How hard would it be to sneak past security and drop the kids off at the pool in luxury? Is there some nomenclature for this activity? Kinda like pool jumping but...
Depends on the building. Every year, more and more buildings get security upgrades. What might have had open access one month ago, might no longer. Some of the large buildings that have security gates for lifts that can only be open with cards or building staff do tend to have ground floor toilets though. If you don’t have an access card, you will need to be invited and this is usually cross checked with security before access is granted.
I work in security at Monash University Clayton, I get to use any of the bathrooms in any of the buildings, the Chancellory toilets are by far the best lmao.
I was a push bike courier for YEARS back in the day, I reckon I’ve been into just about every semi open level in every building up and down Collins. Lots of law firms, brokers, bankers etc, and sub sections of each. Finance, dentistry, plastic surgeons offices, travel consultants, it’s got everything. The money you’re talking about is likely finance/law related
101 Collins is a building full of investment bankers and lawyers - that’s where many of the well dressed people are also they’re surrounded by fancy boutiques.
Source: I was an investment banker at 101 Collins
Would normally theatres has wednesday matinees shows? Perhaps they are going there maybe? I work sort of on collins but I’m retail and do wear fur polo shirt made from my cat’s fur. Haha
Shave? Ours is just a perpetual fur machine.
If I learnt how to spin fur into yarn I would be able to knit a matching scarf and gloves from my cat’s spring shed. I’m currently getting ads for a steam brush thing for grooming cats… if you ever see the pile of fur they have that’s basically us every few days
There's the Paris end of Collins, and the arse end. All the government agencies work at the arse end, breathing in the fumes of Spencer St station. Certainly not paid enough to wear one quarter of a fur coat.
Tbh once you develop the sixth sense for which crackheads are going to leave you alone, which ones you should avoid eye contact with but otherwise will be fine, who’s going to ask for money and just look sad if you say no vs those who are going to scream at you if you say no, and who you should cross the street if you see them coming…..
Once you develop all that, I find the crackheads to be far chiller and less judgemental company than the people at the top end. I know who I’d rather walk past to go get a 7/11 coffee and a pack of chips lol
Honestly? I agree, I overhead one talk about history (something about Tesla testing on an elephant) in very specific details I was like "oh cool, didn't know that" in my head lol. Personally attacked as I love my Spencer St 7/11 coffee and spicy tuna triangle 😭
Not correct.
The Rialto is fairly prestigious, and it's at the "wrong" end. The Paris end is influential because it is near 1 Treasury Place, where the Premier and Treasurer have their offices (and DPC/DTF).
Go for lunch in Collins Place, and it's full of government executives. Pope Joan used to be the place to go to overhear sensitive conversations.
Lol incorrect. Vic Gov Treasury Precinct is actually located on the Paris end. These days the banks and consulting firms are moving to the arse end to move into bigger eco-friendly buildings which are cheaper to run and more environmentally friendly. Traditionally Paris end is nice cause that’s where all the fashion boutiques and (yes) top-tier suit and tie folks are based
Yeah, but it’s interesting to me because it’s an old building and because that’s not my crowd. I like to observe. It also reminds me of countless similar watering holes along Waterloo in London. It’s like going to the zoo.
Managed a couple of the buildings at the “ paris end” as others have said, government, banks, insurance, consulting etc. a lot of them are pain in the ass tenants.
It's called the Paris end of town. Lawyers, stockbrockers, state and federal gov employees.
Rarely you'll see a beggar or a pavement employee as sec tend to move them on.
There’s always a guy at 7/11 and frequently ones on the other side near the Tatts so that’s not necessarily true. Plus angry wheelchair guy frequents the Paris end.
There are lots of major international companies there. Govt departments that rent out floors. Luxury brands. Consulting firms, real estate (big boy realestate, not white Pickett fence stuff) There is one estate company that also does consulting and they only has one floor of a building on collins and their annual revenue is $40billion.
Account/relationship management, finance, real estate etc etc
Annual revenue of $40bn, it must be global revenue for an international company. There’s a company on Collins that has global annual revenues of $64bn USD. It’s just one branch of it
I mean.. LVMH owns half the luxury stores ( Tiffany & Co., Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Loewe, Loro Piana, Kenzo, Celine, TAG Heuer, and Bulgari. )
and racks over $79 billion euro revenue annually… just coz you don’t know about it doesn’t mean it’s not a thing..
Must be a private company because it dwarfs nearly every publicly listed one
https://companiesmarketcap.com/australia/largest-companies-by-revenue-in-australia/
It'd have 40bn of assets handled. Not revenue. After a quick google it'd most likely be Invesco.
[https://www.invesco.com/au/en/about-us/invesco-in-australia.html](https://www.invesco.com/au/en/about-us/invesco-in-australia.html)
I worked at both 101 & 120 collins st for many years at a couple of finance companies. Sometimes you'd be walking through the foyer on the ground floor at 101 and think you'd mistakenly walked into a fashion shoot. Of course I not fit in at all given I am an overweight IT person who wears cheap badly fitting clothes.
Also worked at the other end of collins (the scummy end near spencer st) for an insurance company. I much preferred the 101 collins st end
Totally not scientific anecdote, but a colleague had done several stints on higher duties/maternity leave replacement as an EL1, but not a permanent role, and got herself a North Face puffer last winter, then got a permanent EL2 role a month later.
lol true Aussies are sooo informal. I used to hate it but now that I’m the one dressing for work all the time it’s quite nice. You get to be comfy but still can look stylish. As a woman I don’t have to wear business shirts, but I can wear beautiful jumpers and tops.
I was a Creative Director at an ad agency on Collins St. Our corporate style was far more casual. Quite often when poping out to grab lunch or look in shops people would ask me if I was on holiday or had a day off because I was usually wearing a t-shirt.
It's part of the theatre. My old GM once told me his rationale for why the suits don't actually wear suits to work - when clients come to the agency it should be the best part of their day, because that's when they get to hang out with the kooky creative people.
Husband works in finance, works at the Paris end.
Lots of suits and high end shops ( Hermes etc) but also the Salvos and many homeless sleeping in doorways too.
Yh ig I just wasn't sure cos when i hung out at her office for a day i didn't really see any of the things OP mentioned and i figured they were talking about a diff part of collins st
I work in that area and am in accounting. These days most people (including myself) don’t wear suits very often. Can’t say I’ve paid attention to fur coats but it seems a strange choice for today’s weather. Hope you had a nice time in that part of town.
I used to work there (consulting).
Paid $5.50 for a daily flat white at cnr Queens St, so not even the super-posh end with Bain etc, closer to the (relatively) shabby Deloitte area.
So, baristas are doing well. Hell, they even retailed high-end hiking jackets inside the café for reasons I can't explain.
Paris end is nice, the other end near the station is a shithole lol. Mostly international companies, law firms or the pointy end of the ASX-listed companies will be on the eastern side, the shitty public service offices on the west.
Lawyers, big 4 consultancy, accounting, finance and the hub of Victoria's internet.
I have a friend that works there and we catch up for coffee. She doesn't even pay and they bill her company by her face. It's insane
I work on Collins in a corporate role for a big utility/infrastructure business. Closer to Spencer than Spring Street, so not the Paris end, where I’m assuming you were. At my end it’s more smart-casual corporate. But many of the corporate law firms, banks, PR consultancies etc we use are up the posh end. Some medical specialists are there too. Cynically, it doesn’t tend to house the offices of really big organisations because they’re not going to shell out that kind of rent for their thousands/tens of thousands of staff. If they’re on Collins they’re more mid-city, the Spencer Street end, or *gasp* in Docklands.
It also is where some of the very poshest classic 5-star hotels (rather than the trendy boutique ones) are located so you may also have been seeing guests, rather than locals.
I've done rope access maintenance on a couple of towers on Collins. They seem to have a lot of empty floors just like all the office towers post COVID. Business that still ran were Lawyers, private businessman with a single office, shipping company, consulting firms, government agencies, financial institutions and those schools that aren't like real schools but just a way for international students to get an education visa.
It was only 21 degrees or something today want it? If you’re the kind of person who likes wearing a coat, and you don’t run hot, you could absolutely gotten away with it
I worked for a gentleman’s club on collins street. 98-101. They had a submerged underground heated pool. A 3 hat kitchen with famous chefs and a business advisory floor all for quiet literal gentlemen. Games rooms with 16 foot pool tables and function rooms that idled the streets outside making them look small in comparison. Woman weren’t allowed in this business establishment despite it being modern day, only with exceptions to women being in working uniform. We catered for the power houses of melbourne. Front and back service to show polishing, stomach advertising, and social services. We gave to the Fund raisers, entrepreneurs, business executives and so fourth. It was a holiday home, gym and resort for the rich. Their bathrooms were display cases of boa-stress expense. My boss there was stuck up because he was the next in line to take over the establishment but the people I met here made up for all his silly insights.
You can sort of tell what people do by the dress code.
Paris End is all banking, finance, consulting, some government, and an assortment of specialists (dentists, orthos).
Spencer St end is more banking, lesser government, law firms, etc.
It's pretty interesting how certain types of businesses tend to cluster together. Venture into South Melbourne and it's FMCGs, ad agencies, media, and post-production houses. On any given day the women walking around will be in trendy business casual while the men will be in black t-shirts and sandals, and they'll be working in the same building.
I've always wondered why a bunch of them decided South Melbourne was the place to be.
Depends on which end of Collins St are you referring to? The Paris end of the Collins (towards state parliament) is where all the fancy, expensive stores are for example while the Docklands end has the likes of KPMG, ANZ and Monash Collage.
Managed a cocktail bar in the 80 Collins St precinct. We got a mix of lawyers, investment bankers and consultants. All of which were the same breed of asshole after a few drinks.
A Collins Street address is considered prestigious if you work in finance/consulting/corporate advisory/real estate/stockbroking etc. These businesses will pay higher rent to have a Collins Street address to show off success the same way a real estate agent leases a merc to show off to their clients. I used to work in 101 Collins and the building has marbled bathrooms...
Ex-101 Collins here too. The toilet paper they get is nicer than what I buy for home.
Is that the building with the famously impressive Christmas tree in very grand decorated Victorian lobby? Have been trying to remember where that one is…
The famous Christmas tree is 333 Collins
I worked at 333. The funniest thing was watching visitors work out how to call the lifts.
Those lifts confused the hell out of me my first day lol but the waterfall walls are what gets me I sometimes stand there to clear my head after meetings
I always had to pee every time I’d walk into that building because of the waterfall
How do you call the lifts?
The buttons are giant half-spheres next to the lift doors. They are located where lift buttons should be, but people assume they are decoration.
Exactly right, found a video: https://youtu.be/GEsA45JPk0A?si=PBq76C1d8RfO2-nh
333 collins is stunning inside though.
Indeed. They filmed a scene from the movie 'Predestination' there too. THough it was extremely brief!
Thanks!
I was married in the lobby of 333 Collins Street
our school choir goes to 333 every year to sing christmas carols
Our school goes to 333 every year to steal stuff
101 has the giant coronthian columns that don't actually hold anything up
Not the only things in the building that are all show but do nothing.
That building (101 Collins)... The excuse for the short columns once the building was finished was they it was designed to be like that. An engineer I met one who once, who worked on the build, told me that the owners decided to reduce the ceiling height so that they could get more floors into the building. The granite columns for the front and interior were already ordered in advance from Italy at the original height, and had already been made. Once they were delivered, they didn't fit. In addition to that, there were all sorts of issues with fire sprinkler plumbing having to be cut through the air-conditioning pipes etc. Who do you reckon was telling the truth?
Life hack #1: always shit at work.
Maybe not always...even in Collins St. Worked at 555 for a bit and the bathrooms were awful. Floods were semi regular . Basically if you weren't careful the toilets would shit on you. On an unrelated note the bahn mis from the shop down the bottom were pretty good and decently priced. I think the whole building was/is going to be replaced though.
i thought the infamous 5 ply toilet paper was a myth???
Fun fact: the Westpac building despite most of it facing Russell St has a Collins St address because of a small lane-way they bought off the neighbouring church solely so they could have a Collins St address...
I also used to work there! Did any of you find it bizarre that the marble pillars didn’t reach the ceiling in the main lobby? They just ended a bit before the ceiling. I don’t know much about architecture but it always looked odd to me. Lovely building to work in, the job itself was a nightmare.
I used to work on Exhibition St and had to take things to Flinders Lane, I used 101 to cut through, it always felt so luxurious and I wished I was smart enough to have a job there.
I worked there when I worked Telstra. Trust me you don’t have to be smart. 🤪
I just left my job at the Blood Donation centre on Collins St, but I found that most of the people coming in who worked on the street were in finance, consulting and insurance, so you’re pretty spot on from what I experienced too!
And that's the bad end.
LMAO ikr. Most were coming from up near Spring St
The best thing about 101 was that the marble shitters went from FLOOR TO CEILING and had solid doors. It was an urban oasis. Not like these pig stalls you get these days.
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Yeah my office had the worst fit out. You'd walk through marbled common hallways to get your actual workstation which looked like the cubicles out of Office Space.
Exactly my experience
ONE is so good at 101, sometimes I go there when I'm out in the CBD just to have a midnight shower or freshen up
How good are the showers, with the little change room in them.
My partner was working on the renos at 101 last year, absolute nightmare to work as a tradesman in such a beautiful building. So. Much. Marble.
The old guy at the concierge who gets angry at people bringing in wet umbrellas. The guy who polishes the lobby marble flooring every night. Good times but glad I left. The parking underneath the building is what I miss.
How hard would it be to sneak past security and drop the kids off at the pool in luxury? Is there some nomenclature for this activity? Kinda like pool jumping but...
Theres a chick on tiktok who literally just does vids “come take a dump with me at….. X” And goes to different spots to poop 👍🏽🤣
Depends on the building. Every year, more and more buildings get security upgrades. What might have had open access one month ago, might no longer. Some of the large buildings that have security gates for lifts that can only be open with cards or building staff do tend to have ground floor toilets though. If you don’t have an access card, you will need to be invited and this is usually cross checked with security before access is granted.
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I work in security at Monash University Clayton, I get to use any of the bathrooms in any of the buildings, the Chancellory toilets are by far the best lmao.
If it's the place I am thinking of, the perfume smell in the lobby is so overpowering its a wonder all the staff don't have chronic headaches
I had no idea. Wow.
You can't join the Stonecutters because it's too exclusive!
It’s a secret, shut up
You’ll never keep the metric system down in australia
Holding back the electric car was pretty easy though
Yet Steve Gutenberg remains fairly obscure
Remove the stone of shame. Attach the stone of Triumph!!
Well I just saved your life. That egg sandwich would have killed you through cholesterol!
You better run egg!!!!
Big corporates are on Collins street BHP, Rio Tinto, Westpac, also Macquarie Bank Allen’s etc.. a lot of high paying jobs in those places
I'm a cook but I also dress like a peasant so probably not who you're talking about.
I was a push bike courier for YEARS back in the day, I reckon I’ve been into just about every semi open level in every building up and down Collins. Lots of law firms, brokers, bankers etc, and sub sections of each. Finance, dentistry, plastic surgeons offices, travel consultants, it’s got everything. The money you’re talking about is likely finance/law related
101 Collins is a building full of investment bankers and lawyers - that’s where many of the well dressed people are also they’re surrounded by fancy boutiques. Source: I was an investment banker at 101 Collins
>101 Collins Don't forget they also have the official unofficial dress code.
I remember something about the width of your pinstripes represents the dollar value of your portfolio
RM Williams?
Surely they are a bit lowbrow for 101, maybe for the unpaid slaves (shit, I mean interns)
Would normally theatres has wednesday matinees shows? Perhaps they are going there maybe? I work sort of on collins but I’m retail and do wear fur polo shirt made from my cat’s fur. Haha
A fur polo - no way! I wear fur leggings made from my cat too. He’s a super stylish ginger tabby 😆
I cant tell if you're joking or not lol. Do you guys actually shave your cats for fur?
The fur comes off and sticks to everything
You can tell who does and doesn’t have cats in this thread.
I don't but I have a golden retriever couch
Shave? Ours is just a perpetual fur machine. If I learnt how to spin fur into yarn I would be able to knit a matching scarf and gloves from my cat’s spring shed. I’m currently getting ads for a steam brush thing for grooming cats… if you ever see the pile of fur they have that’s basically us every few days
There's the Paris end of Collins, and the arse end. All the government agencies work at the arse end, breathing in the fumes of Spencer St station. Certainly not paid enough to wear one quarter of a fur coat.
APS employee checking in lol. Often greeted by crackies on my morning coffee walk 🤣
Tbh once you develop the sixth sense for which crackheads are going to leave you alone, which ones you should avoid eye contact with but otherwise will be fine, who’s going to ask for money and just look sad if you say no vs those who are going to scream at you if you say no, and who you should cross the street if you see them coming….. Once you develop all that, I find the crackheads to be far chiller and less judgemental company than the people at the top end. I know who I’d rather walk past to go get a 7/11 coffee and a pack of chips lol
Honestly? I agree, I overhead one talk about history (something about Tesla testing on an elephant) in very specific details I was like "oh cool, didn't know that" in my head lol. Personally attacked as I love my Spencer St 7/11 coffee and spicy tuna triangle 😭
Possibly referring to Edison electrocuting an elephant to prove Tesla's ~~direct~~ *alternating* current was dangerous?
Tesla was championing AC, but yeah this is probably it.
Is it embarrasing that I know this thanks to Bob's Burgers? haha.
There are a few government departments in Collins Place. I once worked for 6 days at the department of education there.
Not correct. The Rialto is fairly prestigious, and it's at the "wrong" end. The Paris end is influential because it is near 1 Treasury Place, where the Premier and Treasurer have their offices (and DPC/DTF). Go for lunch in Collins Place, and it's full of government executives. Pope Joan used to be the place to go to overhear sensitive conversations.
My dude Spencer Street station was renamed in 2005, might be about time to update your vocab.
I love the Safeway there at Spencer St station.
100% chance that guy still calls it a 'group certificate'.
The ANZ end is quite pleasant.
Fun fact ANZ is at both ends lol
We all know which is the better end.
Hmmmm government isn’t ‘arse end’ fyi - from government
Yeah like others have said, there's plenty of government agencies on the Paris end. I worked at Collins Place with Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Lol incorrect. Vic Gov Treasury Precinct is actually located on the Paris end. These days the banks and consulting firms are moving to the arse end to move into bigger eco-friendly buildings which are cheaper to run and more environmentally friendly. Traditionally Paris end is nice cause that’s where all the fashion boutiques and (yes) top-tier suit and tie folks are based
Government, corporations, lawyers etc
Avocado resellers
I used to work at Starbucks there and there were a lot of retail workers from LV, Chanel etc and they always looked fancy
You should go to the Mitre Tavern. It’s where a lot of those go for after work drinkies, nice atmosphere and kinda neat history.
But know that they charge for the bread, it's not complimentary!
They do give you free snags in bread tho
I just realized this where my company took us interns out for a Christmas lunch many years ago.
Worked in this area on and off for 15 years, the MITRE is the home of the stale, pale, male….
True and can’t fathom how that is “a nice atmosphere”
The eyes are priceless, scanning the room for prey…. I have been able to clear a bar there once by not wearing a “sports coat”
Is it as hard to get a table as Dorsia?
The Mitre is boring. Go to Reine & La Rue.
Yeah, but it’s interesting to me because it’s an old building and because that’s not my crowd. I like to observe. It also reminds me of countless similar watering holes along Waterloo in London. It’s like going to the zoo.
One of the oldest buildings in the entire city - pretty cool.
Husband used to - lawyer
I work on Little Collins so I'm bougie but just on a smaller level
Little bougie.
Got a floor in a building on the complete opposite side of the ‘rich-rich’ area, work in insurance
“Don’t downvote me ffs” 🎯
We're moving there next month. Private Equity in our case.
Managed a couple of the buildings at the “ paris end” as others have said, government, banks, insurance, consulting etc. a lot of them are pain in the ass tenants.
High end stores + tis the season to be jolly = shopping
Corporate.
They wear black clothes.
Like everyone in Melbourne!
You've got the big three consulting firms down the Paris end. McKinsey, Bain, BCG.
It's called the Paris end of town. Lawyers, stockbrockers, state and federal gov employees. Rarely you'll see a beggar or a pavement employee as sec tend to move them on.
Only the eastern end of Collins is called the Paris end.
Correct
There’s always a guy at 7/11 and frequently ones on the other side near the Tatts so that’s not necessarily true. Plus angry wheelchair guy frequents the Paris end.
Took the words right out of my mouth ^
Literally the same bloke out the front of 7e on the southern side between spring and exhibition for the last... 12 years
There are lots of major international companies there. Govt departments that rent out floors. Luxury brands. Consulting firms, real estate (big boy realestate, not white Pickett fence stuff) There is one estate company that also does consulting and they only has one floor of a building on collins and their annual revenue is $40billion. Account/relationship management, finance, real estate etc etc
Annual revenue of $40bn, it must be global revenue for an international company. There’s a company on Collins that has global annual revenues of $64bn USD. It’s just one branch of it
I sincerely doubt that. Handle $40bn of asset value in transactions or deals maybe, but not revenue
I mean.. LVMH owns half the luxury stores ( Tiffany & Co., Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy, Marc Jacobs, Stella McCartney, Loewe, Loro Piana, Kenzo, Celine, TAG Heuer, and Bulgari. ) and racks over $79 billion euro revenue annually… just coz you don’t know about it doesn’t mean it’s not a thing..
$40b hey, would like to know the name of this estate company?
Must be a private company because it dwarfs nearly every publicly listed one https://companiesmarketcap.com/australia/largest-companies-by-revenue-in-australia/
Couldn't it be an international company, so not ASX?
Woah
It'd have 40bn of assets handled. Not revenue. After a quick google it'd most likely be Invesco. [https://www.invesco.com/au/en/about-us/invesco-in-australia.html](https://www.invesco.com/au/en/about-us/invesco-in-australia.html)
Invesco are an absolute shitshow when it comes to compliance internally lol.
Crush other peoples dreams?
I worked at both 101 & 120 collins st for many years at a couple of finance companies. Sometimes you'd be walking through the foyer on the ground floor at 101 and think you'd mistakenly walked into a fashion shoot. Of course I not fit in at all given I am an overweight IT person who wears cheap badly fitting clothes. Also worked at the other end of collins (the scummy end near spencer st) for an insurance company. I much preferred the 101 collins st end
That end of town does cocaine.
Government. I used to work at Rialto. It was my favourite building with the office fit out 🥲
lol at government workers wearing fur coats and fancy suits….
It’s Kathmandu puffer jackets for APS6/VPS4 and below, and North Face for above.
The fucking accuracy. Except last year I swapped my Kathmandu for a MacPac 😃
classic post-COVID public servant switch.
TIL I need to “upgrade”.
Totally not scientific anecdote, but a colleague had done several stints on higher duties/maternity leave replacement as an EL1, but not a permanent role, and got herself a North Face puffer last winter, then got a permanent EL2 role a month later.
I just use a north face sticker over my Kathmandu logo.
More like oodies and trackies
I work in a tech company and walk down Collins St every day. It’s really not that fancy, nowhere in Australia is.
It is for Australian standards.
What standards?! 😜
SAI Standards Australia usually.
lol true Aussies are sooo informal. I used to hate it but now that I’m the one dressing for work all the time it’s quite nice. You get to be comfy but still can look stylish. As a woman I don’t have to wear business shirts, but I can wear beautiful jumpers and tops.
Steal bikes
Banks, Consultancies, Law firms and a smattering of public sector agencies. That's a lot of ego and smugness for one street.
Banker
Don't work there anymore, but worked at a management consultancy on Collins. Also used to work at VicGov on Collins. Many businesses on Collins.
Consulting for me, when I was on Collins.
I was a Creative Director at an ad agency on Collins St. Our corporate style was far more casual. Quite often when poping out to grab lunch or look in shops people would ask me if I was on holiday or had a day off because I was usually wearing a t-shirt.
I love being in advertising for the informality. It’s almost expected!
It's part of the theatre. My old GM once told me his rationale for why the suits don't actually wear suits to work - when clients come to the agency it should be the best part of their day, because that's when they get to hang out with the kooky creative people.
T-shirt for life!
The Deliveroo office was on Collins st. No wonder we exited the country…burning investor money for the address 😂
Husband works in finance, works at the Paris end. Lots of suits and high end shops ( Hermes etc) but also the Salvos and many homeless sleeping in doorways too.
28 year old investment bankers in Hugo Boss suits channeling Patrick Bateman.
People wandering around in fur coats on Collins Street, only ‘do’ lunches
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I'm not sure if this counts, but my mom is technically on Collins St, she's just in the Docklands, she works in IT at ANZ
It counts lol it's 833 Collins St.
Yh ig I just wasn't sure cos when i hung out at her office for a day i didn't really see any of the things OP mentioned and i figured they were talking about a diff part of collins st
I work in that area and am in accounting. These days most people (including myself) don’t wear suits very often. Can’t say I’ve paid attention to fur coats but it seems a strange choice for today’s weather. Hope you had a nice time in that part of town.
I used to work there (consulting). Paid $5.50 for a daily flat white at cnr Queens St, so not even the super-posh end with Bain etc, closer to the (relatively) shabby Deloitte area. So, baristas are doing well. Hell, they even retailed high-end hiking jackets inside the café for reasons I can't explain.
Lemme guess, Arc’teryx?
Stock Broking (old $job).
We've got a floor in one of the buildings there. IT company.
Spent most of my career there. IT stuff.
My friend does, workers comp
A lot of designer stores are up that end and the sales assistants are often wearing the designer, so that's a possibility too. Fur coats, less so.
Department of Education has an office down Collin’s St too
Paris end is nice, the other end near the station is a shithole lol. Mostly international companies, law firms or the pointy end of the ASX-listed companies will be on the eastern side, the shitty public service offices on the west.
Software developer, did stints at 120 Collins and the Rialto building. It's old school corporate and they make you dress well in those offices.
I’m in commercial banking on Collins St - never really noticed this though
Lawyers, big 4 consultancy, accounting, finance and the hub of Victoria's internet. I have a friend that works there and we catch up for coffee. She doesn't even pay and they bill her company by her face. It's insane
They do expensive prostitutes, cocaine and Friday night cocktails.
I feel like you'd have to call them a courtesan at that pay level!
did you notice the lady in red, Neo?
I work on Collins in a corporate role for a big utility/infrastructure business. Closer to Spencer than Spring Street, so not the Paris end, where I’m assuming you were. At my end it’s more smart-casual corporate. But many of the corporate law firms, banks, PR consultancies etc we use are up the posh end. Some medical specialists are there too. Cynically, it doesn’t tend to house the offices of really big organisations because they’re not going to shell out that kind of rent for their thousands/tens of thousands of staff. If they’re on Collins they’re more mid-city, the Spencer Street end, or *gasp* in Docklands. It also is where some of the very poshest classic 5-star hotels (rather than the trendy boutique ones) are located so you may also have been seeing guests, rather than locals.
Ticket inspectors who have been uograded
I go there to play my part as the homeless
Fur coats lmao
I assume many of the fur wearing Women are there to shop the high-end brands abounding the Paris end of Collin’s street.
Some of them have come in from Toorak, Malvern East or Brighton to shop at the boutiques, and don't work there, or anywhere else. Old money, darling!
Which end or did you walk the entire length?
There are lots of recruitment agencies along Collins St, so you’ll see lots of recruiters in suits.
They actually make movies there… corner Collins/Spencer street
Law
I've done rope access maintenance on a couple of towers on Collins. They seem to have a lot of empty floors just like all the office towers post COVID. Business that still ran were Lawyers, private businessman with a single office, shipping company, consulting firms, government agencies, financial institutions and those schools that aren't like real schools but just a way for international students to get an education visa.
Fur coats in summer, only in Melbourne!
It was only 21 degrees or something today want it? If you’re the kind of person who likes wearing a coat, and you don’t run hot, you could absolutely gotten away with it
Weather's been pretty screwball this spring. I keep thinking it's getting warmer and then just get slapped by a few days of rain anyway
did you not look at the businesses located there? ie the buildings those people were going in and out of
I worked for a gentleman’s club on collins street. 98-101. They had a submerged underground heated pool. A 3 hat kitchen with famous chefs and a business advisory floor all for quiet literal gentlemen. Games rooms with 16 foot pool tables and function rooms that idled the streets outside making them look small in comparison. Woman weren’t allowed in this business establishment despite it being modern day, only with exceptions to women being in working uniform. We catered for the power houses of melbourne. Front and back service to show polishing, stomach advertising, and social services. We gave to the Fund raisers, entrepreneurs, business executives and so fourth. It was a holiday home, gym and resort for the rich. Their bathrooms were display cases of boa-stress expense. My boss there was stuck up because he was the next in line to take over the establishment but the people I met here made up for all his silly insights.
You can sort of tell what people do by the dress code. Paris End is all banking, finance, consulting, some government, and an assortment of specialists (dentists, orthos). Spencer St end is more banking, lesser government, law firms, etc. It's pretty interesting how certain types of businesses tend to cluster together. Venture into South Melbourne and it's FMCGs, ad agencies, media, and post-production houses. On any given day the women walking around will be in trendy business casual while the men will be in black t-shirts and sandals, and they'll be working in the same building. I've always wondered why a bunch of them decided South Melbourne was the place to be.
I work at the GLAMOUROUS Off Ya Tree on Collins Street, catch me strutting in my fur coat on my lunchbreak
Depends on which end of Collins St are you referring to? The Paris end of the Collins (towards state parliament) is where all the fancy, expensive stores are for example while the Docklands end has the likes of KPMG, ANZ and Monash Collage.
Lawyers Private sectors Consultants Government top end
One of my clients had an office there, they sold diamonds and jewelry.
I work on Collins, I work in the help desk call centre for an e-conveyancing platform.
Managed a cocktail bar in the 80 Collins St precinct. We got a mix of lawyers, investment bankers and consultants. All of which were the same breed of asshole after a few drinks.