Paris Kyne in 2000

Toorak Village, or the ‘Village of Prestige’ as the local council promotes it, was the rather obvious choice. On May 1, 2000, ‘Paris Kyne - THE MILLINER’ was opened at Shop 4, 501 Toorak Road, Toorak. Also taken was the adjoining shop 6, as an open workroom so that people passing by could see that everything was indeed being made on site. This idea came from the USA where a large number of restaurants and dressmakers were showing themselves at work. This coupled with the proof that each hat was a locally and lovingly made item meant this was a good idea. No other milliner in Australia had done it. Also, the open workroom lets in huge amounts of natural light, which is a change from the dark workrooms usually banished to the back of a shop.

The new Salon was in burgundy, purple, and gold stripes, with polished concrete floors and gold fittings. U-Magazine wrote on 12 June 2000, “Purple is Michael Kyne’s favourite colour, and the milliner has splashed it about in abundance, along with burgundy and gold in his new bordello-coloured shop... Along with the glamorous new premises, Michael has a new name. You may call him Paris - the nickname that he has made official through deed poll.”

Shortly after landing in Toorak, I jumped on a plane and headed to the prestigious London College of Fashion to further my knowledge and to keep abreast of international trends, the latest techniques and the use of new fibres. No one in the Australian millinery industry could further my education to this extent.

This was to be the first of many overseas study trips, as my hunger for knowledge had returned once I had settled into the new salon. The courses I undertook were Millinery Workshop III, under Andrew Bristow and Millinery Trimmings Workshop under Dillon Wallwork. Also, on this trip, I took in all the Ludwig the II of Bavaria sights including cycling up to Falkenstein, the site of the last Ludwig project that he never really got to start.