Mother's Day gift ideas for Melbourne mums who love good design

The list of horrors past is endless. I Heart Mum mugs. Candles whose fragrance can best be described as Eau de Chemical Spill. And, sigh, aprons/kitchen utensils. Mother’s Day is one of those invented holidays that you might pooh-pooh about, but one usually feels compelled to celebrate it, nevertheless. It’s better to do it with a present that ticks the design boxes.

Movie tickets wrapped around champagne: Piper-Heidsieck’s Cinema Edition bottle has sophisticated gold art-deco patterns and has been released just in time for Mother’s Day. Marilyn Monroe once said, “I start each day with a glass of Piper-Heidsieck because it warms my body.” So much for Mother’s Day breakfast in bed.

The ultimate Mother’s Day movie to accompany it? Top End Wedding  stars Miranda Tapsell as a bride-to-be whose mother is strangely absent before her big day. What does her daughter do? Go on a journey to find her, while discovering her own Indigenous roots in the process. If the mother-daughter relationship doesn’t move you to tears, the scenes of the Northern Territory and Tiwi Islands will.

If your mother’s a horror movie buff, then Us is an excellent choice, since – among other creepy events – it shows that a mother will do anything for her family and stars Lupita Nyong’o.

Forget soap-on-a-rope. If it’s a beauty gift you’re after, Mecca Cosmetica’s latest offerings include Nars’ Ignited Eyeshadow palette with 12 eyeshadows, and Frank Body’s A-Beauty Coffee Scrub, which contains ingredients such as eucalyptus and macadamia oil,  for a twist on “I brought you coffee on a tray”.

And on the topic of presents-with-a-message, their Portrait of A Lady perfume, by Frederic Malle, is a heady fragrance with notes of sandalwood, patchouli, musk and frankincense.

Eye bags? Nope. Handbags? A firm yes. All the cool kids are gravitating towards the line by ex-Mimco’s Cathryn Wills, Sans Beast, which prides itself on using no animal products.

Wills says the Noir Croco Reader Satchel has been the runaway bestseller, but the less colour-phobic might veer towards the Emerald Alligator version. Ath-influencer brand P.E. Nation has reinterpreted the bum bag but retains its retro cool: their Kick Serve Bumbag has rainbow diagonal stripes and looks like it’s been teleported straight from a dance movie in 1993.

A-esque always has much-coveted bags, but here’s one with a difference: although it can be worn on its own, it is also suitable for layering. That’s because the Slim Box Hip bag is big enough for the essentials – phone, key, coins – so you don’t have to dig, Mary Poppins-style, through a mini suitcase every time you need something.

For experiences over stuff, Montalto vineyard in the Mornington Peninsula creates autumn picnics for up to eight people in a secluded setting that isn’t accessible to regular visitors.

Collect a bottle of their chardonnay or pinot noir from their cellar door, then head to a private picnic ground, which isn’t on the actual grounds: picnics come complete with a linen-dressed table and freshly prepared, seasonal food. After the meal, their one-kilometre Sculpture Trail has around 30 sculptures and takes about an hour to do properly.