We recently chatted with Matisse, the beautiful powerhouse behind Gathered, a gorgeous Kip&Co stockist in Bendigo about her store, local tips for Bendigo, and dreams for summer.

Tell us when and why you started your beautiful store? Gathered’s journey began in May 2016. My husband Kane and I had a clothing store (The Meadow) in Gathered’s current space and when the building next door came up for rent, we jumped at the opportunity to take it on! After moving The Meadow’s location to next door, we completely stripped and restyled the building to build our new baby GATHERED! A life style store was always something we wanted to do, but knew it needed to be on this fantastic arts precinct street in Bendigo, so we waited patiently until the right place came about! Although, it just so happened to be two days after giving birth to our second child, Pixie. There’s nothing quite like it all happening at once. What are your favourite local spots to hit up? There are so many amazing places in Bendigo! Having two kids, we spend a lot of our time in Rosalind Park, especially in the warmer months. On our days off you will always find us in some of Bendigo’s greatest cafes. Ones that we love are Edwards Providore, Percy and Percy, Cafe El Beso and Harvest, or if its a quick coffee on-the-go, you can’t go past Get Naked Espresso, just 2 doors away! If Kane and I get a night away from the girls, we always make sure to book into Mason’s of Bendigo, for an incredible dinner! Wow, you can tell I focus my time around food! Any tips for people wanting to start a new business? My biggest tip is to just go for it. Don’t over think it. If you don’t have a young family, it’s a lot easier to say “It's only money and everything is an experience” and its so true. If your working a 9-5 job that you don’t enjoy and wish you could do something else, you can. Most of the time it’s only you stopping yourself from making a change! Don’t be fooled into thinking its all glamour and fancy products though. Having a small business is hectic, it never stops, you can’t just clock off, but the beauty is that it is 100% yours, an extension of yourself! I think having started our first business at the age of 23, we had the luxury of being totally naive to how big this small business could be and how invested we would become. Now 9 years later, 1 more store, 2.5 more kids, a few house extensions, life couldn’t be any more full on but also very rewarding and fun. We wouldn’t have it any other way. What are your plans for summer? (its never too early to dream!) Well Summer hey! What a dream. Baby Barri number 3 is due early December, so we will be in a beautiful newborn bubble for a good chunk of it. No jet-setting plans for the summer break so its looking like the in-laws will see at lot of us lounging around their pool. Our stores stay open the whole break, so we’re lucky to have a lot of tourists coming into town for the break and we can give them all the local tips! Whats your favourite Kip&Co product? Wow, this is a tricky question. I really don’t think I can go past the tassel throws! Just when you think they can’t produce another great colour, there’s another winner! I love it when they’re thrown over you on the couch - it’s like a big warm hug. The weight of the tassels is totally dreamy. But kids onesies, OMG! As soon as our girls put theirs on, the epic tantrums of the day seem to fade into a cute little innocent PJ haze. Matisse Barri, GATHERED 79 View Street Bendigo, VIC 3550 P. +613 5444 4885 www.gatheredstore.com.au