Celine goes to brunch

my photos


I picked up this little guy on my last trip to Paris, ostensibly for my 21st, but mostly because it is oh so beautiful. The tri-pochette first entered my head as a viable alternative to the two-tone pochette when I saw Phoebe Philo carrying one at the CFDA awards, strap tucked inside, like it ain't no thang. She looked so fabulous and I loved the way each pouch puffed out. This wine-coloured piece is so rich and sumptuous in real life, the perfect foil to navy blue (surely the it colour combination this season if the acne collection is anything to go by!). Celine's first foray into the world was last Friday, where she had dinner at Mamak, drinks at Ravesis, and then dirty dancing at White Revolver (predictably it all went downhill from there). Today I was laughing with my friend about the fact that "Celine does not go to White Revolver". Celine goes to Brunch. And Celine drinks dirty martinis at the Commons. Celine enjoys red wine and mushroom pizza at Love Supreme, and dried fig and cinnamon toasted granola from Room 10. Celine shops at blood orange and wears Frederic Malle Edition Parfum Lipstick Rose. Celine takes long lunches. Celine does not catch buses. Celine does not have chipped nail polish. Celine drinks really strong coffee. Celine only buys groceries at Thomas Dux... Expect a bit of a jokey post on this, complete with pictures of Celine doing said activities some time in the future. Celine always keeps her promises!

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ps this is my 1000th post. I wanted to share something really special with you guys and this is truly something special. Thanks for reading and sharing it with me. I mean it more than I can say.
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bloodorange

uhh

Today I had a revelation. I've always loved bloodorange, as you all know. But today I adored it. As I was saying to Talisa as we wandered around, dazed and overwhelmed, it's never been this good, ever. Every single thing in there I want, and I want it now, even when I don't want it or I'd never wear it (or would I??), which is part of its appeal. They've started stocking Acne, and the range is so perfect it makes me want to cry. Beautiful oversized shirt dresses with slits up the side, blush coloured silk tee shirts with keyhole cut-outs in the back and one glorious, glorious boxy denim jacket with detachable leather cuffs and patchwork detail. Don't get me started on the Gary Bigeni - all oversized rust-coloured tee shirts and two-tone maxi dresses - or the Alexander Wang, or the me&ro necklace with their sparkle sparkle, or indeed the array of APC footwear, from moccasins to ankle boots. I can't even talk about the vast array of Australian labels you can get there and the way that the store quietly, yet very much surely, supports the local fashion industry. Dress Up, Secret Squirrel, Karla Spetic, Lover, Bassike, need I go on... They even have a little Aesop stand at the moment, stocking only the best products like their famous fabric care and beautiful hand cream. There's nothing bad in there, nothing that makes you scratch your head, and I've never said that about a store before. Everything is beautiful. And everything goes so perfectly together you wonder how it could be worn with anything else. I've often said that I want my life to be like bloodorange - all lazy lunches at room 10 and k.jacques sandals and smelling like APC's Feuille de Figuere and wearing Acne oversized shirt dresses belted in at the waist. What a life that would be. 

If you're a sydney sider, get thee to bloodorange. I almost spent $900 in there on Sunday, and I'm supposedly not shopping at the moment. Hah! I didn't, I didn't. I stayed strong. But my god. It was hard.

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going to the chapel

EPA via TFS

Sofia Coppola has always reminded me of my Godmother, with whom she shares a name, and that same quirky yet classic style and petite figure and seemingly inability to age. My mum has been best friends with my godmother since they were college freshers together, and she says that she wore the same clothes then that she wears now, and she was always the coolest girl at parties in big tee shirts and straight leg jeans. Seeing pictures of Sofia Coppola's beautiful, beautiful wedding remind me of my godmother. At her wedding to her husband she wore a pantsuit, not a dress, because it was a civil ceremony and the second time her husband was getting married. She was the height of chic and looked fantastic. I know it's kind of a silly superstition thing, but I kind of like that convention, and I love that Sofia didn't go for the traditional, blowsy, puffball of a wedding gown for her wedding. We've had enough of those this year. By all accounts this was a casual, family-oriented, supremely happy day for all involved. I've been to weddings like this and, to be honest, they're the most relaxed and the most enjoyable for all involved. The sun is high in the sky when they start and well and truly set by the time people start trickling home. This truly lovely Alaia Couture dress and simple strappy sandals fits the bill perfectly. It's a dress to laugh in, and drink in, and eat cake in. And marry the man you love in.

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chip chop


Penny Sage lookbook via So Much To Tell You

Look I'm not saying I'm going to do it, and let's be honest here, I'm not. But this kind of choppy outgrown bob, where one side is slightly longer than the other, is really kind of cool. Don't you think? 

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a touch of pink



This weekend I'm going to Adelaide for an old school friend's 21st. The theme is a touch of Pink, and I'm probably the least pink girl out, despite my professed love of "blush" and "nude". On surveying my closet I began to despair that I had nothing to wear to this party (a common state of mind with me, no worries). But then I realised that the devil is all in the details. I fished out a pair of Tony Bianco wedge heels that have never been worn that have pink heels and orange straps, my two beloved pink bracelets - Isabel Marant and PetiteGrand - and the shocking pink lipstick I bought my mum for mother's day way back when. Perfect! Not all at once, of course, but it makes my life a whole lot easier. I'm thinking of suiting up, with a plain beige tee shirt or black drapey top from Acne, plus a pink lip and the pink shoes? Maybe I could throw the little bracelets in for good measure? Adelaide here I come. If anyone has any suggestions for great places to brunch/lunch/basically feast please let me know! Ellie and Tania - I'm counting on you.

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what up


It is my life's dream to be so laid-back I'm almost horizontal, totally nonchalant, scruffy and easy-going. I am naturally of that kind of temperament, and I'm certainly nowhere near as glamorous as some of my friends. But I just can't seem to pull of this kind of carriage. You know, like hunched shoulders and mannish stance. Hanne Gaby looks great. Probably because she's wearing Stella Resort. Is that the secret? If you're going to sit cross-legged on a park bench you have to do it in impeccable tailoring and cerulean raw silk? Maybe. It would certainly explain how when I'm wearing my suit (or should I say my dad's suit and all it's tailored lines) people think my uncouth behaviour is somewhat charming. I highly doubt if I was wearing track pants or something people would be so bemused. Hmmmmm. If the answer to my dreams of casual looks forever can be found in wearing only high-quality clothes for the rest of my life, I'm not complaining. Talk about a balancing act.

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sticky


Images from Vogue Paris, Vogue UK, Vogue US, RUSSH, Tatler, 

Been having a bit of a crafty couple of days. It helps that the September Issues are so rife with inspiration and I can't help but snip it out and paste it into the front of my diary.  A couple of things that have been inspiring me - vintage photos of Jackie O, oversized oatmeal knitwear (as per), beautiful manhattan apartments and rustic farmhouses, Ali McGraw's coat from Love Story, canvas and leather bags, mannish overcoats... It's been really fun to make these collages and then go and look back through my diary to see what else was inspiring me throughout the year. Some of them are funny (why did I paste that picture of mickey mouse? I still don't know). And some of them are still as inspiring as they ever were - Yasmin, Charlotte Scott, Dries Van Noten ponytails, Daria Werbowy's hair. Some things change and some things stay the same.

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i do love a little cottage


Isabel Marant and Jerome Dreyfuss may love to holiday in a cottage with no electricity or running water, just cooking what I imagine is a gamut of raw food/salad-y type of meals with cheese and bread (a french staple, non?) but they're lucky they go in the SUMMER. I once went to a lovely little farm house cottage not dissimilar to this one. It was rustic and cute, surrounded by greenery and filled with antique board games. But we went there in the dead of winter. And the pipes had frozen, and the electricity had blown. Whilst I had a lot of fun building card houses and reading books by the fire, it was very, very, very cold. And the whole no water thing was a real problem. In the summer? Fine. Isabel you go right ahead. But idyllic though this may look, I am wary of any kind of holiday in the winter to scarcely-used farm houses in the middle of nowhere.

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the one






I wasn't even looking. I wasn't even trying. I was just having coffee and cake and a quick browse with Brooke ages and ages ago and we just happened upon bloodorange because, well, we were in Potts Point, and what were we supposed to do? Nestled amongst the racks of camel Carven shorts and Lover cashmere capes was a thing of beauty, a joy itself, all rich, can't-stop-staring-at-it French Navy and plisse pleats that weren't so much knife sharp as soft as butter, and a sweeping, floor length even when I stood on tiptoe to try and simulate being heel-clad and was backless and kind of, just a little semi-sheer. I don't even like dresses, but I loved this one. I didn't buy it - mostly because it was Alexander Wang and a lot of money and I was going overseas (remember that?). But oh! Then it went on sale! And then I started imagining how amazing it would look in pride of place at my 21st, and then I started thinking that I actually wanted to have a 21st after all, and suddenly the only girl in the world who doesn't like dresses or birthday parties was planning two of those things. It's funny because I never really got the whole 21st thing until I saw the dress I wanted to wear. And yes, my 21st isn't actually until December, and the naysayers are telling me that I'll change my mind before then, but I won't. They don't have this dress - this beautiful, beautiful dress - hanging up on their wardrobe door, and they're not staring at it every night and they weren't there when I tried it on for the first time in the shop and I couldn't quite believe it that there would be a dress that said everything I wanted it to say and looked exactly how I wanted it to look and that made me feel really, truly special. Remember me? I'm the girl who likes to wear suits and wore a skirt (albeit a very pretty one!) and tee shirt to her year 12 formal. But having this dress for the past 2 months or so has changed me. Maybe.

Besides, I'm a former girl scout. I like to be prepared.

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pop


I wore this on Tuesday optimistically because I saw a ray of sunshine out my window. Of course, murphy's law being what it is, when I got to uni it was pouring and I got soaked as I ran to the Bosch Lecture Theatre - literally the furthest lecture theatre from the bus stop. These pictures were taken BEFORE uni - hence the smile. When I got home I was so grumpy. The pop of colour from my Benah  Karma scarf was the perfect way to lift this mainly navy blue outfit - Isabel Marant Kosi jacket, Isabel marant Etoile star print pants, COS jumper. The photos don't really do it justice at all - it has a wonderful aztec-y kind of pattern and a mix of white, purple and blue against a backdrop of beautiful, beautiful tangerine orange. Orange is my most favourite colour of all time. It's my dad's favourite too, he has so many shirts across the orange spectrum from egg yolk richness to sherbert brights. Ahhh I love orange. It cannot fail to raise the spirits and draw a smile. This scarf is a hot, warm-weather, sunshine orange. It's the kind of orange that makes you think of Australia - burnt and bright and sun-drenched. When I wore it that day I wanted it to lighten up my outfit, and when it started raining and I was all sad it helped to lighten up my mood too. 

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moments

screencap Paris, Je T'aime

"There are moments. You will know them."
Eve Green, Susan Fletcher

Today I had coffee with a great, great friend of mine and we talked about moments. The ones that send your stomach churning and your cheeks flushing and your palms sweating. The ones that have you checking your phone every 15 minutes and nervously biting your nails and calling your friends in wild hysteria because you're about to do something you will regret like send a needy, desperate, "love me, love me, say that you'll love me" kind of message. I've been friends with this girl since we were both 4 years old and had little bob hair cuts and shiny shoes. Since forever. My ex-boyfriend once told me that I said "since forever" too much and that it was weird. I've been friends with this girl since I was having moments with this particular ex-boyfriend. We used to sit cross-legged on the harbour terrace at school, lunches discarded by our sides and socks pulled up (never, never rolled down), dissecting our various moments. And today, as we sat with our legs crossed in the back garden of Alimentari with our lemon delicious (me) and portugese tart (her) left forgotten brandishing our phones and laughing about the moments we had, have, are having, it was like we were 16 again and all we cared about was whether our mums were going to let us go to the party on the weekend (no) and whether the dresses we had saved our babysitting money for weeks to get from sportsgirl were too slutty (yes) and whether he was ever going to text back. If you could have heard our conversation today you would have thought that nothing had changed, but it has, and I used to wish that it hadn't, but now I realise that it doesn't matter. Not one bit.

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supersize me

Vogue UK September 2011
Paul Weatherall Taylor, Miranda Almond, Karmen Pedaru


The beauty of Miranda Almond's styling is how she takes an abstract fashion idea and translates it onto the streets. She leaves the theatrics to Kate Phelan and the drama to Lucinda Chambers and focusses on shoots that consistently, consistently make me reaching for the scissors so I can plaster them on my wardrobe inspiration board. Everything she styles has a wearability factor, despite their foundations in high fashion. This shoot is no different. Almond takes as her point of reference the oversized styles that frequented runways last season from Stella McCartney to Celine. But she treats it in a realistic, real-girl kind of way, rather than a comical way. Especially with the propensity to satiric juxtaposition when you pair oversized clothing with undersized models. But I loved this shoot. Supersized clothing has never looked this good or appealing. A hard trend to wear - take it from someone who knows - Almond shows us to play with proportion with a smile on your face. Pair an all-encompassing blanket-coat with form-fitting cigarette pants. She invites us to vary things up with new textures like shearling and fisherman stitch knitwear. But most of all she makes us want to try. A good stylist creates pictures that you love. A great stylist creates pictures that you love to wear. Miranda Almond is a great stylist.

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one day


Vogue US Market Editor Jessica Sailer owns a lot of Celine. It's just not fair. One day I'm going to have a wardrobe full of Celine and I'm going to stand in front of it every day and pick out a different coloured box bag for each different outfit. And it's going to be fantastic!

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update: hey, isabel!



1. A black fedora with a stiff, semi-wide brim, in felt. 
2. A pair of  navy blue and/or black linen pants, slightly oversized, tapered, possibly cropped
3. A loose, calf-length (at least), slightly oversized shirt dress in a material that breathes 
4. Delicate, fine jewellery - of all kinds - enjoying the various examples I have already (above I'm wearing a Delphine bracelet and my Jordy Askill pendant, plus my benah kodi cuff to balance it all out)
5. Something ridiculous and off-season because of the way that Australia gets the seasons out of whack but you have to have because it's so damn amazing, it's kind of like that inextricable desire - notes to a mouse and dead fleurette know what i'm talking about - for the alex wang sweater: the Isabel Marant Idea Coat (pictured here: jacket) mine mine mine!
 
 

So I picked up the Isabel Marant Idea Coat from my seasonal wardrobe planning list. It was a little bit naughty, but I'm glad I did because I literally haven't taken it off since. It's so perfect in so many ways - the sleeves roll up to reveal a little but of under-cuff, the pockets are deep enough for stuffing with, well, stuff, the cut swings out a little over tapered pants and long skirts. And the colour. Oh! The colour! Burgundy is definitely my obsession du jour. What with my raft of wine-coloured bags and a new-found obsession of almost vampiric lipstick, I'm deep in the throes of a bordeaux love story. It's not really a summer purchase, as I discussed when I was putting my wardrobe planning list together, but since it's cold now I'm actually getting use out of it. I love how it takes the colour of my Opening Ceremony swing coat and the cut of my Isabel Marant Ben Coat and combines them together for a lighter, more casual style. My Opening Ceremony coat is perfect for more dressy occasions, belted and cinched in it's like a coat dress on its own. This is unlined, a little looser, and much more easy to wear. It's been a perfect everyday coat for the first couple of weeks of universities.

I'm really happy with where I am in regards to my wardrobe at the moment. Even when I review the wardrobe planning list I'm not feeling the urge to shop as much. It's funny, I think I might even be going on a no-shopping ban soon, just to see if I can, just to try and save some pennies for the months and months of 21sts that are facing me as of September. I don't know... I look at the list that I made and, aside from the jewellery, I'm not feeling the desperate, desperate need. That's the siren call that I've promised myself I'll wait for. I heard it in regards to this jacket, and I've heard it about jewellery. But I feel like last season I bought a lot of beautiful, beautiful things and I'm still enjoying them. When I was overseas I also picked up a few goodies that I'm yet to fully appreciate. I don't think I need to buy anything at the moment, I just need to take a step back and objectively appraise my closet. I think something that's been helping my lack of desire to shop is the fact that I haven't been physically going into shops recently. The last two times were at the Acne store - where I was in dire straights and I had to get out of ASAP before I bought everything stripey in sight - and the Corner Shop where I was perusing the square Isabel Marant pendants in turquoise and navy. The latter is now a moot point; all sold out and out of my grasp for now. The stripey pieces are still beautiful, and I still love them, but I'm not feeling it yet. For me at the moment it's all about having beautiful meals with friends and buying flowers and paying off my computer. 

I think it's important have a little break from fashion. It's weird because I still want a hat, and a loose summer dress, but I've kind of realised that my silk maxi skirt serves a similar purpose, and in terms of navy pants, I have a pair that do the trick. My non-spending of late has forced me to re-evaluate my closet in new and exciting ways, and to pair things together in combinations that I would never have previously considered. In hot weather one of my favourite outfits to wear is my COS light sweater thrown over my Gary Bigeni maxi dress (like here). But I hated how I didn't have any jackets to throw on top. I've discovered how great my boring old work blazer is when added to this on top, something that came purely by accident as I pulled the wrong jacket out of my wardrobe. Similarly, my discovery of how great my shearling vest is underneath parkas has led to a revisit of that wardrobe staple - slightly forgotten in my renewed obsession with coats of late.

I don't know... There's not much point to this post. But I wanted to share something that has been really interesting to me. I've lost the compulsion to shop. I used to love doing it - last semester my favourite thing was to wander through on my way home from uni, getting ideas as I go. I'm sure I'll eat my words in a couple of months when I start posting about something I've seen that I'm obsessed with. But for now, I'm pretty content. I've crossed off something from my list and am enjoying the various examples that I have from another. As for the rest? Well, they can wait. I have a really lovely little wardrobe in front of me and I want to wear it all.

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genie


There's a part of me that finds this kind of look the most seductive. A man's shirt, oversized and bunched up around the wrists. A pair of jeans, straight leg - not slim, not skinny, not tapered - just cuffed at the bottom and slightly washed out. A bun piled up on the top of your head. The similar colours seem to blend together until it's a blur of washed out, worn in blue. But look closer, there are little details that make this. The initials stitched where the pocket should be. The whispy bits that come out of her hairdo. The perfect, perfect creases across the front of the jean leg. It's genius in its simplicity. Perfect in the way that you would never notice. It reminds me of Sienna Miller's costume in Alfie. You know, Jude Law's pink shirt that looked impossibly big on her, those golden bangs hanging down around her face, a streak of blue on the wall behind her. I don't care what anyone says, I still think Sienna Miller is so, so beautiful. I think part of her appeal is how comfortable she is in her own skin. Just like this model she wears the clothes so easily, so simply. I wonder if I could look this good in something that is so simple. I would want to complicate things with a jacket, or strappy shoes. When really all you need are little tan ballet flats, and a thin, delicate gold bangle. That's it. I think I need a pair of jeans - particularly a pair that doesn't have a rip up the crotch. hmmppph.

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home sweet home



When I was in New York I stayed with a family who lived in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. The building had a great stoop for sitting and smoking on, and an old-school fire escape that you could sit on till your cheeks turned pink in the winter chill and a laundry room that smelt like starch and you could lean against a machine and read a little while you waited for your clothes to dry. The house always smelt like tea, and wood, and there were two cats (Rocky and Rosie) who used to roam around the place like royalty, climbing couches and perching along shelves. Our room was the warmest. My friend's dad had painted the walls the colour of egg yolks when she was 10 or so, and there was a big chair for sitting in, and lots of empty space to fill with talking and laughing. I love that apartment. I miss it. I miss New York. I get that feeling a lot. It can be a picture, or a smell, or the sound of bon iver, or the word "Hamilton", or a glimpse at my NARS blush, or the title of this blog, or bagels, or any nicolas cage movie, ever. But sometimes its things that I didn't even see or smell or hear that remind me. Like these pictures. This is Jade Sarita Arnott of Arnsdorf in her apartment in New York. The apartment in Cobble Hill didn't look like this. But there was a wooden table that we pulled out from the wall so we could fit an extra chair at, and there were bookshelves groaning with books and art all over the walls. Jade's place looks perfect. The green door, the high ceilings, the thick curtains, the big chairs covered in soft throws. When I grow up I want an apartment like this. Mint green walls and clean spaces and space for me to breathe. A place to live in. 
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mood



The way that the RUSSH models never wear make up - and still look so good // Arnsdorf designer Jade Sarita Arnott's vintage family snaps // jane birkin -esque strolls around town with fresh flowers and broderie anglaise tops and beaten up satchels by moop // Greta Villiger's backwards cap // the Benah kodi cuff, what a piece of jewellery, what a piece of jewellery // 3.1 Phillip Lim shorts (don't know why the bottom's been cut off, sorry!), drawstring and all // kate moss' wedding snaps from vogue us

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wise words, testino

The Face magazine ph: Corinne Day

“You know, in life there’s perfume and there’s cologne. Cologne, you have to spray every fifteen minutes. Perfume, you put a drop and it lasts a week. You’re perfume.”

 Mario Testino to Kate Moss when she was 16, quoted in Vogue US September 2011

Kate Moss is certainly Perfume. I hope I'm perfume too.

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the glow


This is just too good not to post. The interwebz are coming up roses this week, what with the Conde Nast Elevator twitter, sharing all the gems said in transit between the offices of that publishing behemoth. Maybe there should be an ACP elevator twitter? Anyway. Here's another great site I found this week. Refinery 29 calls it The Selby for mothers. I think it's just lovely - women with fantastic style, beautiful children and impeccable apartments. It's interesting to get a glimpse - albeit a very, very rosy one - into the world of motherhood. Of dress ups and cheerios and cuddles. I've been babysitting a tonne recently because I need the extra cash. It's always fun to look after a particular set of kids who always shower me with hand-drawn pictures ("we luv hannah!") and let me clown around with them; dancing like idiots to Miley Cyrus and making up bedtime stories about princesses with very long hair (their suggestion) and playing very intense, tear-inducing games of red light/green light.

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quiet


There's something about white - or ivory, really - that is very calming. Quiet. I guess it's about purity and youth and innocence, but I think if you take that further its about being uncorrupted, simple, still. White is unfussy in its presentation. There are no bells and whistles, no showy grabs for attention like neon brights or murky, broody black. It is open and inviting and yet still reserved. I remember reading something once about how white could be dangerous. It is so beautiful - it really, really is - but it can also be perilous. It was from an Alexander McCall Smith book, one of the Isabel Dalhousie ones, and I've always remembered it. He has a fantastic turn of phrase, doesn't he? "Come, beckons the white sands, come die upon our fatal shores. And we do." I think the same problem applies to white clothes. They always seem like such a good idea in theory, and then suddenly you've spilt chocolate ice cream all down your front and you're getting all J.Lo and refusing to sit on park benches so as to protect your clothes. White seems so easy and simple and refreshingly unfussy, but once you actually put it on it gets complicated. But still, white seems like a good idea. Yes, I'm still feeling white. Why not? 

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the solution


Isabel Marant scarf, bassike oversized tee shirt, decjuba sweater, pants from my mum's cupboard that I have now stolen, apc sandals (barely in there, but you get the idea!), benah kodi cuff. The last picture was somewhat wishful thinking, before I plaited my hair and put on a jumper, the sun streaming through the window made me think that a tee shirt alone would be okay.

Dressing for a Sydney winter requires a phD, and a manual the size of a phonebook. The tricky early morning starts will fool you into coats and boots, but the middle of the days requires little more than bare legs and a big smile. As you strip layers off - only to add them a few hours later when the sun sets and you're shivering again - it can all be a bit much. I've been wearing sandals the past couple of days at uni, and when I came out of my tute at 6 on monday I thought my feet would freeze. But it seemed like a such a good idea when faced with all that sun! I've since realised that the key ingredient in this transitional, not-yet-spring weather is the shawl. I picked this one up in Paris from the Isabel Marant sale, the gorgeous Yuli scarf that Talisa and Bernadette from Decade Diary both have in white. There are, of course, more ways to tie this bad boy, with examples here. When the weather gets warmer and this scarf serves as accessory and not hero piece I'll definitely be trying them all out. But for now, I've unraveled it (with the top of the square tucked in to make a more triangular shape) and wrapped it around like a shawl. I would never have thought to wear it in this way if I hadn't seen a girl in Paris doing the exact same thing. Out at night when the temperature had dropped a little, she unwound her scarf and flung it around her shoulders, with one end draped across her body and tucked under her arm. She just sat at this bar, languidly, with this fabulous scarf wrapped around her. It was perfect summer-time lazy behaviour - "fetch me my lolly" and all. To appropriate this for winter you just have to add your favourite jumper and - if it's really cold - boots. 

Isabel Marant, solving problems one wardrobe at a time.

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big/small

1:  Estelle Deve bracelet from mychameleon, Benah kodi cuff from mychameleon, petitegrand bracelet from mychameleon, moveSlightly's excellent woven bracelet and her own dainty chain paired together
2: my Kodi cuff and Delphine bracelet from Merci
3: Maniamania cuff, Isabel Marant Bracelet and PetiteGrand bracelet, Benah Kodi cuff and Delphine bracelet

Sometime last week in the depths of a twitter conversation Giselle from Mychameleon said that the best thing about petitegrand bracelets was how they were so delicate and dainty and yet they could still hold their own against a cuff or larger piece. I loved the idea of that, and had to try it out today. Style for me is all about balance, playing converse or contrasting elements against each other. Tops that slip down one shoulder, long hems and short sleeves, hair half up, half down. I think wearing one delicate little bracelet and one bigger piece is another fantastic move down this vein. I've been itching to give this a go for a little while, so it was fun this morning to play with proportion and see what worked. I have to say Benah's beautiful Kodi Cuff is perfect for this kind of jewellery layering (ha!). Although a larger piece, it doesn't dominate because of its simple, yet oh so beautiful design. It's the perfect partner to a dainty little charm bracelet of stars and red beads, or my Isabel Marant pink bracelet with chiffon puff. Definitely going to be trying this again! 
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winter whites

 
Inexplicably: things that are white with drawstring or tie waists. One of the editors at the magazine that I intern at got this Bodkin twister jumpsuit at work yesterday and it's so lovely in person, all linen and oatmeal colouring perfect for sandal days and sunshine. I love Penny Sage, a new label that's all wide legs, scoop necks and long sleeves. I really appreciate a long sleeve. The drawstring tie waist on those white pants in this Vogue Paris shoot is amazing. Polished and chic and cinched in. And finally, a cute little Philip Lim shorts jumpsuit with a tie at the waist, no doubt for showing off a bit of toned tum. It's all this good weather Sydney has been having - making me crave anything white and airy. And who doesn't love a drawstring? I love that full silhouette that it creates as the clothes bunch out from that simple bow tie. It's particularly fantastic on pants. I wish I owned more things with draw string waists!

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