in a row

Harpers Bazaar

This time next year I'm predicting you won't be able to move without running into a girl wearing matching dainty gold chains on her ankles. It's the Ashley Olsen effect. A year or two after they first start wearing things - from extravagant furs to backpacks via birkenstocks and 90s-mum-style the rest of the world catches on and it becomes a trend. Fashion forecasters (I always thought that would be a very cool-girl kind of job to have, don't you think?) have nothing on the Olsen Twins. Going out with wet hair a la the olsens is even becoming a bit of a thing. Apparently. Well, if you want to get some of that Ashley Olsen magic now you can get one of the pieces from the Ileana Makri for The Row jewellery collection, available exclusively on net a porter. Ileana Makri of the evil eye anklets that Ashley is never seen without, Ileana Makri of whom Yasmin Sewell is a major fan, yes, the same Ileana Makri with the fantastic eponymous jewellery line, all sparkle sparkle and octopus salads on an Island somewhere and wearing nothing but an Acne white shirt. I've always loved her designs even though they are slightly out of my price range. My mum always said that investing in jewellery is a worthwhile venture, and when I have the means I fully intend to purchase a couple of Ileana Makri delicate bracelets and a statement rings. I only hope that she continues to design for The Row. Her luxurious and modern yet totally understated brand of haute-jewellery is a perfect match for the Olsen twins and their range of forever-clothes. I like the idea that you can be wearing something like a dove grey cashmere sweater and a long jersey skirt and a pair of simple sandals but you can have two of these gorgeous anklets and the whole outfit will be lifted into a completely different realm. That's the Olsen Twin midas touch, isn't it? Everything they touch turns to fabulous.

Oh! And exciting news! The croc backpack is back in stock on NAP. Thank God. I thought I'd missed out there.

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cut and paste

One of my favourite things to do is to cut out my favourite pictures from magazines and paste them into the front of my daily diary, so everywhere I go I can have a little bit of inspiration. 

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An Australian in Paris part 2

1-2: tommy ton for style.com, 3: streetfsn - and yes i know yasmin's in london in her picture, but you know what i mean!!

Oh, how I do love my golden trio of sartorial stars. Yasmin, Christine and Stevie. I've already expressed my love here. But every season these ladies up their game. I can't decide which I like the most; Christine's celine pyjama pants and black blazer (business up top and party down below), Stevie's wonderful mix of jade green knits, silky pants and luxurious fur, or Yasmin's sharp as a tack leather sleeved coat and Celine clutch jazzed up with neon red ties. I'm always most interested in members of the fash-pack who are Australian. I guess it's that wanting to hear their stories, how they made it, how they started, where they're going. I'm lucky that our fashion cohort is defined by such individual, expressive, totally original style. What makes them so damn cool? How can they mix trends and colours and shapes and styles with such aplomb? I like to think that it's an Australian thing.

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this very minute

Country Road Fernanda Boots (25% off today and tomorrow!), Camille's dainty bracelet,  Celine linen and leather bag, Style Me Romy's Stella McCartney Safari Hat, Yasmin Sewell's Christmas Party Christopher Kane, Olivia Palermo does casual chic, Sofia Coppola's inspiration board for the movie Somewhere.

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day for night

style.com

I am not really a firm believer in following fashion rules. To misquote a very, very prevalent cliche, what are rules for if not to be broken? That's why I love casual looks for night time, and dressed up glam for day. There is nothing to stop me wearing something sequinned and fabulous to a lazy lunch, just as there is nothing to stop me wearing a tracksuit top out at night - to the ballet, even. The thing is, Glamour, Elegance and Sophistication - well, they're all a state of mind. I firmly believe this. I believe that style is not so much about the clothes, but about how you wear them. If you truly embody glamour and elegance and sophistication, even in a simple tee shirt and jeans, then you will be Glamorous and Elegant and Sophisticated. That's why true style is very hard to put your finger on. People were musing on this in the Alexa Chung thread, how she has very similar clothes to a lot of girls out and about, yet she always looks so good, that she will wear something completely out of the blue - like a black maxi dress - that you would never think alexa would be able to pull off, but she does. That's because i think Alexa has a way of wearing clothes that is different to a lot of people. It's not what she wears, because when it boils down to it what she wears is not very remarkable (excepting Chanel Haute Couture, of course, now that is a different matter all together). It is all in the WAY that she wears them. She's said this herself, she has a bit of a sense of humour about clothes, she'll whack an old guitar strap on her brand new Mulberry bag, she'll pile on the cheap bling over a Chanel shirt. She loves clothes and fashion, but doesn't take it seriously. This is the same for other truly stylish girls, like Yasmin Sewell.

 You'll find the girls who regularly feature on Garance and the Sart have a way of wearing clothes that is different to anyone else. They don't just WEAR the new season fashions, they'll twist them, turn them and make them their own. That's why, with the right state of mind, you can wear a sequinned duster coat and silly little clutch bag in the day time, just as easily as you can wear the most casual of looks out at night. Today, the rule books have been thrown out the window. What is exciting about fashion is that there is no more slavish following of looks, trends and it-bags. There is a way of dressing that is truly individual. I like to think that today, if two starlets were to turn up on the red carpet wearing the same dress, it wouldn't be the "DISASTER" that Grazia and Who magazine spell it out to be. In fact, two girls wearing the same thing is an opportunity to see just how diverse we are - in looks, in body type and in fashion sense - and to celebrate it. I know that's how I feel with my friends. When we own the same necklace or pair of shoes it is a chance to show to each other how we can put a different spin on the same item. 

As Cleo Gyde said in this month's Vogue Australia, this era of dressing is something truly, truly magical. We have begun to "use our imagination more than out credit cards - not shopping dazed, but dazzling". I read a similar article in the March Harpers Bazaar US that heralded the end of fashion rules. I was reminded by that time Sarah Harris wore couture all day long - in an article entitled "excess all areas" - for Vogue UK's December 2009 issue. Surely, this idea of imaginative, open, truly liberated dressing has been long coming. However this really hit home for me recently. I was going out to a friend's birthday and was troubled. I had nothing, nothing to wear, as a girl always thinks when she contemplates a full-to-the-bursting closet. I was going to wear a flimsy, summer time dress I bought last year, mille-feuille layers and completely impractical for the winter weather. When i tried it on I realised I wouldn't last a minute in wind and rain, so I changed... into the first thing I stumbled onto, my topshop shirt in buttery camel, a simple black skirt and my fur gilet. Sure, I jazzed it up with a pair of heels and loads of jewellery and lashings of glitter on my eyelids, but the look was essentially very casual. Did I feel out of place in a "happening" club (loath as i am to use that word, there is really no other way to describe the place we went to ) where my friends had little party frocks emblazoned in jewels, studs and sequins? No, not at all. In fact, I had a really good time, much better than I would have had in a summer dress ill-suited to winter weather. 

It was a lesson learnt. Stop worrying about being "dressed up" or "dressed down". Just dress.  It is all in the way you wear it. 

Night for Day

Day for Night

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the littlest things

Yasmin Sewell is a real fashion icon. She's a got a big girl's job - creative consultant for Liberty London, my favourite department store - and an epithet as the buyer with the best taste and killer curls. She wears her designer threads, but she wears them over and over again, you get the sense that there is no room for impulse purchases and wardrobe overhauls from season to season (Anna Della Russo, I'm looking at you). And she does it all with a huge smile, a true Aussie in that sense.

It is hard to boil down Yasmin's style. Avant-Garde, I suppose, is the best, and easiest, moniker? It is a very Australian style - I would venture very Melburnian, even though she is not actually from Melbourne - she wears a lot of directional, black clothes, but she'll pair them with a shot of bright colour, or she'll wear traditional European silhouettes like tiered skirts or beaten Balenciaga leather jackets, but she'll pop on a tee shirt and some great baubles as well. She's got a style that is truly effortless, you get the sense that she doesn't spend that much time parading in front of mirrors and taking polaroids to test the light. She'll throw something on, see how it feels, and then on she rolls. I only wish I could spend less time worrying about my clothes and more time living my life, as she so obviously does. She must have so much fun, every picture I have saved to my computer shows her smiling from ear to ear.

pictures from wayne tippets, the sartorialist and garance dore

Lately I have been reaching for staple items in my wardrobe and not caring anymore. I used to worry - Oh i can't wear this, I've seen these people wearing this outfit already etc etc - but now I just don't give a damn. Is this the key to real style? is this the bottom line? I wonder, once you start giving up, is that when everything starts making sense?

Like Yasmin I truly believe in the littlest things make an outfit. When it comes down to it, everyone dresses quite similar, trends being what they are, and add to that the dissemination that occurs with the internet. It's what you bring to the table - or rather, the wardrobe - that defines true style. Yasmin brings her smile, her sense of humour, and her belief in the littlest things. Often what Yasmin wears will be quite, well, normal. But then you'll see the twist of a rolled up sleeve, the push of a neckline down over an exposed shoulder and the frayed edge on a denim vest. Something rough, something borrowed and something blue. Recently I've been thinking the same thing. Who cares if I'm just wearing a structured skirt and a loose fitting shirt if I roll up the sleeves, paint my nails a sparkly, trash-tastic 'disco-ball' glitter, and twist a belt around my middle? Lately my mind has been moving away from the 'big-ticket' items - like your statement shoes and your big-ass bags - and settling on things like fuzzy furry gilets, coral-coloured lipstick and jewelry that sets tongues wagging. 

The devil is all in the details. 

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wise words on a wednesday

"I CAN’T THINK OF ANYTHING MORE CONFUSING OR OVERWHELMING THAN HAVING A BIG WALK-IN WARDROBE. IT WOULD EXHAUST ME HAVING TO SIFT THROUGH THAT MANY CLOTHES. IF YOU KNOW WHAT WORKS FOR YOUR BODY, YOU CAN ACTUALLY TURN 15 OR 20 GREAT ITEMS INTO A HUNDRED OUTFITS…

IF YOU HAVE TOO MANY OPTIONS, I FIND THAT YOU ACTUALLY END UP LOSING YOUR DIRECTION AND THE SENSE OF WHO YOU ARE."

Yasmin Sewell

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lady liberty

"the chosen resort of the artistic shopper"
Oscar Wilde

it strikes many people as very, very weird that my favourite subject at university is history. i just love it - i lap it up - it is my bread and butter and my pudding. Give me history and I am happy, and never more so when I'm wading through journal articles in the belly of the fisher library stacks, or swotting up on anything (and everything) from prostitution in victorian london to re-patriation of assyrian bas reliefs to fashion as a class indicator in pre-revolution france. I'll read about it, learn about it and deeply, deeply love it as long as it happened about a century ago.

libertylondon.co.uk

So, then, it's really no wonder that my favourite store in the whole of the world is Liberty of London. Land's End does hold a particular place in my heart and Colette in Paris is a marvel of design, space and style, but in terms of combining my two great loves, Liberty trumps them all. For within this faux-Tudor building with its dark timber beams and vaulted ceilings lie a store literally filled with history and fashion smarts. Within this store where Oscar Wilde once walked you can peruse Dries Van Noten, shrug into a Josh Goot dress and slip into Nicholar Kirkwood heels. It is a mind-boggling headfuck to get your noggin around - the same rooms where once fob watches, ruffled shirts and waistcoats must have hung are now the ethreads of over 60 celebrated world designers, a specific 'scarf' room and yards and yards of charming liberty print as far as the eye can see.

the scarf room's display of hermes scarves

Liberty is having a bit of a moment. Yasmin Sewell - everyone's favourite fashion buyer - is creative director, and under her watchful eye (and flawless taste) Liberty has undergone a marvelous transformation. Lagging behind in the fashion stakes, Liberty has now shot forward with exclusives of Michael Van Der Ham's gorgeous sequin/leather/silk/crepe de chine piece-meal collection, Eddie Borgo jewelry and Racquel Allegra gypsy bohemia threads. If that's not enough, the shoe room alone should entice you. Think a space dedicated to shoes in the most incredible way - shoes hung from ceilings, shoes perched on the shelves of shoe cases, shoes shoes shoes (and not a drop to drink). What I loved was the room I nominated 'the aussie hang out'. Yasmin Sewell is certainly a bit of a patriot, one of the women's fashion rooms was stocked with Josh Goot, Richard Nicoll and Michelle Jank. For antipodeans with a fashion bent this store gives a lot of comfort in bizarre ways.




The best thing about Liberty, though, is the space itself. Within that Tudor building is a an atrium of light and air - the dark timber is off played with natural light and huge floor to ceiling mirrors propped up against the walls (not hanging, darling) to open up the interior. Everything is spaced out, in some rooms clothes hang on all four walls but the middle is bare save for a minimalist couch or two, leaving you free to wander and browse with relative ease. Even when packed this store is not claustrophobic, and the most clumsiest of girls (hello!) can feel relatively safe.

one of liberty's great merchandising displays. love the jungle theme!

When I was there I could see Yasmin's touch everywhere. She has a light, effortless yet utterly charming way about her - the scarf room was totally her (and reminded me of the belt space in Browns she started up) - that can turn a shop into a destination. I know, I know, I'm a little biased towards my ultimate style icon Yasmin. But the fact of the matter is, she is not only truly stylish but also supremely talented at what she does (which happens to be fashion, natch). She's a buyer with true taste and vision, she was one of the first to pick up on Christopher Kane and now Michael Van Der Ham, Ileana Makri and Dress Up, and not only that but she knows how to create a welcoming and inviting space for clothes, beauty, accessories and everything in between. It's pragmatic i suppose - if people buy, her job is safe - but i truly feel as if Liberty is not hampering for your money, but hampering for your time.

Yasmin Sewell hard at work at the 'Open Call' Liberty London buying day

If you are an artistic shopper then Liberty is THE place for you. I've gabbed on about fashion but Liberty also has everything from flowers to furniture. If you have a little thing for history then Libty is THE place for you. The store that pioneered the pre-raphaelite aesthete movement with its liberty prints and fabric peddling is too well-entrenched in British fashion history to be anything but.

But, aside from all this, if you want a shop to be more than a shop, to be an experience (and a happy one at that), that, even if it doesn't result in shopping bags, still leaves you with that giddy 'new purchase' buzz, then Liberty is the shop for you. It's a shop for shoppers, and by god, I am one of those.

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