paradise

Annie Novak at Eagle St Rooftop Gardens, The Selby

As part of my media and communications degree I have to take units in different mediums - even though I want to be a writer, it makes sense to understand how PR, radio and online media work. The class this semester was in video production, and our main project was a 6 minute factual documentary on a topic of our choice. We chose to explore organic food, with three interview vignettes with vastly different subjects - the organiser of a sustainable food market in the heart of Sydney's red light district Taylor Square, the immunologist owner of Sydney's only organic restaurant The Peasant's Feast, and finally, most spectacularly, the founding member of a community garden in Sydney's Woolloomoolloo. Nestled amidst the infamous Coke sign and the buzz of busy William St, the garden is a true paradise. I've never marvelled at something the way that I marvelled at this garden. As we walked through the backstreets of Sydney, dotted with hostels and graffiti and a real urban jungle, there, suddenly, was this island of green. On the day of our shoot we couldn't have prayed for better weather: the sun was a brilliant blue and there were even butterflies (!!) that hovered tantalisingly around as we filmed. The beautiful flowers were all in bloom, a sprawl of daisies, peonies, sunflowers and poppies bleeding into each other. I have never seen anything quite like it. It was a moment of real magic, to see nature thriving in such an environment. The members of the community garden meet once a month all together, and can come any other time they liked (the garden is not locked). The children who play in the basketball court nearby often reach over to pick the tomatoes that climb up the garden's fence. It is truly spectacular.

These photos from The Selby reminded me of this project - whose marks have just been released and I'm excited to see how I went. Of course, this garden in Eagle Street, Brooklyn has a much better view than council tenaments and cross city tunnels. From this rooftop garden members can see Manhattan's famous, instantly recognisable skyline, all jutting buildings and shining hope. The garden is pretty chic, it's even been featured in Vogue, and farmer Annie Novak believes that all flat-roofed condos in New York that can conceivably hold a rooftop garden should have one. It's not a bad thought. After seeing the woolloomoolloo community garden I couldn't stop thinking about how everyone should have a little patch for earth for themselves. To grow and nurture and learn.. 

Not really fashion-related, sorry (although the garden was in vogue, haha!), but I couldn't stop myself from posting after seeing these pictures. What are the solutions to our environmental problems in big, concrete jungles of cities? Rooftop community gardens might not be the whole answer, but they can help.

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building blocks

Ever since I decided to stop sweating the small stuff and start focusing on building a perfect wardrobe I've thought much much more about what the real 'staples' of my closet are. And, when it all reduced down, it became clear. Instead of pieces or items, it was colours that formed the building blocks of my day to day wardrobe. I had similar items in a multitude of colours for combining and using in different outfits at different times. Rarely (actually, only really at work) do I wear the same colour head to toe. But, I realised, as I thumbed through my almost identical tee shirts, my same-same cut skirts, my mannish coats, there was potential here to do so. Head to toe tonal dressing is very "in" right now, but it also requires intense focus. Tones need to be varied in order to make the look work. Head to toe black is the easiest, because everything will go with each other. But with the wide spectrum of greys, browns, khakis, navys and beiges on offer it is a lot more difficult to work a complete outfit out of those bad boys. But, if you can get tones right, then the outfit will be a spectacular minimalist feat. Deceptively simple, it creates the illusion of totality about an outfit that is immensely flattering. Everything goes together (even if they don't), because they are all the same. 

In a perfect world - the perfect world I am slowly working towards - all my clothes would work well together, but also on their own in their respective colour groups, too. I would have blacks, greys, khakis, navy blues and a smattering of charcoals and caramel-y tans to mix it up. The occasional crimson, violent red as well, just for change. But the majority of it would fall into these easy neutrals. Why? Because they work all year round. With the exception perhaps of black these are colours that are ageless, seasonless, timeless. There is a reason why all the heralded wardrobe staples - trench coats, little black dress, white shirt - are in neutral colours and not brights. Because more than anything else in fashion it is colours - neutral colours, that is - that will never go out of fashion. Sure, they rotate in and out of the inner sanctum, camel is having a moment right now, a couple of season's ago it was khaki's moment in the sun, this season it was white, next it could be ice grey's turn. But in reality they are always there, always in the stores, always worn. If I were a betting woman then I would place money on them being the colours that make up every woman's wardrobe - along with denim blue. I have a few grey pieces, many black ones, some brown ones and some navy blues ones. But my project for now is to acquire more. I want to get some beautiful Bassike oversized tee shirts in steel grey, a pullover with elbow patches in a khaki brown, a mannish overcoat in black or grey, some more a-line, long-ish skirts in grey, khaki or navy blue, a button down shirt in simple cotton in grey, navy, khaki and black.... the list goes on. As I steadily add to that list I can see the foundations of my wardrobe building. A wardrobe that will, hopefully carry me through well into the future. 

Rachel comey coat, acne jumper, comme des garcons hat, antonio berardi skirt, alexander wang clutch, karen walker sunglasses, sigerson morrison ballet flats

 

isabel marant etoile coat, joseph jumper, prism glasses, chanel khaki vert nail polish, janice savit necklace, proenza schouler ps1, sportsmax pencil skirt, surface to air wedges

 

Rachel comey coat, bassike tee, stella mccartney lace bra, proenza schouler skirt, michael kors watch, reed krakoff boots, proenza schouler suede ps1

 mary katranzou cuff, t by alexander wang tee shirt, stella mccartney coat, proenza schouler ps1 clutch, stella mccartney pants, rupert sanderson boots, diptyque philosykos perfume

And all together now: items as before, 

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