a girl can dream: february..........

Today marks the last day of summer in Australia. Time to pack away the skirts and shorts and pull out the coats and trousers, winter is a coming.
That might be an odd thing to be dreaming about, but frankly I'm a winter girl. Most obviously because my birthday is the middle of June, but also because I love winter clothes. I love knee high boots, flat and heel. I love coats of all shapes and sizes, I love dark colours and denim. I love big chunky hand knitted scarves, I love heavy knits and layers. I love layers.
Today also means it's time to start thinking, even just subconsciously, about your winter wardrobe.
I've already kick started mine by picking up a rad pair of mens navy tweed trousers from ASOS.
In the spirit of dream here is my all time dream coat. Burberry, because just because.

Yes this is the leather sleeved Burberry trench from Spring 2011. Yes it appeared on the runway more then two years ago. Yes I'm still infatuated.
And while the possibility of me snapping one of these up before winter really comes a knocking is fairly slim, I'll continue to appreciate the brilliance that is Burberry.

xx

lfw fall 2013.......

London is probably my favourite of the fashion weeks. To me it's the experimental underground of fashion. The place where edges are pushed and talent is fostered.
Hence why I have over a hundred images of favourite looks saved to my macbook.
I briefly considered just uploading them all here, throwing a virtual bucketful of London Fashion Week over your head. But then I remembered that I really like you folks!
So I'm just sharing some of my very very favourite looks here instead.

Boxy tops and flippy skirts. That could be the name of some ridiculously cool indie rock band, but it's not. Well not too my knowledge anyway, please let me know if you know of or are in a band by that name, I'll happily throw in a link for you.
Back to London, there was a plethora, (I do love that word!) of these looks. And I'm sightly enamoured, especially with Christopher Kane's take. He also showed a delightful camouflage version.
From left to right Antonio Beradi, Topshop Unique and Christopher Kane.

The statement coat was another favourite out of London. Actually on reflection I quite enjoyed the coat-age at New York. This despite the fact I live in sunny Australia, I think I'm secretly a northern hemisphere-er at heart. I have the skin tone for it anyway.
Starting at left, Joseph. Big Joseph fan, and this black and white number is ticking all my boxes. Wow that sounded a little weird.
Moving on, Christopher Kane. This surely doesn't need words, but I'm going to give it some anyway. Textured camouflage. Yep, that's right. Just ponder on that.
Viviene Westwood is always on the money, and this stunner is no exception.
And Burberry of course. How could one write about London and coats and not include them, well this one simply could not. Especially when Christopher Bailey is sending out leopard arms. Leopard arms!

The colour, the masculine feel, the colour. Paul Smith nailed it. The cut of the trousers certainly has a masculine feel, but they're also decidedly modern and feminine, though that might in part be due to the brilliant colours.
There was more colour, blue and orange and also a very sweet tweed. The oversized coats were a bonus and the use of digital prints was another winner.
Frankly after the black and grey that has been so prevalent at both London and New York it was refreshing to see a pop of bright.

And lastly, but certainly not least. Ashish.
Amazing.
Awesome.
Stumbled across their show on style.com and loved it. Designer Ashish Gupta was inspired by construction workers, these construction workers however differ slightly from the norm with their predilection for sequins.
And while the bright orange sequined safety vest might not be a goer for everyone, the houndstooth and denim certainly are. And the sequined orange pants are just a little cool. 

Thoughts??

Pictures: style.com

currently crushing: baseball hats.......

Way back in the 1940's when the modern baseball hat as we know it was developed, I bet those baseball playing folk had no idea that some seventy years in the future we crazy kids would be rocking the baseball hat as a fashion accessory, as opposed to a sporting appliance.
And in leather, felt and floral print no less, wow we really are cooked.
Seriously now, as serious as we can be when discussing baseball hats of course, caps are here and I'm enjoying the partly shaded view I'm getting.

Mui Mui and Givenchy pulled out the baseball hat way back in 2011, Mui Mui with their forties inspired looks (how fitting) and Givenchy with cat ears. 
Fast forward a little and Alexander Wang featured them in his very sporty Spring 2013 collection.
And now here we are, 2013, the year of the baseball hat.
I may have called that a little prematurely, buy hey I'm investing so it's going to be year of the hat right here.
But really why wouldn't we want it to be year of the hat?
Baseball hats are perfect for bad hair days, when that mane just won't play ball. Conversely they can also give you hat hair, and nobody wants hat hair right. Solution to hat hair, put the hat back on.
So I've done the hard work for you and found some excellent options, from black to white and floral. From ASOS to Rick Owens, it's all right here.

Starting from the top left corner it's Rick Owens in leather, an ASOS aztec print, Boy London, Mui Mui in felt, MSGM floral print and burgundy leather by Supermuse.

Thoughts??

xx

nyfw fall 2013......

My view of New York fashion week, from my desk chair, has yielded some surprisingly good things.
Firstly, the blizzard hitting New York makes me appreciate the hot hot summer weather in Australia right now.
Secondly plaid is here people.
As is orange, quilting and camouflage.
They probably never really went away, but if the clothes shown this past week are anything to go by, it's certainly going to be difficult to avoid any of the above when the collections drop later this year. But then why would you want to avoid them, especially when designers are throwing out some very cool takes on these tried and tested trends.

Take for example the new camouflage. Gone are the typical green hues we're so accustomed to, instead the traditional camouflage has been reinvented with blues and yellows and leather and in a very grown up manner. Alexander Wang with his leather and boxy coats, Rebecca Minkoff with a fur trimmed beauty. There is even a subtle camo from Lacoste for those that really like to blend.

Tartan, or plaid depending on where you call home, has been given a makeover. Bold colours and unusual shapes make for a fun and exciting tartan, two words you wouldn't normally associate with the decidedly English fabric. I couldn't narrow my favourites down, hence the big chunk of tartan.
And it's tartan for everyone, even if you're not a huge fan. 3.1 Phillip Lim paired his with leather, so that's the cool kids sorted, cool kids also take note of the shiny Edun tartan, very cool.
For the classics out there Band of Outsiders rocks the skirt suit and Libertine in red have you covered. And if it's a tartan jacket you're chasing, well look no further. Thakoon Addiction, Rebecca Minkoff, Marc Jacobs and Suno have you sorted. And if you like your tartan a little digital, try Marissa Webb on for size. 

With all these redo's you'd be forgiven for imaging the orange to be some weird combination of red and pink, that's not really an orange, and not really a colour.
But nope, the orange really is orange. And it's brilliant. From suits at Sachin + Babi, dresses from Lacoste and Chadwick Bell and that blowout bomber from Rag & Bone, it's all there. Get ready for orange.

By far my favourite of all is the quilting. On jackets and skirts and tops and pants. I loved it everywhere I saw it. Leather quilting being the absolute winner for me. Standouts came from Rag & Bone, Tibi and Belstaff. Norma Kamali rocked it, as expected, and Suno dropped it into this very interesting silhouette.

And that's me for New York, I'm looking forward to London now, and more style.com stalking. 

Oh just imagine if I could find an orange camo/plaid print quilted jacket? Is that even possible? I have no idea, and frankly my brain hurts just thinking about all that jazz happening in one piece.

Thoughts?

xx

february streetstyle faves........

Can't believe it got to February 10th before I posted my streetstyle faves. I'm blaming Instagram and NYFW, combined they have helped me wile away numerous hours over the past week.
Anyway there appears to be a lot of jackets here, which is bizarre because it's the middle of summer right now and I've barely touched one of my jackets for the past month. I wonder if Instagram and NYFW are to blame for this too. Maybe all that snow in New York is making me subconsciously think of wrapping up warm, even though I've got a good month or more before I need to be worrying about that.
But hey I guess it's good to be prepared right. As summer eases up over here I should start thinking of snapping up coats from my favourite northern hemisphere online shops, catch them on sale and all. The early bird gets the worm apparently, I wouldn't know. I try to spend most of my early mornings sleeping. Maybe I'll start using them to shop online instead.

xx


Lee Oliveira/Jak&Jil

made by me: sports luxe.......

I'm not a sporty person. Balls and racquets, just not my thing.
Sports luxe dressing however, I can get on board that bandwagon.
Despite the London Olympics having finished months ago, last year in fact, fashion is having a serious sports hangover. The sports luxe trend is still around and frankly I can see the draw.
It's all those awesome super comfortable clothes that you wouldn't be caught dead in outside the house previously, reinvented in luxurious fabrics and sublime colours. By your favourite designers no less.

Designers like Chloe and Alexander Wang and Stella McCartney have been doing the sports luxe thing for a while now, that is creating very wearable and comfortable clothes in beautiful fabrics. It's the sort of fashion that you really can wear everyday, that can be incorporated in any wardrobe. And that doesn't really follow a specific trend, like say neon or graphic prints, (both of which I enjoy) making it something that can hang around the closet for an extended period of time.

So I got a little inspired, mainly by the cotton terry cloth top by Joseph and the mesh paneled silk dress from T by Alexander Wang above. 

I started with my own grey short sleeved cotton top and a little black mesh and this is the result.

The fit is quite slouchy, but I like that in my sports luxe. I'm considering it in a couple of looks. Firstly with a pair of fitted tapered silk trousers and heels. Secondly with a pencil skirt in a floral print. And lastly with a brightly coloured tank underneath (perhaps fluro yellow) and some black skinnies. Oh the possibilities. 

Thoughts??

xx

p.s. NYFW officially kicks off today, as such I'll be glued to style.com for the foreseeable future.

sunday sheer-day........

Just a quick post to kick off February. Wearing my crown jewels from this post and keeping it pretty casual with a sheer shirt and my trusty Havianas. Can't believe we are into the second month of the year already, time sure flies when you're having fun.
So the AW 2013 collections are kicking off this Thursday in New York. I'm not blessed enough to be attending so I'll be glued to Style.com as I'm sure a few of you will be too.
Particularly looking forward to the Ellery, Prabal Gurung, Derek Lam and Diesel Black Gold shows. I actually prefer the AW shows, all those gorgeous coats. Fairly certain I was meant to live somewhere cold, how else can you explain my desire to own so many beautiful jackets when I live in sunny Australia.

xx

Top: Cotton On
Pants: Dotti
Belt: Vintage
Shoes: Havianas
Necklace: Forever New
Sunnies: ASOS