Perrie

As you all know by now, Style Smorgasbord is a paradoxical blend of high and low, girly and masculine, tight and loose. Today, I decided to shake up the common denominator and went with boxy, structured everything.

Its the monochromatic equivalent of silhouettes.

When I build a look in my head, there’s always the hero piece that magnetises everything else together. This look centred around my new work bag from Paul’s Boutique SS16 collection. I worked with Paul’s Boutique last season so I was delighted to see their line sheet for the new season. There are so many beautiful pieces in seasonal neons but my personal favourites are those in tonal shades of stone, off white, navy and black. They are slowly releasing their lines and the ‘Perrie’ is from the Trinity Collection which is available in navy, blush and silver. The ‘Perrie’ is almost the perfect bag but I wish it could fit my 13 inch macbook air – it just falls short by about 2 cm 😦 ! I also love the classic silhouettes of the ‘Amber‘ and ‘Hunter‘.

Recreate my Look:

Shirt / Pants / Heels / Purse (c/o)

Bottle / Phone Case (c/o) / NARS Products / Watch / Purse 

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P B & J

Introducing the new PB&J that’s the next best thing since old school Peanut Butter and Jelly – Paul’s Boutique and Jacaranda. When I was fourteen, or as we now like to say, a ‘twelvie’, I was a bit obsessed with obnoxious bags like the Juicy Couture daydreamer and the Paul’s Boutique Maisy in a shocking jelly pink. As popular Tumblr, PopCultureDiedin2009 reminds us on a daily basis, the days of velour sweats and Chihuahuas in rainbow monogrammed purses is long gone. Post-financial crisis, we are more thrifty, we crave quality, simplicity, capsule wardrobes and monochrome palettes.

Unfortunately, in the ever-changing consumer landscape, Juicy Couture failed to keep its footing despite growing from a $200 start-up to a $51 million USD company in the space of 6 years.

Fortunately, Paul’s Boutique kept up and rebranded and when I rediscovered their brand two months ago I was pleasantly surprised. There’s a lot of wonderful pieces from their newest collections that would work from the office to a casual day running errands. One of which, includes this black backpack from their 2015 Christmas collection which has been my go to summer bag. I was umming and ahhing between colours and I considered gold just because I thought it would be festive but I settled on black when I found out the inner flap has a bit of gold hidden inside … constrained festivity if you like. The bag is now on constant rotation and I like to style it with high waisted mum jeans, white tees, midi skirts and white kicks.

November is truly almost at its end so if you are looking to do some Christmas shopping, some of my favourite pieces are the Gwyneth Backpack, Maisy Handbag and Melissa Tote Bag. They package everything up real cute so its sure to be a winner under the tree. If you’re interested in seeing more BTS stuff from their holiday campaign, head over to their blog. To see how I dressed up this midi skirt in an older post, see ‘Create‘.

/ Gwyneth Backpack in Black (c/o) / Puma Cap / Forever New Skirt /

(Teal)quila Mockingbird

Tequila Mockingbird is an actual drink, I discovered it a few years ago when I was passing by the cocktail section of a bookstore and I looked at the title and thought how punny. Today we’re not talking about alcohol but er maybe we should because of the questionable hyper poses seen in this post. Instead we’re talking about my favourite colour: robin egg’s blue. It’s basically a more washed out version of teal, hence my clever double pun title hur hur. 🙂

If this was a traditional New England preppy sailing look, you would probably go for a navy dress, a cable knit sweater stolen from your hunk and some boat shoes. I modernised the whole thing with some lace up ballerinas and a pastel frock but made sure to add a statement with everybody’s favourite preppy summer fabric: seersucker! You can see how I styled this blazer with matching shorts in ‘A Style Tale of 2 Cities‘. These pictures were taken at different places and as Sarah Donaldson said, “never trust a blogger’s geotags.” The cute little palm tree coffees and striped umbrellas are from Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel where everything is teal even the toilets which give that whole under the sea vibe which is very cool. We actually went first thing in the morning when it was relatively empty but then we went again at 4 for iced coffees and the place was super packed so I don’t recommend Sunday arvos for coffee and chill there. Netflix and chill more like it am I right?

Recreate the look with this Brooks Brother blazer, Dotti dress, Lipstik flats and Essie polish 

Crochet + Coconut Palms

This is the first post of October which may be a strange thing to remark on but October is an important month for Style Smorgasbord because in a couple of weeks on the day of halloween, this baby turns one! Its becoming a toddler :’) and I thank y’all for watching it grow up with me. I’m going to put a stop on the analogies for now but I have some very cool things in store for SS to celebrate its birthday.

I am constantly floored by my unconscious creativity. Woah calm done kid, you’re not that g8. But seriously, I called this post Crochet + Coconut Palms purely because of my shirt and also the palm tree in the background. Then now, as I am writing out this blog post, I see that I resemble a coconut. Amazing. I always knew white and brown was a strange combination but I always figured it was more reminiscent of a chocolate ice cream sandwich or an Oreo. Its funny how I always manage to connect everything together … must be why I am such an excellent English essay writer or maybe it just means I can fertilise 12 fields with all the bull I used to put in my essays (joke credit courtesy of Yik Yak). Speaking of poor taste, has anyone been watching the Australian Bachelorette? Oh gosh it is good stuff … most of my crew watches it and we all agree that Sam is perfect, most of the guys are forgettable and its pretty obvious who the final 3 are already. I would also like to point out that the wallpaper in the Bachelorette house is beautiful, I think it has palm trees on it. Oh the things I do and do not notice!

Can you imagine the tan stencil you would be able to get if you lay out long enough in this top?! It would be so epic haha. If you’re interested in this top, just go for your normal size. I was worried it would run small so I ordered an M but its a little looser than I personally would like.

 

Top: Dresslink (c/0) / Skirt: Old (similar here) / Wristlet: Fossil

Photography: Matthew / Styling & Editing: Myself 🙂

Lippy Lippy Bang Bang

I never really go and buy a whole new outfit for an event anymore. I think these are all great basic formal pieces that everyone should have in their closet: a fitted black blazer for shouldering, a bustier because you’re fun like that, a black circle skirt for twirling, pointy toe flats because they’re better than heels and a tiny box clutch with that extra bit of magic. Happy Wednesday guys!

Blazer: Bardot (similar here) Bustier: Bardot (75% off!) Skirt: Sportsgirl (similar here) Flats: Sammydress Clutch: DIY

Uni(form)

I never thought I would wear runners with my jeans but then I met these polka dotted Nike Roshes and it was comfort at first wear. I wear them with my oldest pair of skinny jeans (6 years of love and very few washes to my mother’s dismay) and an open back cropped tee. After 13 years of uniform schooling, I still revert to wearing variations of this every day.

Top: Lil Muse Clothing Jeans: Old (similar here) Shoes: Nike 

Birds of a Feather Mirror Together

I’ve actually been on a three week shooting hiatus so I decided today was the day to get off my behind and and put it in this wild midi number from Lil Muse. I have to admit, I’m not a big animal print person … I think this is the first animal print that has ever made its way into my wardrobe. Animal print frankly scares me but I threw myself in the deep end by trying out a double animal print mirrored midi body con skirt. What a mouthful! All full of words that usually do not exist in my closet vocabulary!

Making a statement can be terrifying. Committing to pink hair, a sleeve tattoo or a house made of glass would be impractical for most of us. For those brave souls who have that level of commitment, I applaud you. That doesn’t mean the rest of us can shy away from standing out every once in a while and I honestly can’t think of a better non-permanent form of expression than the way you dress. So go on, try that tucked away piece in your wardrobe and let that feeling of liberation wash over you.

Initially, when I started SS I was determined not to put outfit details at the bottom. I wanted SS to be simply a source of inspiration not an add to cart type of a site. More recently, I have been receiving messages and emails asking me where certain details are from so from this day forth, I will try my best to put details at the bottom. Keeping in mind, I’m just a broke student so sometimes my stuff is from two seasons ago and will not be available anymore. Today’s outfit however is still available online so I definitely recommend you check out the top and shoes since they are heavily discounted!

Top: Cotton On KN Alanis Cut Away Crop Skirt: (c/o) Lil Muse Snake of Paradise Skirt Shoes: Betts Slave Heel in Stone

The Storm Before The Calm

Have you ever been to the beach and then had to promptly leave again? I have, many times including this time when we thought to head down to the beach for a pre dinner stroll. It had started to rain, the wind was really ripping it and when there’s wind, there’s sand tornado-ing around you. If you’ve never experienced it, be thankful. Sand, after all is made up of granules of rock and minerals so when its windy its kind of like nature is throwing rocks at you and its not pretty.

Nonetheless, my poor camera lens braved possible scratching and I managed to get in several pictures of my Endless Summer Blouse from  Lil Muse Boutique. The crochet detailing is really fine and although I wore shorts, its long enough to double as a dress. It also looks quite lovely off the shoulder!

After we left and hung around the predictable nature of the swimming pool, the sky decided to clear up again and the storm was over. Everything was calm once again. Still but not eerie. I’ll take it.

// Top – c/o of Lil Muse Boutique: Endless Summer Blouse / Shorts – Vintage Replay Cutoffs //

Sun Salutations

I do not do yoga (the following yoga poses are such a joke). Nor do I have the luxury of sitting in day spas that envelop your ears with the tranquil crashing of waves. I watch Parks & Recreation in an attempt to get in touch with my inner self. In conclusion, I make no deliberate attempt to relax my mind aside from my ability to fall asleep likethisfast.

However, I am blessed to call Australia home and we have beautiful beaches that produce authentic wave crashing sounds that are the perfect soundtrack to accompany your viewing of the sunrise. I dragged myself out of our stunning hotel (more on that next post) at 5am to take these pictures and my my are the results spectacular.

This post is also the beginning of my month long collaboration with Lil Muse Clothing – a quaint Sydney based online store that I filled my suitcase with when I was packing including this Boho India Rope Mini Dress. Cavill Mall is the main street in Surfer’s Paradise and with stores like Surfection and Sunburn, this dress’ obvious home was right here. I personally like the mini version that I’m wearing because you can hop around the waves with ease, however if you don’t mind getting your hem a bit soaked, there’s a maxi version too. I feel like some beach dresses lack character. It’s usually just some elasticised bustier combined with see through fabric in a turquoise or yellow colour. What I personally like about this dress is the detailed print and colour. I never would have thought blue, red, pink, purple and green could have come together anywhere else but a preschooler’s easel. I also think the rope straps and gold detailing are the perfect built in necklace because who wears jewellery to the beach unless its a live starfish earring a la Aquamarine (I still want one!!) So kick off your thongs and join me as we watch the sunrise together. Here’s to a sunny and relaxing Sunday/Monday!

Dress c/o Lil Muse Clothing – Boho India Rope Mini Dress