One Two Chi Chi Chi

If you are looking for a deliciously fluffy, full skirted dress, stop by Chi Chi London for the prettiest, flounciest ones. It’s a pastel and floral frock shock but regardless of your day to day style, tell me you don’t want to have a good twirl and bounce in something so fun. I paired my lovely mint dress with some strappy heels but if you were going to a themed fifties party or garden day, some little sneakers would be just brill too!

If you’re interested in this dress, its made of a lovely thick material but something that you will definitely need to have steamed so it floats nicely. I would also recommend looking in the petite section if you were after a dress that isn’t so long. Available on their own site with free worldwide delivery and also Asos!

Dress (c/o Chi Chi London) / Heels 

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Make a Bodycon Workplace Appropriate

I remember buying this dress for my first job interview and thinking that it was unlikely I would ever wear it again. Oh, how wrong I was! I’ve worn this countlessly – as a dress, a skirt, dressed up, down and as a top as featured in today’s post. See how I also styled this dress for a rainy day here. This piece is short and has quite a low back which would be a bit too much skin in an office environment so layering an a-line skirt and topping it off with an autumnal blanket scarf helps overcome the issue.

I also recently got a new pair of frames from Oscar Wylee. I was a bit unsure on the shape but seeing as I don’t need them all the time, I decided to go for something different! Even after wearing them for around 2 months, I was never really convinced until these photographs. They’re really great at staying on my nose bridge and I definitely recommend!

recreate my look:

bodycon / skirt / booties / scarf / glasses / bag

“when autumn comes, it doesn’t ask, it just walks in, where it left you last, and you never know, when it starts until there’s fog inside the glass around your summer heart.”

something’s missing / john mayer

Mint Condition

Hello hello! 3 weeks without posting :0 This is the longest absence I have had in a year and I’ve missed the excitement of scheduling a post to go live. I could tell you work got in the way or mid-semester exams took over or Sydney was having terrible weather but in actuality, I was not feeling the buzz to shoot. Then, during the ANZAC long weekend, the clouds parted, the stars aligned, I was finally digging my Insta feed and my creativity fuel was back!

Kicking things off, we have this autumn-appropriate outfit, shot in the cute little streets of Surry Hills. The hero piece is a great thick and structured double-breased blazer perfect for work and dressed down with boyfriend jeans for the weekends. So here’s to a better month ahead filled with blog posts!

Recreate my look:

Blazer / Tee / Jeans / Shoes / Sunnies 

Marble Timepieces and Double Pinstripes

In the last one to two years, there has been a sudden influx of watch companies popping up over the internet. Over the weekend, I read this article in the Herald about how ironically timed these start ups were – coming in at around the same period as the launch of the Apple Watch. Apparently, the market isn’t as saturated as I originally thought because watch brands that haven’t even hit the one year mark are managing to make turnovers of almost a million.

Today I’d like to introduce to you a new player – Valor Watches, founded by T. Bermejo and launched only a handful of days ago. To give you some context around the title of the post, the Cross of Valour is awarded “only for acts of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme peril”. When I look at this watch, it reminds me of one of my personal mantras – I am made of courage, compassion and commitment. When jewellery can transcend its original purpose to become something invaluable for the wearer, you know its a special piece.

The marble face paired with the classic black leather band perfectly embodies what I like to refer to as ‘modern prep’. Carrying the theme into the rest of my outfit, I went with the ultimate preppy pattern after feeling incredibly inspired by the Australian Olympic team’s uniform unveil by Sportscraft earlier this week. To give it that modern twist, I layered two pinstripe pieces but kept the base crisp with white jeans. Front ties have been popular of late and knotting a complementary second piece will give you a similar silhouette.

The white denim, flowers and linen must make you think that I live in the northern hemisphere! Nope! Sydney has just brought a lot of warm weather this month but I’m hoping that the end of daylight saving will bring some colder weather along with it.

Recreate my look:

Shirt / Blazer / Jeans / Watch (c/o)

(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 

City Backstreet

How brilliant is the colour of my Longchamp? At first I was worried such a vivid colour would not be practical for everyday use but in retrospect this Tiffany box blue pops brightly among a sea of the classic navy ones. I’ve been using it for more than a semester now and its been such a little trooper. Big, durable, fits my mac and camera and so incredibly light. It only has one pocket which I keep my phone and keys in but for everything else I have individual bags so I’m not rooting around aimlessly.

// Longchamp / Boots / Similar Sweater / Similar Parka //

Outfit Photography: Adela+ Styliminal

Red Lip Classic Thing

Style will forever be one of my favourite Swift songs along with the piano rendition of Forever & Always, Never Grow Up and Begin Again. Its lyrically, vocally and musically beautiful and it will never go out of style (pun intended!). I wouldn’t say my style is classic per se because I’m young enough to throw random stuff together and leave the door without much thought but I do like the idea of modern prep which I think is how I would describe my go to style … which brings me to this lightweight trench coat. With the winter solstice behind us, that means we can start looking forward (maybe a little too early but I’m just wishful like that) to longer days and warmer weather very soon! It was 5 degrees this morning when I left for university but much warmer when the sun was beaming so I really shouldn’t complain. I like keeping it all loose like a goose with this coat and then layering my infinity scarf and furry snug for maximum impact. Add some fun printed pants, practical boots, a classic leather band watch, bright lips and you have my personality in an outfit – bubbly, practical and imperfect!

// Trenchcoat (c/o) Trendsgal / Pants Cotton On / Boots Jeffrey Campbell / Infinity Scarf Cotton On Similar / Fur Snood DIY / Watch Vintage Tiffany & Co //

Oversized

I have a couple of coats on rotation this winter and one of them is this duffel coat from my Auntie (Hi Auntie Stephanie!). Its very oversized on me but by tucking in the sleeves for a 3/4 length style, it looks like its meant to be boxy. I have become more resistant to the cool weather this year so now I can get away with wearing my summer tops under big coats and with double the amount of options, its a whole new ball game with my wardrobe. Exciting times people! Speaking of … exams are over soon, two down, two more to go. Come the following Friday, its a month long winter break whee hee and I’m committed to spending as much time as possible outdoors creating great content and filling my calendar with a plethora of activities to make the most of my staycation. Whilst it would be nice to jet off for some northern hemisphere sun, there’s actually so much of my own backyard that I haven’t seen so I plan to see more of my own city in July.

// Coat: similar here / Blouse: Forever 21 / Jeans: Miss Shop / Flats (c/o) Sammydress / Bag: Bardot //

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 //

Handy Dandy Rings

Dandelions remind me of cacti up close which is funny because they’re so soft and delicate and cacti are prickly and hard. The word actually hails from the French word dent-de-lion, meaning “lion’s tooth”. Oh the irony! Today I’m collaborating with Elyia which is an Australian owned, Melbourne based silver jewellery company. So on Monday you got a Melbourne blogger and today you get a Melbourne brand!

I think the word ‘Elyia’ is so beautiful and the meaning behind it is too. It actually originates from the Tamil word meaning ‘simple’ and that is what Elyia revolves around; simple, beautiful and affordable pieces you can wear everyday. They also come in the cutest little tin boxes that are perfect for presents! My personal favourite in their collection is the one I’m wearing today. It’s called the Bar Ring in Rose Gold and the definition of understated jewellery. This is the ring equivalent of the very popular bar necklaces and would look lovely stacked or by itself. I am like a bee to honey when it comes to rose gold but this ring also comes in classics like silver and gold if that’s more your style!

I decided to pair my Bar Ring in Rose Gold with my also rose gold arrow bracelet and chevron and butterfly fit and flare dress. Oh and guess what!?!? I have finally learnt the secret to achieving these curls that I’ve been seeing on Southern Curls & Pearls for so so long. A lot of tutorials usually recommend brushing your hair out to get that bouncy feel but if I did that on my thickass hair, it would just be an explosion! So now I just use a one inch iron and wrap it around a tong without using the clamp as if it was clamp-less.

Bar Ring (c/o) // Tie The Knot Ring // Diamond Ring