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

Advertisement

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 

Conservative Trending

Top / Jeans / Belt / Bandana / Watch (c/o) / Flats / Bag / Nails

I’ll always go to the clearance section of any store before I even glance at the new arrivals. Further 50 percent off emails and banners make my hands sweat with excitement. Pricing an online store from lowest to highest gives my great satisfaction. Lets face it, I’m not the biggest fan of spending money on trends. Its easy to see what’s going to go out of style and what to invest in. I like the whole 70s thing that every chainstore is shoving down our throats but not enough to commit to a pair of flared jeans for more than a month. Instead, I add a red bandana and brown cross body both stolen from my mum’s wardrobe and I don’t have to spend a dime.

That’s not to say I don’t like to splurge on the finer things. Timepieces are something I thoroughly enjoy and this year I have managed to acquire quite a few unintentionally. One of which includes this Rumba Time piece. The beautifully cut edges reflect light and create the prettiest rainbow effect on your walls. Unfortunately Rumba Time’s website only ships to certain places. However, you can buy this exact style on ShopBop which I recommend because the shipping is crazy fast even if you live in Australia.

So save those dollars and invest in lasting pieces that your children can steal from you down the road. Or put it towards that holiday you’ve been meaning to take yourself on. Experiences are always greater than material things. Period.

Edit: I have decided to update my sign off with a more personalised touch. Writing Christmas cards and gift tags helped me come up with a new way of spelling out ‘much love karen’. Let me know what you think of it and thank you so much for reading.

(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 

Winter Break Polarised

Semester two is well underway which means back to the daily rumble of 6am wake ups, 4 hour back to back lectures and multiple cups of English breakfast and green tea. Regardless, I feel like I’m excited for the next 13 weeks but ask me again next week and the answer may be something different. Here’s a collection of pictures from my break :). I also wanted to mention that my previous every 3 day posting was kind of confusing so if you check SS often, check every Monday and Thursday (or Sunday and Wednesday depending on where you live) for a brand new spanking post

Credit to DanielFoodDiary for Tim Ho Wan photo

Sandy Tops Sea Bottoms

One of my favourite things in general about blogging is the feeling of unexpectedness. I thought these pictures would end up being a mess because I shot them after a day at the beach. Sand was trapped in the weirdest places, my naturally thick voluminous hair had been naturally sea salt sprayed (god knows I don’t need any more oomph), I was sweltering in the thirty degree heat and my feet were sizzling on the pavement. Usually as soon as I get home from a shoot, I’ll stab in my SD card AY SAP because I’m impatient and I need results NOW. I just couldn’t bare to look at these pictures until a few days later so when I adjusted the curves and did some brightening, I was pleasantly surprised.

I have to say, this is one of my fancier beach get ups. My typical beach uniform reads like large t shirt over my swimmers and lots of sunscreen. Another unexpected part of these pictures are the colours. The top is beige like sand and the bottoms are blue like the sea. I like how its the perfect complement against the beachy background. If you scroll through my Style page, you’ll notice that I have never shot any pictures with people in the background because I think its distracting. However, it looks really organic in these pictures because the people are far away enough to add a sprinkle of life to the waves.

The sandy crochet top is anatomically the perfect beach cover up. Firstly, it is made of crochet which is a non brainer because crochet is basically synonymous with most coverups. It also buttons up backward and if you’ve read my wrong way don’t turn back post, you’ll know my affinity for backward things. Finally, my favourite thing about this top is that it’s ‘vintage’ Sportsgirl. It used to be my mum’s before I stole it from her closet which I think is so neat because Sportsgirl is an iconic Australian high street brand that opened in the 50s as the younger sister of Sportscraft. Now that my mum has moved onto Sportscraft, and I, Sportsgirl, I think its kind of fab to have something from a 90s Sportsgirl store that wouldn’t look out of place at all in today’s stores!

Then to finish off the look, I added some low maintenance bling by putting on some foil tattoos. They performed really well given that I crashed around in some rough waves for a while and nature exfoliated by arms by throwing me across the sand. If you’re going to a party or epic rave where you want to get some sparkle on without losing a bangle, try some foil tattoos next time!

{Outfit photographs shot by Emi and Arm photograph shot by myself}