While I consume fashion magazine the way some people drink coffee (continuously, prone to a headache if I miss one) I'm not always enchanted by the people featured in the magazines. I don't think there's any skill to looking good when you're attended to by a cast of thousands and are in regular receipt of armfuls of free clothes. But when you're putting things together based on your own tastes and needs, when you're hunting and gathering your elements of style with a specific budget and within the limitations of of your time and lifestyle, well, that's when style, real style, becomes apparent.
In a short while (and by that I mean in somewhere between ten minutes and three days) I'm going to post my top ten favourite ingredients for creating my personal style. Before I do that I want to share some aspects of the remarkable style of Nat who sits one door up from me at work.
Sometimes I only going to work to see what Nat's wearing. She never disappoints. It might be a carefully blended mixture in black and white - an Anna Sui dress over a Chloe blouse, Wolford tights and Chi Mahara maryjanes. On Friday - if it's quiet and we're all confined to our offices - she'll be wearing a discreet Marc Jacobs knit with inky Paige jeans that just cover a pair of glossy black Marni platforms. Her style, like that of all stylish people, informs her attention to detail and is apparent in all aspects of her life and work. You should see her kitchen table if you're lucky enough to be invited to afternoon tea. You should her talk off the cuff on some complicated aspect of law. You should see her office:
There's a photo album open on the desk and the east Sydney skyline becomes the background for Manhattan.
Love that print!
Note the Mulberry Maggie in green patent.And you should see her dog! He's so stylish he's got his own crew.
Those squirrels are hanging on his every word.
