Mixed prints, colour, texture, perfectly cut cloth, oh how I adore thee. I have an unapologetic love for it all – mixed up – thrown on, unsymmetrical or daringly cut, it stops me in my tracks. 

Perhaps I can trace it back to Patricia Field’s costume design on Sex and the City and gasping for air whist watching Carrie Bradshaw strut the streets of New York. This was magic to me, a new way of breaking the best fashion rules, hues on the wrong side of the colour wheel, fur and sneakers, birds worn as hair accessories…yes there is a lot to thank Field for.

Recently I inwardly cheered whilst watching Iris Apfel play and pile on her gems in the documentary Iris. “I like to improvise,” she confessed near the start of the film. Individual and authentic style is far more exciting, showcasing a personality before a word is even spoken. 

As I look at some of my favourite images over the years, I realise that the most iconic and powerful are those that feel organically put together. Love or hate them, they make you feel something and that to me is art.                    

As the sun shines on my body this morning, I am experiencing a real sense of a change coming from within. There have been too many dark moments in the last couple of years but the shift feels real, feels positive. 

It is goes hand in hand with the present change in season and I am reflecting on just how special a Melbourne Autumn really is.

It is that time of the year when the morning light can trick you into believing it’s warmer outside than the actual 10 degrees it is, and just as quickly as you exist home, you have to return for one final layer. Autumn gives us crisp fresh mornings, beautiful sunsets, the occasionally rain and that horrid wind, but this is quintessionally Melbourne – the peeling off of layers as the day warms up only to have to add more and more in the late afternoon. 

The best part is we can wear boots with bare legs (and show off the last of that Summer tan!), wear dresses with coats, add a scarf or hat and get imaginative with our cooler weather items before they get packed away for Winter. It really is magic. 

Change is ok, we just have to adapt and go with it. Embrace it fashionably…and mindfully.  

I’ve been thinking a lot about bags lately. As the hues of the season change, both in weather and fashion, my eyes begin to feast on the runway collections and the forecast on accessories. Timeless elegance and golden eras are having their moment on the arms of ‘it’ girls and celebrities, as are quirkier takes on small purses with glitz and chutzpah. Embellished and sparkly, fringed or fluffy like an alpaca, the later are bringing fun to the street style scene.

Then I begin to wonder what I will covet next. Summer has gone in a flash and now I’m looking to purchase my ‘it’ bag. However, I can’t seem to let go of one of my favourites, my oldie but goodie. It’s soft buttery leather, the perfect stripe inside that makes me smile every time I delve in to reach for my keys or lipstick. The perfect soft straps that hang from my shoulder and rub against my body softly. The swish of the bag as I walk, not to mention the memories that belong to this bag…dates with girlfriends, floors of clubs dancing, the markings of fun.

So as I look to the new season, perhaps I should spend my money on some warmer clothing and once again pull out my favourite…after all timeless elegance they say, is all the rage right now.