The mystic power of lipsticks

Nothing says "functional adult female" like a swipe of lipstick - be it red, mulberry, fuchsia or tangerine. I used to think watch my mama apply her lipstick at the vanity mirror and hoped to quickly grow up to be a woman. 
Lipstick helps you get away with a lazy face of make up if you've slept in and all you have time for is the base and lips. It's also the best way to look sassy and cute for a night out - and you can leave it on someone's cheek. And I swear, lipstick just makes you look marginally more expensive.

sources: google image search, glamour.com, fashionone2012.com, 

Super snazzy old European men

If there's one thing we need borrow from Europe, other than long lazy lunches, because 30 minutes for work lunch break is torture (resulting in indigestion and a burned oesophagus), is well-dressed dapper older men. These gentlemen really put us to shame. Is there anything more happy-sigh inducing than seeing a distinguished older gentleman with his salt and pepper hair, in a perfectly tailored suit, biking around in the afternoon to do some errands? Maybe when his purple socks match his paisley pocket square, and his tortoise-shell glasses perfectly frame his face. Everything about snazzily put-together old men is awesome, mostly because it still seems a bit whimsical to me. There is something so nostalgic about it, despite me never having lived in a time or geographic location where retired men dressing like that was the norm. It's as rare as seeing a unicorn, here in Australia! And if you ever catch them gathered together in a park on a sunny aprés midi, sipping wine and reading the papers, or playing chess, your heart will explode.

2012 Fall designer looks I want to recreate.

I've been very uninspired the last few weeks. The fact of the matter is, I've reach that seasonal (or trans-seasonal) point when it's too soon to whole-heartedly indulge in layering, leather, and fur. As it happens, I've just been going back to a safe combination of black jeans, t-shirt, collared shirt, and oxford shoes.

During my 4 hour tutorial this morning, instead of dumbing down designer apparel for a lower-priced market, which was what we were supposed to do, I was discreetly going through the Fall collections from Paris Fashion Week on style.com on my laptop (nodding every now and then to show I was listening to the lecturer). Fortunately, temperatures are FINALLY dropping Down Under, as indicated by my wearing of opaque tights today, and Fashion Weeks came to pass. And so I really can't wait to be recreating designer looks by Charlotte Ronson, Paul Smith, Dsquared2, Isabel Marent and Frankie Morello this season! Super duper excited!

Sources: fashionising.com, style.com

Street Style: Tommy Ton

I finally got round to looking at all of my favourite street-shooter, Tommy Ton's streetstyle shots in Milan and London of the menswear season just gone, and these are my favourites.

sources: gqfashion.tumblr.com, jakandjil.com

To a Bright New Year