MEAGHAN SMITH PERSONAL STYLIST

image via keep it chic

My favourite look for the year is Emmanuelle Alt wearing this simple man style shirt and white jeans.  She is also my biggest style influence for 2011.  Seeing Emmanuelle Alt in pictures in the street always reminds me of how chic, simplicity (with a dash of rock chick) can be.  There’s no need to add bells and whistles if that’s not your style.  A simple classic watch, a leather (albeit Hermes) cuff and an amazing shoe is all the accessorising required to look incredibly stylish.   Of course the year round tan helps.

My favourite read for the year was by another of my style influences, Ines de la Fressange.  Parisian Chic is a book that I wish I’d got my hands on 25 years ago.  Ines tells us the 7 items she thinks every woman needs in her wardrobe, she shares her beauty secrets, tells us where to eat and shop in Paris and gives us ideas for “how to give your style a face lift”.  I think this is the perfect gift for a young person who is beginning to think about how they want their style to develop or for the woman who is feeling a bit stuck in a rut with their style and in need of some inspiration for a rejuvenation.  Of course, a love of Paris doesn’t hurt either.   Buy it here.

image via jazz chill 

My favourite, most memorable experience for the year was watching and celebrating my football team win the AFL Grand Final, with my sisters and nieces – which I wrote about the significance of back here.   My second favourite experience was seeing Michael Buble in concert.  I always thought he was good, but until I saw him live, I didn’t realise just how good.  

image via perfume.com

My favourite beauty product discovery for 2011 was 24 Faubourg Eau De Parfum by Hermes.  My sisters bought me a bottle for my birthday and I’m hooked.  I’m currently wearing it  in the evening when I go out and Chloe during the day. You can buy it here

image via listal.com

My favourite movie for the year was Beautiful Lies, starring the lovely and talented Audrey Tautou.  As the French often do in their quirky little films, there are many hidden messages that can be taken from this picture – love can arrive in the least expected places, matchmaking is only a good idea when the two being matched have more in common than simply being single,  how making the effort with your appearance can make you feel better…& vice versa, how a hint of a lace bra can be subtly sexy ……& of course, it’s not a good idea to tell a lie.   Watch the trailer here   

 image via Liberty London Girl

Without doubt my favourite blog discovery this year has been Liberty London Girl.  Once upon a time I would rise each morning turn on the computer and read all about the atrocities that had occurred in the world overnight on The Age or Herald Sun website, now the first thing I read, for a dose of entertainment, escapism and little bit of education (cooking) is this lovely blog.   I’m inspired by the writers sophisticated blogging style, her beautiful descriptive words and the fabulously glamourous world she has me imagine she lives in.  It’s a breath of fresh air,  stylish, informative and reading it, instead of the miserable news, is an enormously better way to begin the day.  Check it out here

Over to you now.  What are your favourites for 2011?

Everyone likes to find a bargain – nobody more so than me.  As someone who loves shopping and does it for a living, I’m exhilarated when I come across something that I consider a great find.  The shirt above is an example of a recent discovery I made.  It cost me $25 from Emerson at Big W.  

I’m a fan of linen and cotton shirts in summer because I’m not crazy about baring the tops of my arms at the moment.  I wear cool casual shirts with the sleeves rolled right up as an alternative to wearing t-shirts all the time.   So when I saw this shirt I knew it would be something I would get a lot of wear out of.  While it doesn’t really look that earth shatteringly special I have already envisioned in my mind many different ways of wearing it.  With white jeans and colored flat espadrilles, tucked into my high waisted black stretchy pencil skirt (like Garance is wearing hers here) or worn belted over my striped maxi dress.    Already I know that my bargain was not a waste of money.  In fact, I bought it on Friday, it’s only Monday and I’ve worn it twice already.

You would have read or heard me say it before, but I’ll say it again, I don’t believe you need to spend a lot of money to dress stylishly.  At the same time you don’t want to fill your wardrobe with a bunch of cheap looking, ugly, ill- fitting, dowdy and daggy clothes.  What you want is to be able to seek out things that are chic and stylish, but within your budget.  Most importantly things that flatter your shape and compliment your style and image.

Of course everyone has a different idea of what budget shopping is.  For some, finding a great pair of jeans on sale for $200 is a bargain, for others finding a great pair of jeans on sale for $20, is a bargain.

For the purpose of my Chic on a Budget shopping trips, which will be launching in January 2012, I will shopping with clients with the view to find items under $100.   The aim of the trips will be that together we’ll search for bargains but I will do my very best to make sure that you don’t just buy something because it’s cheap.  I’ll guide you so that you only buy things that are flattering, things that you love and things that will work with your wardrobe.

Chic on a Budget shopping will differ to Personal Shopping in that we will be shopping in a group (between 3 – 5 people) and we will be focusing on finding great bargains, rather than looking for individual personal items.  Personal Shopping is, well much more personalised.  When I take a client shopping one-on-one I learn as much about them (their style, their likes, dislikes, lifestyle, body shape, etc) that I can before we meet to shop.  We work out a plan, I put together an itinerary and, if we’ve done a Style and Wardrobe Overhaul previously, we work from a list we’ve compiled together.

To see more Chic on a Budget items I have recently found check out the photos on my Facebook page here

To see a shirt that looks very similar to the one I found at Big W selling on Net-a-Porter for more than $200, click here

To be one of the first people to hear about the launch of Chic on a Budget shopping email me here

Tell us, in the comments area, what’s the best Chic on a Budget item you’ve found?

One of my favourite pastimes is rummaging through books in charity stores.  Op-shop book browsing is different to shopping in books shops because you’re not searching by author or subject and discovering a book is a bit like putting your hand into a lucky dip. I love that you never know what you might find – and in fact I believe sometimes, the book finds you.  Could it be that the book that falls off the shelf onto your foot, hits you serendipitously? 

Recently while I was in North Melbourne I called into the Salvos in Errol St and stumbled upon Petite Anglaise. 

The book, once described as “a digital-age fairytale in Paris”, is the true story of a British woman living abroad, who while bored one day at work, decides to start writing a blog about her life in Paris.  As well as sharing her day to day events and thoughts, she writes about her partner, Mr Frog and her daughter, Tadpole.  As the blog followers grow (at its peak the blog was ranked in the Top 5 blogs in Britain), it becomes apparent that she has an admirer in single Englishman, Jim from Rennes, who comments on what she writes about regularly.  Before you know it a sly meeting takes place and a torrid affair begins and from then her life is turned upside down.

Sadly, there has been no “Jim from Rennes” commenting on my blog (not that I want my life turned upside down) but then it is still relatively young, so who knows what opportunities might arise in the future.  Here’s hoping!

Petite Anglaise is a light and fluffy bit of escapism, which is exactly what I wanted, but at the same time, as a blogger it was interesting to read the effect that blogging can have on your life.  More of which you can read about here.   Despite some unflattering reviews from other readers on Amazon, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  It provided me with a momentary getaway from my own less than exciting life.

I also picked up Believe and Achieve  (for a motivation hit – needed at the tail end of the year) and The Agony and the Ecstasy which I plan on tackling (all 755 pages) next – neither of which I would have looked for or possibly discovered had I been shopping in a book shop…unless of course, they fell on my foot.

What’s the last book you read?  Would you recommend it?

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image via garance dore

Some people find it an odd concept to wear a blazer any other way than as part of a suit.  They’ve worn them to work for so many years, they can’t fathom the idea of wearing one with a pair of jeans or over a dress.  If you’re one of those people, that’s fine, they’re not for everyone.  The structured, tailored nature of the jacket may feel a little too stuffy for you, especially if your style is verging on bohemian slash relaxed slash natural.  But if you’re like me and you lean toward being a classic/chic dresser, then perhaps you should give the blazer a try.  I like it because I can wear my jeans and yet still feel stylish and sophisticated.  It’s a step up from wearing my cardie.

Now..to make the blazer feel less stuffy and formal and look a bit more interesting, try pushing or rolling up the sleeves.  This is a particularly good look if you have lovely slender wrists, which you’ll play up with a fabulous watch and a stack of bracelets.  Call me crazy, but this exposing of the wrists is actually slimming because you are showing off one of the most slender parts of your body.

As mentioned, you can either roll the sleeves back or just push the sleeves up and if you’re lucky they’ll stay put , depending on how silky the lining is.  If you want to guarantee they stay up without you annoyingly having to keep pushing them up, keep them in place with a rubber band.  Just make sure you conceal it among the gathered fabric.   Then all you need to do is decide where you want them to sit – above, on or below the elbow.  (FYI – the elbow can be a bit restrictive, above or below is probably better)

Play around with your clothes and get the most out of them by wearing them in new and different ways. 

image via The Sartorialist

image via Vanessa Jackman

image via French Elle

image via Garance Dore

image via Huffington Post

image via ekiuwa j magazine

image via wowowow

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