Although winter barely touches us in Brisbane, the slight chill in the air does allow for scarves, boots and jackets to be integrated into our regular wardrobe for a few weeks. This was an assignment shot for a client which unfortunately, didn’t get published. Which means I have the opportunity to showcase Brisbane’s cool, laid back, weekend style. Thanks to all the lovely ladies that let me snap their outfits!

Blogger and writer, Aicha Robertson, snapped in Brisbane city on a break from work.

Blogger and stylist, Ally Dunlop, snapped in Brisbane city, identifying trends for this project.

Viann, snapped on Albert Street, Brisbane City meeting friends for lunch.

Jess, snapped on Queen Street, Brisbane City, spending the day shopping.

Edita, snapped on Albert Street, Brisbane City shopping for the races.

Sharon, snapped on Elizabeth Street, Brisbane City, having a pampering day.

Clare, snapped in Gaythorne on the way to breakfast.

Sarah, snapped in Gaythorne on the way to breakfast.

Georgia, snapped on Elizabeth Street, Brisbane, spending the day shopping with friends.

Vanessa, snapped in Brisbane City, spending the day shopping.

Hannah, snapped on Albert Street, Brisbane City, spending the day shopping.

Jess, snapped on Albert Street, Brisbane City, seeing a movie with her family.

The blue and purple tones of the urban environment and clothing, made it fun to experiment with different colours in the editing for this shoot with the gorgeous Mary Hecker.

Mary styled the shoot, selecting 90′s inspired grunge pieces and even threw in some colour, check out the psychedelic top and shorts from Everland Clothing!

The lovely Courtney Bridges Makeup Artist was on set to keep Mary’s hair looking amazing and for touch-ups. I hope you enjoy the images as much as I enjoyed creating them!

Credits

Team

Photographer: Yolanda van Kimmenade
Model and Clothing Stylist: Mary Hecker @Boss Models Australia
Hair and MUA: Courtney Bridges Makeup Artist

Clothing

Look 1
Vintage tartan skirt, vintage Lee denim jacket, Cotton On Body bralette, Doc Martin boots

Look 2
Holographic Topshop shoes, high waisted Cotton On bikini bottoms, ‘Beverly Thrills’ handmade top

Look 3
Top and shorts from Everland Clothing, holographic Topshop shoes

This is my second collaboration with Amber of Fashion Avenue, the last was shot in October 2013, when the beautiful spring flowers were in bloom.

I love the simplicity of Amber’s outfit, just 2 colours. This made it easy to find red and white flowers to match her outfit and add an extra pop of colour.

Don’t take life too seriously, laugh A LOT.
- Amber

Catching up with Amber

What are your must-have items for autumn?

Knee-high boots and anything grey!

What are you wearing today?

I’m wearing a top from Pemba Boutique, my shorts are from Forever New and my shoes are Windsor Smith.

Who is another blogger you admire and why?

Maiden Sydney. I love her style and love that she posts regularly. We’re actually related which is pretty cool!

Top 3 goals you are looking to achieve this year?

Fashion – I have some really amazing collaborations planned with my blog and am really excited to see how it grows this year, as I hit my 3 year mark in April!
Travel – I’m travelling to the Greek Islands mid-year and am also hitting up Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam.

Fitness – My best friends and I bought Nike’s to motivate us to work out (haha), so I would love to get a bit stronger this year.

Life – With life, I’m really understanding a lot of things that I couldn’t wrap my head around a year ago. I’m learning patience and I know what I want in all aspects of my life. Also, I am loving uni. I’m just really happy! It’s important to always be yourself and be a good person.

Some people are naturally so upbeat, they make you feel happy just by being in their presence. One of those people is Brisbane fashion blogger, TopShop personal stylist and all around lovely lady, Aicha.

We had fun frolicking in West End and Aicha even attracted attention from early start council workers!

To see the full post check out Aicha’s blog, The Fashion Heist, and follow her adventures on Facebook,  Instagram and Twitter.

Look at that smile!

Aicha wears a Christopher Esber dress.

It has been a while since I collaborated with Ashleigh, aka The Blonde Silhouette. So it was fun to have a catchup and explore the industrial area of West End! We found this beautiful graffiti alley and knew it would be a perfect setting for her monochromatic look. With plenty of smiles and silly faces to capture there is never a dull moment shooting with Ashleigh!

I love Ashleigh’s styling of this St Frock Outfielder Dress with Jo Mercer platforms and Seed Heritage wide brim hat. See more on Ashleigh’s Blog, Facebook and Instagram.

Aicha knows how to style ripped denim. Add a sheer black top, mirror-like reflective blue sunglasses and don’t forget a big smile! Shot in West End on a cloudy morning this outfit is chilled out urban chic.

To see the full post check out Aicha’s blog, The Fashion Heist, and follow her adventures on Facebook,  Instagram and Twitter.

Ally Dunlop of Wanderlusting Blog is a talented freelance stylist who is super fun to work with. If you don’t believe me, check out her portfolio. She puts together amazing outfits from local and national designers, creates beautiful hair and makeup and even blogs about her adventures. I have been lucky enough to work with her on several shoots recently including the Harriette Hill editorial and an edgy / grunge collaboration that will be published very soon.

She can style any look to transform the wearer from drab to fab! I recently snapped two of her outfit posts so check them out for full details: Wonderland and Pretty Woman. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram to see more!

5 Minutes with Ally Dunlop

What do you love about being a stylist / makeup artist / hair stylist?

I love the opportunity to create a whole concept and/or storyline from complete scratch, and fashion is a huge part of who I am; so I love having the ability to express things through fashion. Of course there’s also being able to touch really fancy clothes sometimes!

What inspires you creatively?

Absolutely everything, from seeing someone’s outfit on the street, to certain colours, to even whatever’s on my Tumblr dashboard! Life is one big inspiration.

Who are your favourite designers?

Locally: Hungry Wolf the label, Rochelle designs so many beautiful and edgy things, I love them all! Globally: Alice McCall! Her designs are absolutely breathtaking 100% of the time!

What does 2014 hold for you?

Collaborations galore! I’m keen to just expand my contacts and work with as many fabulous and talented people as possible!

What were you wearing and how would you describe your personal style?

In the first outfit I was wearing my new Bardot crop top and wrap skirt, with my Wittner exposed heel boots, TopShop hat and Lovisa ear cuff! In the second outfit I was wearing an ASOS top with a Portmans skirt and my Sportsgirl Heels. I never quite know how to explain my style and as you can see, it has the ability to change dramatically! I dress using bold colours a lot of the time, and love a good statement piece, but also feel at home in a nice pair of casual shorts and t-shirt! I’m definitely a leg-showing kind of person!

What has been your favourite job / project so far?

Probably my first published work, soon to be released in Like a Lion Magazine! I won’t disclose much, so you’ll have to keep an eye out for it! But it was so much fun styling something totally out there and weird, and also stylishly grunge!

Matt Hsu is quick to smile and has a larger than life personality. With a trumpet strapped to his back you may find him playing music in The Mouldy Lovers, performing solo or doing flips at circus school.

He describes himself as “wilfully untrendy” with a penchant for tokens from around the world such as kurtas, middle eastern tunics and native american moccasins.

How would you describe The Mouldy Lovers music and what is your role in the band?

With great struggle! We’ve distilled it down to three words – ‘Subtropical Gypsy Ska’ … which is shorthand for a horn section that headbangs and jumps into the crowd, spine-tickling accordion playing, a raucous rhythm section and the most jubilant 45 minutes of dancing you’ll have in a long time.

People say we’re like The Cat Empire, but younger, more unhinged and more gypsy.

I write and toot on the trumpet chiefly, but have been known to snakecharm on clarinet, boom out some bottom end trombone, and sing vocals. I tend to also climb on tables and tall furniture during gigs.

Are you a full-time musician? And what other creative ventures do you spend time working on?

It’s nearing that stage of full-time music, but with gigs typically on Friday and Saturday nights, it leaves room for circus school and my job as QUT’s social media guy. I freakin’ love that job.

Mouldies are on break at the moment with members travelling and recharging, so I’ve been doing mini-collaborations, like a little troupe with my Mouldy bandmates Gav and Nick and a duo with Lisa Rowe of Woodville House.

I’ve also been writing and performing solo songs – my first gig at the Metro Arts Theatre went hilariously good/bad. I forgot lyrics, played rubbish guitar (being a trumpet player), but the mistakes made it really enjoyable. I hope I make more mistakes.

What inspires you creatively?

Books, lately. I’m reading stories from the Arabian Nights collection which inspired a little number, and before short stories by Etgar Keret and old science fiction. Learning what people are passionate about is incredibly eye opening – plant biology to clowning, I love hearing what other people are nuts about.

Oh, collaboration also crowbars my head. I sometimes get asked to record with other bands, like Fat Picnic, Clare Quinn, Amela’D, The Phoncurves and a film score with Josh Beattie from The Forty Thieves. I learn lots every time about how others write and arrange, and discover plenty about my own playing style and placed to untap.

Who are your favourite musicians?

• Shugo Tokumaru
• Hiatus Kaiyote
• Laneous & The Family Yah
• Originalljudet
• Tom Waits (particularly Alice)
• Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire
• The Barons of Tang
• Count Basie
• Lior
• Gogol Bordello
• Josephine Foster
• Fleet Foxes
• Little Joy
• The Middle East
• Nathan Johnson (who scored Brick and The Brothers Bloom)
• Dirty Projectors
• Tune-Yards
• Esperanza Spalding

Matt, with fellow Brisbane creative, writer Freya Wright-Brough.

What does 2014 hold for you?

Early in the year I’m heading to New Orleans on a bit of a jazz quest with my journo buddy Alita Pashley. I’ll strap a trumpet on my back and jam with musicians I meet, and try to spend time with Tuba Skinny.

I joined circus school this year and fell in love with it, so 2014 holds swinging, climbing and flipping about.

I’m also starting a research masters on music celebrity and media which will involved interviewing a bunch of people I admire, and it looks like I’ll be tutoring an Entertainment Industries subject too.

With The Mouldy Lovers, we’re kicking off the year with shows supporting Babylon Circus and then writing new material for another release. We had some plum shows last year like Harvest Festival, that ended up being cancelled, so we’ll keep at it and just get a tonne of people dancing.

Best of all, I’m really excited for what my friends are getting up to and helping out if I can. My bestie Helen Todd just started up an eco-fashion line Kind Clothing, Anzjuli Venter expanding her puppet adaption of Frankenstein, Hannah Gartside is adding live performance to her craft box, and Freya Wright-Brough (pictured with Matt) is doing a 365 day extreme writing challenge.

What were you wearing and how would you describe your personal style?

I’m wilfully untrendy. I like to wear things that might’ve been worn 50 or 100 years ago. The idea is that I’ll be able to continue wearing that stuff for the next 50 years.

Basically, things that makes me feel mischievous or tokens from around the world, like kurtas, middle eastern tunics, native american moccasins.

I also have a bunch shirts for bands and causes I get behind. Today I have on me some comfy overalls, an old henley… and Mitchdowd boxers.

I also tend to strap a trumpet over my shoulder when I’m out… it’s handy when I meet musicians and buskers. It’s a great way to sneak into overpriced gigs too, I just say I’m guest trumpeting on the next song. Bouncers don’t tend to question why a guy would be carry a trumpet into a venue.

What are your favourite places to shop?

I don’t tend to buy things from physical stores and if do they tend to be during travel as a functional keepsake. But there are two places you can’t keep me out of because the people are so nice – Audrey’s Music Shop and Jet Black Cat Records. I’ve also found my neighbourhood is abundant for gift-getting – Nook, Hanasho, Happy Cabin, Avid Reader, Gear bicycle shop and Biome across the river are full of good stuff.

At gigs or on tour I’ll tend to pick up shirts of bands I’ve seen or played with to dog-ear that memory. Most other things I’ll buy online at stores like Yellow Bird Project, Monkee Genes, Society6 or eBay. Sometimes I’ll forget I bought a thing, so when it comes in the mail it feels like a present!

Are you yearning to be more creative, and make the most of each day? Freya Wright-Brough doesn’t shy away from this challenge, she is participating in a 365 day writing challenge to motivate herself to be creative every day with the help of her social media followers!

Why did you decide to start the 365 day challenge and how can people get involved?

People say if you’re a true writer you should write every day, so I devised a challenge to force myself to do this. People can follow me @freyawriter, facebook.com/365daychallenge or just look at the website freyawrightbrough.com

Is it difficult to stay motivated? And what techniques do you use to combat writer’s block?

I am a practiced procrastinator which is why I constructed the challenge the way I did. It’s impossible to make excuses and procrastinate when loads of followers are watching your progress. The idea of letting people down is a very good motivator.

I guess I use adrenaline to combat writer’s block. When I am drawing a blank the pressure of only having a few hours till I need to upload the story always kicks me into gear.

What inspires you creatively?

Conversations with friends. Comedians. Art. Music. I’m not sure there’s one source I can pin point. It only takes a tiny idea or a moment, and then weeks later I won’t be able to stop thinking about it.

Which writes do you look up to?

I’m mainly a script writer so my favourite writers are all screenwriters such as Paul Laverty or Jesse Armstrong & Sam Bain. But I can never go past J.K. Rowling as my favourite actual author.

What does 2014 hold for you?

The majority of my year long challenge, going back to uni to do honours, and a trip to India!

What are you wearing and how would you describe your personal style?

A lacy dress from one of the shops in the Elizabeth Arcade.

I’d love to say something awesome and specific like ‘Roman post modern Gothic’ but I guess my style is a bit retro, a bit nerdy and sometimes just plain daggy.

Where do you love to shop?

Any clothes stores without scary fluro displays. Shoe stores like Wittner or Zomp are dangerous to my bank account, and my second home is the ABC store.

On a cool autumn day he had parked his 1960s Fiat by the side of the road and a girl with auburn hair caught his eye. Discussing their mutual love for all things vintage, he invited her to come for a spin, she insisted on driving. He played her his favourite record and she baked him a delicious pie. The rest is history…

All clothing from Dangerfield.