Look guys... I made something! I will admit I had no idea what I was doing, all the way up to when I was uploading it to youtube but I think it's turned out okay for my first ever vlog! I was a little shy too speak on camera but I'll work on that over the next couple of posts. I'm no Sammy Robinson but I hope it gives you a nice sneak peak into this years Fashion Festival. There was so much happening - a photo really couldn't capture it all! Make sure you watch it in HD  - mainly because it took me 3 hours to upload in HD so I need it needs to be appreciate haha! Let me know what you think! xx

It's Friday (TGIF) and I can't wait to kick off my heels and get casual! I don't know about you, but this winter I've lived in vintage tee's, denim and my Bubish fur! I have to keep it corporate during the week so as soon at the weekend hits I like to mix it up with pieces that I don't get to see during the week. I'm all about comfort on the weekends but I love to keep it fresh so here is some #inspo to take you into the weekend!

At the risk of looking like a Crayola here are my top 5 tips on the art of tonal dressing. Do you rate it? or hate it!

1. If you feeling shy, pick a subtle shade for a softer look. Try nude!  
2. One of the simplest ways to master this look is to do it with tailoring! Try a matching blazer and trouser combo. 
3. Don't be afraid to mix different shades of the same tone. Try light pinks with hot pinks! 
4. Be sure to contrast different textures of the same colour like to give your outfit dimension. Try leather and silk! 
5. Be brave! It always feels a little ridiculous to try out a new bold trend, but wheres the fun in playing it safe?

One of the biggest trends of 2016 has been the perplex heel and we have Yeezy to thank! The original Yeezy Season 3 retail for around $799 however I wasn't brave enough to invest in this one. While I think fakes can be really tacky I honestly didn't think this was a trend that would last for long (and I was worried that within a week Ruby shoes would have copies for $29). So I decided to find a cheaper alternative. I ended up ordereding my pair from Ego Offical and as it turns out have worn them to death! They really are the ultimate nude shoe and as such look so perfect styled with denim and white.  So not only have I provided some inspo for you below but I've provided links here to two really good replicas! Make sure you check out Tony Bianco who have done a suede copy for $189 and this even cheaper alternative from UK site Simmi Shoes for (approximately) $60 AUD. Happy Shopping! 

Since building a relationship is a two-way street, today’s post is about how brands could improve the way they reach out to bloggers. In my last few years of blogging, I've been approached by and worked with many labels, brands and products. For me, the difference between me going over and beyond for a label is mutual respect. 

If you have a brand or label and are approaching a blogger for promotion here are my tips: 

Don’t just assume you’ll get free coverage
It’s quite a common misperception that bloggers can and should provide free coverage, and if you approach them with this angle you can easily offend some of your best potential partners. Building a relationship is a two-way street. Personally, I’m very selective in terms of the brands I work with, so I know I’ll love the products I’m writing about. If a brand is pushy about me doing a ton of things for them (with nothing in return), I can quickly feel unappreciated.  Its important to understand how much time and effort posting for your label can take. For example, if I'm sent a pair of swimwear in exchange for images the things I need to do include:  organising a photographer -this can mean paying for a professional, or bribing a friend with food, this also means I have to be able to co-ordinate a day that both myself and said 'photographer' have free. As a uni student with a full-time job, my time off is limited, trying to co-ordinate this with someone else to take photos can take 2-3 weeks! Further more being photo ready means a night of fake tanning, make-up, washing my hair and more. It means petrol to take me to the location and waiting for good weather conditions if working outside (wind, rain and bad lighting are enemies of any blogger).  On average it takes 1-2 hours to photograph a look. More if the client is after an entire blog post. Once the photos are taken, I then need several hours to download the images to my phone, edit the images, and then a further few hours to put a blog post together. As you can see it takes time and it takes resources, so its very important that you take all of these elements into consideration before asking someone to shoot for free for you! .

Respect a blogger’s private space
Our job is pretty much a 24/7 thing, but that usually doesn’t mean it’s OK to get in touch at the most random times and on private channels. I quite often get Facebook messages from people that I’ve never met, on the weekend, asking me if I can do them a favour. I once had a man contact me about his mothers boutique launch via personal text message (god knows how he got my number) and then continued to insist we have coffee to discuss it further.  My email is in my bio for a reason! For most bloggers I know, e-mail is the preferred way of being contact. It allows time to think about a proposal,  allows us to re-read information at a later point, and tells us that you are professional. 

Be Realistic
We all have busy schedules. Just because I'm posting beautiful photos at the beach doesn't mean I don't still have a job to go to, uni assignments to do and dinner at home to cook. Having a bikini sent to you is always fun, but when its the middle of winter and your next trip to the beach is months away, it makes things very unrealistic. Make sure in your contact you are inquiring about upcoming plans and projects. This way you will be able to tap into something thats already planned which makes life easier for all involved. I will often let a company know when I will be going away or if I have events coming up so that I can co-ordinate products being sent with real-life events.  Be realistic, if I've agreed to shot your bikini in the middle of winter, understand that this may take longer than in the middle of summer! A pet hate of mine is when a company takes a month to send you a product, however expects you to have a post up within 24 hours. For me its first in, best dressed. I schedule in one day of each week to shoot! Ill shoot as many looks as I can that day and in the order that they have arrived, this can mean your post can take up 7-14 days weather and life permitting! 


Personalise your emails. 
Just as brands don’t like bloggers they’ve never met asking for freebies (not chique!), bloggers don’t like being approached in a very impersonal way. E-mails that start with ‘Dear blogger…’ go straight to Trash for me. I recently received an email that read "Dear Rebecca, we love your blog .." you don't have to go overboard, but in the same way you expect me to get your brand name correct in my posts, try to get mine right before asking me a favour! What I do love in a email -tell me why you want to work together! Its especially helpful when a brand uses one of my posts as an example as to what they would like me to post for them! 

Be clear on your brief
More often than not, blogger collaborations have a super tight deadline. Once you’ve agreed on working together, be very clear on what you are going to want and need from a blogger before, during and after the project. Be clear on what you are looking for, so that I can be clear with you on what is achievable. 

Give a blogger creative freedom
While there are tons of bloggers who are mainly curators of content, most of us do create everything on our own. Requesting a blogger to publish a fully finished article (in the sense of “Here’s our press release, please post it this week, okthanksbye“) kind of completely undermines the work that they do.  Keep in mind this is my creative space and I want the post to represent my style, 

Melbourne based jeweller Linden Cook launched her label in late 2013 with eldest daughter and now business partner Georgie Amad.
With the desire to turn their talents into a successful and unique Australian brand, the dynamic mother-daughter duo was born. Linden’s key components when creating her jewellery line in her Melbourne studio are always simplicity and individuality. Cook chooses to custom design each individual piece within the collection and no two pieces are ever the same due to her embracing organic forms, lines and shapes. 

Each piece within the new Collection 2.0 captures complete style and character in such a way that excites lovers of both fine and bold jewellery everywhere. “The unrefined beauty of the materials and uniqueness of each piece is heightened by our love of imperfections”, says Amad.

Linden Cook’s ethos includes using all recycled materials where possible to maintain sustainable production. “I try not to overwork some materials but simply mould and shape them carefully in order to retain their already unique and beautiful imperfections”, says Cook.
The latest collection, ‘Collection 2.0’ is bold, mysterious as well as being easy to wear. The designs are raw, textured and sexy with on trend yet unique pieces including lace up chokers, textured hoops and chain earrings.
Linden Cook aims to create pieces that have never before been imagined, by using only organic and raw materials and predicting trends mixed in with the desire to create pieces that will forever remain stylish and in demand.

No two pieces are ever the same! My current favourite piece is the Lace up Choker in Sand shop here

Kanye West debuted the official video for his The Life of Pablo single ‘Famous’ last night at a packed venue in LA and in true Kanye fashion it had everyone talking. 
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If you haven’t already seen it, the clip is based on American realist painter Vincent Desiderio’s work called ‘Sleep’. However Kanye has replaced many naked bodies lying side by side in bed with recognizable celebrities represented like wax-like figures. The group consists of George Bush, Anna Wintour, Donald Trump, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Taylor Swift, Ray J, Amber Rose, Caitlyn Jenner and Bill Cosby with Kanye and Kim in the middle of them all. Each guest appearance is controversial and not all were consensual. Acknowledgement of its controversy came from the artist himself, Kanye, who tweeted after the viewing literally asking to be sued. 

So I’m writing today to share my opinion of the footage. I wanted to start off by making two points clear. The first, I love the Kardashian’s. I love the way they empower woman, I love the way they play the fame game and I am usually the first to defending Kim and her sisters from criticism. Secondly, I appreciate the freedom of art and expression. I know its arts job to make us think in ways that aren’t always tidy or comfortable. But this feels different. There is something about this clip that crosses a moral line for me. I wanted to like the clip. I tried. But like a number of viewers I couldn’t help but feel Kanye has gone too far this time. I spent the whole time questioning how is this legal? But I struggled to verbalize what it was that felt so wrong about the footage. 

​Lena Dunham recently spoke out about how the clip had made her feel. A lot of what she had to say I related too and agreed with. Particularly when she spoke about Taylor Swifts wax figure. While several of the celebrities are said to have consented to their image being used, it is clear on this occasion Taylor Swift had not. I’ve been critical of Swift and strongly believe that she was not only aware of, but consented to her name being used in the song Famous, despite what she is now saying. I also believe that she threw Kanye under the bus in her acceptance speech where she indirectly, very publicly claimed he did not have her permission. However, despite all of this, I feel strongly that Kanye has gone too far by depicting her naked and unconscious body in a film that millions of people will watch, without her permission. 

I understand what Kanye is referencing in this song. I understand it is about the exposure of fame. The privacy celebrities are no longer entitled to and the idea that being photographed naked and unconscious is metaphorical of what himself and many others in the public eye have and still experience. My mind flicks back to all the times we have seen Kanye himself asking the press not to film, requesting paparazzi withhold from shooting pictures of his children and protecting his preganant wife from the crowds of camera men chasing her to her car. I understand that if anyone has been exposed, had their privacy taken away from them and scrutinized by the world, its Kanye and Kim. However I can’t help but feel Kanye has turned on his own people here by deplicting celebrities without their consent. 

What I found interesting is that how I felt about each of the celebrities being depicted and the level of violation I felt for each celebrity was different. I couldn’t help but feel that Rihanna and Chris brown were consenting, that Ray J was lucky to be included (and also guilty of using images of Kim Kardashian without her permission on his latest failed single release) that Amber Rose would have embraced a woman’s right to be naked and as for Bill Cosby I have no sympathy for him (and am saddened that he wasn’t depicted in a more compromising position after the allegations against him). However there is something about Taylor Swifts inclusion that feels sickening. I think for the most part not only do we know Taylor did not consent to her image being used, but further this is not a light Taylor chooses to picture herself in. Unlike Rianna, Amber Rose and Kim, Taylor does not sexualize herself in the public eye. She doesn’t dance half naked on stage, her lyrics are empowering and far from sexual and how she dresses and presents herself reflects this. While I am a strong advocate for a woman’s right to sexualize herself, I am in strong support of a woman’s choice to do so.

​Further to this we are all aware of Taylors on-going fued with Kanye. We know she doesn’t like her lyrical inclusion in the song. We know that she wouldn’t want to be depicted in the footage and we know that she would not want her naked body shown on film without her consent. What makes us most uncomfortable is that we know that Kanye knew this and decided to disregard how she felt. He intentionally featured a naked a vulnerable Taylor in the footage as a personal attack on her. And this is what feels like a violation. And why I think many people are likening the footage to rape. 

The problem for me that Kanye didn’t ask for consent and didn’t get consent to put the exact likenesses of naked, unconscious people in a video that will be seen by millions. Further his feature of Taylor Swift is a gross, personal attack on her. It feels like a violation because it is. And finally it feels akin to rape culture not because of the inclusion of Bill Cosby, not because of the images of naked unconscious women, not because of race or sexism, but because Kanye is demonstrating that he doesn’t believe consent is important or necessary when it comes to his artistic portrayal of real people’s bodies.
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"Lampshading" - apparently what you call wearing an oversized t-shirt that covers up your shorts, making you look like a lamp shade. I'll admit I initially laughed at this term, but then I realised, all the Kardashians are doing it! While Kourtney Kardashian wears her oversize sweatshirt with luxe over-the-knee boots to achieve the throw-on-and-go look, Kylie and Kendall Jenner selected more rugged styles, including a ripped graphic tee.  Kate Moss gave this trend a go back in 2013 and Hailey Baldwin recently achieved it with a sporty twist in a pair of sneakers. This trend is perfect for showing off thigh-high shoes and skinny pins!

​Are you brave enough to give it a go? 

 I think it was Axel Rose who originally elevated the bandana to the 'cool', but in 2016 we've found a whole new appreciation for this humble accessory. Not only can it add a pop of colour to your outfit, it is very versatile. Recently spotted wrapped around the handles of Louis Vuitton bags, scarves are the next hot accessory trend. Easily styled; my favourite way to wear is folded and wrapped around my neck as a choker.

Where to buy? Keep in mind: as good as a new scarf is, a vintage one can be even better. My sister recently nabbed the coolest vintage scarf from our local second hand shop -very hermes inspired. Otherwise check out the range of bandana's from
Bardot ($9.95)