Packin' It

Backpacks are cool again.

Fat is putting them in their shop-window displays.
The overly skinny, cigarette puffing cool cats at The Bend are wearing them.
And my bible of all things hip and happening in The Big Apple (yeah because clearly I live there and can partake in aforementioned super cool activities) has proclaimed that they are oh-so-back in a big way.

And on the additional flip, you can please your Asian mother with its beneficial physiotherapeutic qualities. Something about distributing the weight equally on the shoulders...I wasn't really paying attention at the time.

In any case - I really want a knapsack. If only because it makes a catchy rhyme - 'A knapsack on my back...' (Lame? Okay...yeah I'm going to shut up now...it's the whole 'year older...lamer jokes' thing...apologies if your dork radar has just exploded in your face)

You could just jump on the bandwagon and you'd be sort of cool (like the cigarette puffing and beanstalk legged crowd that shop like crazed retail whores at Fat). Or you could do one better - by simply doing your own thing. Like the always impeccably attired Tarang (such a stalk-mine if there ever was one...and a truly lovely friend to boot).

My inner dandy man (who clearly has serious consumer whore problems) is way obsessed with his beautifully practical canvas and leather piece of backpacking goodness. Simple, deliciously pragmatic and made in limited batches (that's the real catch...) - with a real 'heritage-cool' edge to it. The apparent physical benefits of getting your back into it just got exponentially more obvious.

That, or I'm getting old and turning into my mother...

I'm going with the former

Much loving,

xx

Bec

A Bit of Press Love

So there is a quote from me.
In enlarged, black, bold font.
In actual (it will paper cut you) paper.

Which really makes me look more important and intelligent than I really am. Seriously.
It happens to be included in the really lovely, insightful and humorous article about the wonderful world of blogging and style stalking (although it is far more eloquently put than that) by my favourite dapper editor of style Tarang.

Apart from the fact that I am slightly excited about the press love.
It really just is a beautiful magazine (I give it a major A+ for aesthetics...I mean that's half the battle isn't it?)
And I guess more importantly...it's a really good read. Whether you like politically flavoured ice-creams, poems about Macbooks, a bit of a short story or just learning how to behave like a proper law student (or fake it...)

What are you waiting for? Indulge your inner legal eagle...

http://www.mulss.com/sites/default/files/users/20/PurelyDictaEditionOne2010StandardResolution.pdf

Love

xo

Bec

PS. If you're morbidly curious about my press rep - I am on page 24...or maybe slightly after that. But read the whole damn thing anyway because it's pretty brilliant.

Purple Paisley Panache

If all else fails, I am totally loving my alliteration in the title and thinking maybe if I fail dismally as a lawyer (a very likely possibility indeed)...maybe I should become a spin doctor who comes up with catchy slogans. Or not...

The other thing I totally love is spying an item that I could never wear (at least not without looking ridiculous in a bad way) on other people...Looking suitably fabulous.

Purple is one of those things.
Paisley is yet another one of those things.
I get the feeling that if I wear both those things at the same time, someone will mistake me for a failed gypsy fortune teller. And as fun as it is to make up clairvoyant futures for people (it really is more fun than it sounds)...it sadly isn't exactly my goal in life.

Take 1 - Is my favourite intellectual editor of style, Tarang (I really think I could dedicate a whole month to style stalking him and not get bored). I'm a little bit taken with the muted tones of the scarf and the way he pairs it with navy and the lightest shade of violet (wow that sounded disturbingly like my mother's interior decorator...). Unusual and refreshingly bohemian.

Take 2 - Is my gorgeous girl crush at work, Erika. To this day, I still believe she's far too pretty and lovely to be working in the rather un-pretty and un-lovely accounting industry...but anyway. I may or may not have taken the long route to my desk post-coffee breaks just to check out what smack-bang-ab-fab outfit she had for the day. I totally envy the fact that she has the perfect skin tone and hair colour to carry off those vibrant shades of purple and blue. It makes me want to go blonde...except that I have an ominous vision of that not working out particularly well...

I could be tempted into trying my luck as a failed gypsy fortune teller though...

Love

xo

Bec

The Editor

I felt like I really hit the style stalking jackpot when I spotted Tarang on one of my jaunts...
I thought I was done with my photo taking for the day but I had to do a 'double take, run back and whip out the highly unsubtle shutterbug' routine that afternoon...

He looked like someone I'd feel lucky to spot in New York let alone Melbourne. The outfit is just a prime example of well considered and intellectual style. A sort of understated luxe chic that makes you love it more and more every time you see it. I was totally taken with the way he'd taken the effort to wear the button down shirt, navy jumper and the amazing desert boots. A great modern take on timeless classics.

But the thing that really made Tarang's outfit 'pop' for me (yes for want of a better word because eloquence is so not my middle name... 'Stalker' and 'Ranter' seem more fitting in general) were the slightly off-kilter, edgy pieces he wore. The knitted crochet tie, the bold Tom Ford horn-rimmed glasses and the Thom Brown-esque 'slightly-too-short-to-show-off-my-totally-sexy-ankles' pant length.

I felt even luckier when I got to have coffee with this beacon of dapper style...

The man is an inspirational sartorial example, no doubt. But the thing that really stood out about Tarang was that it was him wearing the clothes (and not the other way around...which sadly happens more often than we would think)

A deeply intellectual, funny and articulate man who makes his clothes work for him.
Pragmatic, functional, elegant and well-made.

It's not often that you meet someone who can engage you with conversation as thought provoking and captivating as their style choices (okay...that's possibly just a personal problem...being far too easily distracted by shoes, bags and the sort) and I feel all the more inspired after having met Tarang.

Love

xo

Bec

PS. Check out Tarang's equally amazing blog - The Brown Man (http://thebrownman.net) - It has been duly added to my 'List of All Things Inspirational'