Wednesday, January 4, 2012

2011 in review

I have a blogging tradition of looking back at the previous year and all the highlights and lowlights that made up the 365 days of the year that was. The look back at 2010 was full of exciting highlights but 2011 has been a hard year for me. Living away from friends and family has been hard, especially as my grandfather got sick and then passed away last month. I am lucky that with the work that I do I was able to take time off and go spend a few weeks with my family to help them through that period, but then I missed my other family, namely my Sydney family of my husband Henry and Hachiko our handsome hound. Professionally I'm in a better place than I was 12 months ago, but I'm still not at the point I would like to be so 2011 almost feels like it was one long pointless struggle. Perhaps I feel like this because there was no overseas travel for me, even if there were lots of trips back to Melbourne and one to Perth it just wasn't the same. I do have plans in place to travel overseas this year already so I guess 2012 is looking up? Oh yeah and I dislocated my knee at the start of 2011, that really sucked balls and screwed up some of my plans (did I ever mention I did it whilst getting ready to be filmed by ABC TV who were unable to reschedule the interview so they cancelled it, yeah that's like adding an extra layer of sucky to the sucky you already knew) Anyway lets take a look back at 2011.

Proud
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Firstly I want to say I am proud of myself for taking the initiative and launching my SOS Japan fundraiser after Japan's terrible earthquake and tsunami in March. With the help of some amazing local designers, bloggers and creative's who all donated to the charity auction we raised $1784 all of which went to the Red Cross's efforts in the affected area.

Career highlights
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Styling the Vice x Westfield advertising campaign

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Elle USA magazine street style photography capturing the best of Sydney's streets for their global street chic feature.

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Styling, creative direction and copy writing of Westfield x Fashion Journal advertorials. A fun youth based bi-monthly campaign that has been a pleasure to work on all year.
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Styling the Sydney band Circle Pit for their feature in Fashion Journal.

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Styling the September cover editorial for Fashion Journal.

Fashion Weeks
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Wow I attended no less than four fashion weeks this year, all of them in Australia (which in itself is pretty cool, Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi and all that). First up was Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival in March, struggling along on my crutches after I dislocated my knee a few weeks before. LMFF was almost the death of me I swear, it was so hard not only physically because of my knee but emotionally too as the Tsunami in Japan happened mid week and I was a wreck worrying about friends back in Tokyo (who were all fine, the radiation and aftershocks were the main worry). The fashion was good though and seeing friends was the perfect medicine after a difficult couple of weeks.

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RAFW in May was an epic 24/7 affair for me and the On The Streets of Sydney team but boy it was worth it. Seeing Josh Goot's return to the Aussie runway was a highlight of my year.

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Melbourne Spring Fashion Week will always be my favourite of all fashion weeks because it was the first I ever attended, way back when I was a teen. Its come a long way since then and every year the RMIT student show blows me away so I will always make time for MSFW.

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My first trip to Western Australia for Perth Fashion Festival was super exciting. Perth has such a unique fashion voice that rarely gets heard on the east coast and its about time that changed. I hope to be able to return to PFF this year.

Bullying
I experienced intense bullying on twitter this year, worse than anything I ever experienced in high school. I don't want to dwell on it or give the bullies any more attention other than to say I was hurt by it as anyone with feelings would be, but I learnt a lot from it...mostly that people given the ability to leave comments or tweet anonymously can by cunts sometimes. Lesson learnt and I'm going to ignore it as much as possible from now on.

So what does 2012 have in store for me?

  • In May I'll be heading to Tokyo for my birthday and I'm terribly excited. Its been way too long.
  • Lots of hard work, my goal is to get published in print at least three times before May.
  • Relaunch On The Streets of Sydney. This does not mean a re-design as I still like the layout, it just means actually working on creating original content again. We all got so terribly burnt out after RAFW that it has just sat there for a while, but I'm ready to jump back in and shake up Sydney's style again.
2011 was a hard year for me and I'm glad to see the back of it. Looking back on it though has proved to me that maybe it wasn't so bad. There were so many good times with friends new and old, great moments in my styling career and my blog took me to the most isolated city in the world so I have to remember to not dwell on the bad stuff so much and look at all the positives. 2012 watch out xxx

11 comments:

  1. I'm sorry 2011 had such low points for you - but here's to a very happy new year and a 2012 that's better in every way! :)


    awayfromtheblue.blogspot.com

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  2. Bring on 2012! Hope it brings you everything you hope for Hayley.

    A x

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  3. Sounds like you had a lot of high points. Hope 2012 is a great year for you.

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  4. It seems like 2011 was a hard year for a lot of people - myself included!

    I'm hopeful that 2012 will prove to be much more positive.

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  5. Even for a year you may feel you personally achieved so little, by anyone elses standards you've done a hell of a lot! Especially managing to keep yourself employed and paying the bills in an unstructured creative field.Your work shows such talent, passion and promise.

    I started reading your blog a couple of months ago. I enjoy your personal style and I love the posts from Melbourne because I usually end up seeing a few of my friends who I miss since leaving and coming back to Perth.

    As for bullying I will say this....For the past 3years I've worked full time as a Dj on the eastcoast. Life in the spotlight got a little too tough and I came back to Perth for a year breather (actually 6 nights a week in clubs got pretty hectic and I was at the point of total exhaustion). I still travel back to Melbs once every month or so for big corporate gigs but apart from that life is pretty quiet....

    I used to doccument some of my Dj adventures here http://www.kisforkatejean.blogspot.com . If you look you might notice that comments have been disabled and the only way to contact me is that I list my email address in my bio.

    I guess you can say i got "discovered" through my blog and alot of people found me for gigs through it (which I may be wrong but i think i've read somewhere that this blog has lead to more work for you?). It was great to have an outlet to share my work/life/style and the comments I recieved were always positive.......fast forward a bit and suddenly, the more popular I became with clubs and corporate clients and the more sucsessful i became as a Dj, some people started to get a case of the green eyed monster. From what I can piece together it was mainly male Djs from Perth who were jealous I was making it interstate and they weren't or it was east coast Dj's jealous I was "stealing" gigs that they believe a girl who hadn't been Djing that long didn't deserve. Suddenly my blog was getting bombarded with Annonymous comments about what a slut/whore/ugly nigger black bitch etc I was...

    I guess what I'm trying to say is...tall poppy syndrome is the nature of the beast when you put yourself out in the public arena. Its hard to get your emotions to be rational but Hayley, if you weren't the sucsess you have become I can guarentee that you would not have experienced this. For someone who already feels like a faliure in themselves and has no self worth, seeing somone else sucseed like you, only compounds even more on their own negative feelings.....and unfortunatly its generally easier for them to take it out on anyone else other then themselves.

    I guess the other thing i learnt through blogging after that experience was that if I didn't want to deal with the horrible comments, then i shouldn't be allowing the positive ones either. Sometimes its good to disconnect from what everyone else has to say and get back to the true you for awhile....

    But look at you. New post and already 4 people loving your style and me, some random blabbering on.

    You're a star. It shouldn't have to be like this but....the haters are actually paying you a compliment.

    Happy 2012! Looking forward to watching you sucseed even harder and making the bully's turn a shade greener!

    Kate xx

    P.s my husband an i love Henrys twitter!!! he is hilarious! More Henry on the blog please! xx

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  6. Come back to PFF this year, it was great to meet you!

    And let's get rid of anonymity... The only negative feedback I've ever had was anonymous... typical!!

    xx

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  7. oh hayley, you may have had some low points in 11 (i don't know anyone who's sad to see it go!) but following you from across the seas, im seriously impressed with your career path! you've done so much and done it so well. you might feel like you're not yet where you want to be professionally but i have no doubt that you will be there soon!
    wishing you all the best for 2012! x

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  8. Very inspired by your post, great achievements, good and bad parts of the year, it can't all be perfect. Well done with your work achievements, loving your blog! xx

    Dasha Gold
    www.thetrendspotter.net

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  9. this is A LOT of things to be so hard on yourself! But I guess no one is ever really satisfied with one self! Cant wait to hear about your Japan trip!

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  10. Aw man, I can't (actually I can) believe people can still be such dicks at a 'mature' age online, hiding behind anonymity. I didn't realise so much negativity took place in 2011 for you. I sincerely hope that everything gets better for you in 2012. All the best <3

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  11. Hayley you are an inspiration to many of us out in in blogland you deserve all the success you wish for and so much more. Have a bumber of a year in 2012.

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