Future Beauty Party People

Brisbane sure put on a show for the opening night of Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion at #QAGOMA. The super kawaii Harajuku style girls were back looking as cute as they did during the morning media preview getting swamped for instagram selfies by attendees.

DJ Alex Murray-Leslie from Chicks on Speed played the best most perfect tunes for the night.

Attendees dressed the part, wearing as many avant-garde as possible.

 I loved this ladies Soot bag. Soot is a local Brisbane label by Edwina Sinclair, a recent fashion graduate from QUT who was selected to showcase her graduate collection at #VAMFF's Graduate Showcase, which is where I first saw her work. Her pieces are stocked at Monk House Design in Melbourne as well as in the #QAGOMA store itself in Brissy. Definitely a designer to watch and I was lucky enough to visit her design studio while in town, more about that in my next blog post!

Oh my! AWalter Van Beirendonck necklace!

This dapper chap was wearing head to toe Comme des Garçons!

Leigh Buchanan from Project Runway Australia season one!

Fabulous fashion!

Soot designer Edwina Sinclair looking amazing in a red polkadot Comme des Garçons dress with her mum in matching spots wearing a dress by Melbourne label Alpha60.

I was maybe a little drunk by this stage but if I remember correctly this lovely lady told me she had made her dress at the very last minute. One of the best dressed of the night for sure!

It was great to see Melbourne pals Frances and Paul at the opening. They're long time supporters of my blog, even bringing me back presents from their travels to Tokyo. They're both wearing awesome Comme des Garçons pieces and looking fabulous.

Thea Basiliou owner of uber cool Brisbane boutique Blonde Venus playing it up with DJ Alex Murray-Leslie from Chicks on Speed. Both look incredible.

This fabulous dress was a DIY creation.

This is what I wore to the opening night celebrations. Like I said in my previous post I was really struggling with finding the perfect outfit for the opening. From the moment I got the invitation I started searching for something avant-garde enough to really stand out come opening night. Ideally I wanted to wear a Japanese designer but finding something both Japanese and in my size was proving difficult. That's why when Sam from Symantha Rose jewellery offered to lend me a piece from her own wardrobe by Japanese designer Balmung I jumped at the chance, especially as the Hachi the designer for the brand is an old friend of mine from my Tokyo days. Sam had no idea that I was friends with the designer so it was all just so perfect and meant to be. The oversized metallic Balmung top reminds me of the 'flatness' section of the exhibition and continues on from that particularly Japanese concept of deconstructed shapes that conceal rather than flatter the body that were initially explored by Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto in the 1980's that also feature heavily throughout the exhibition. Wearing something by one of the new generation of designers who are expanding upon those original ideas and who happens to be a friend of yours to an opening of an exhibition celebrating the history of Japanese fashion felt very surreal that's for sure.

Outfit details
Metallic gold top Balmung
Black vinyl skirt ASOS
Silver bag Decjuba
Siler tabi socks Avantgarde Harajuku
Black geta flatforms Melissa 'Style'
Black pom pom earrings The Bright Young Things on Etsy
Black 3D printed bangle Studio Batch
Gold bangle Estelle Dévé
Black lipstick Lime Crime Black Velvet Velvetine

Metallics on metallics was my theme for this look.

Silver bag Decjuba
Black 3D printed bangle Studio Batch
Gold bangle Estelle Dévé
Rings from left to right | Red acrylic ring MOMA NYC | Pink gift bow ring Tokyo's Tokyo at Omohara Tokyu Plaza | Pink resin crown ring Keep Resin

The ultimate Japanese combination of a modern take on traditional tabi socks in metallic silver by hip Harajuku sock and tights boutique Avantgarde and Melissa's contemporary take on the traditional geta shoe.

Siler tabi socks Avantgarde Harajuku
Black geta flatforms Melissa 'Style'

La Mascara High Tea with The Real Housewives of Melbourne

 Oh My God! Those were my words when the invite for the La Mascara High Tea afternoon garden party for me and my plus one arrived in my inbox. OH MY GOD! You see my bff's and I are obsessed with The Real Housewives of Melbourne. We had weekly viewing parties at my house, dissected that infamous anonymous email with it projected on my big screen tv so we could analyze every word and I even rushed out to buy La Mascara the day it was launched for our own little tasting and reunion episode watching soirée. I replied immediately saying just how excited I was for the event, how the invite had made my day/week/month/year and how my best friends and I are obsessed with the show and that I was very excited to come along for the launch dressed in my retro best. The lovely PR wrote back and told me I could invite a few more guests to come along with me which blew my mind even more! Sharing in the opportunities that blogging brings with the people I love is so much fun, especially when you know how happy it will make them. Unfortunately one of our #RHOM obsessives girl gang member is currently overseas (well not so unfortunately as she is having an amazing time, but you know!) so it was my friends Laurie and Charlotte and my sister Ebony who I chose as my guests. Now actually Ebony doesn't watch #RHOM as she leads a very busy and full life unlike the rest of us (haha) but truthfully she actually works with one of the biggest stars of the show, Gina Liano, so she feels uncomfortable watching her on tv in a way. As you're all probably aware in Gina's other life she is a lawyer, and my sister works in the same field and see's Gina almost daily, working on the same cases. I actually knew about the show and Gina's involvement long before it was officially announced because Eb was in the know. Ebony is very professional and will never gossip but she would answer any questions us obsessives had about Gina - like does she really wear those sparkly dresses and super high heels to court? The answer being yes, although with less cleavage on show. AMAZING right? That just made us love Gina more. Anyway would you believe we didn't actually co-ordinate our outfits to all be wearing pink to the event? It just worked out that way (because we're all amazing #duh!)

 Laurie looked stunning in her vintage pink trousers and blouse and those pink fringed flatforms from ASOS! She borrowed my Miu Miu red glitter sunglasses, neon pink clutch and pink flower headband to finish off the look. Honestly Laurie always looks incredible but this may just be my favourite look yet!

 Ebony wore her new pale pink Topshop culottes with rose gold shoes and accessories. Her rose gold heels are from Wittner, the rose gold clutch is from Kleins Perfumery and the rose gold bangle is by Estelle Dévé. To top it all off she wore a vintage scarf fashioned into a turban. Looking very glam!

 Charlotte rocked the hell out of her Alice Edgeley sequin turban and vintage dress combo! You can always count on me for some pink accessories so Charlotte borrowed my pink vintage clutch which was actually my mothers from the 1970's. How amazing does she look?

 #Glamourous

 The event was held at the historic Rippon Lea Estate which was built in 1868. The gardens were set up with vintage games for the high tea like croquet and the above badminton.

 Lot's of handsome guests were in attendance.

 Happy Camper Pizza were on hand to make freshly made to your liking pizza's, even catering to the vegan's and vegetarians amongst us (which is rare at a catered event!)

The event was to launch La Mascara's new range of alcoholic ice tea's called High Tea. Truthfully they were actually really delicious, sometimes pre-mixed drinks like these can be too sweet but I think the tea flavour helped unsweeten it. These are going to be perfect for summer!

 The Tequila shots were dangerous!

 Can't get over how amazing we all looked!

 Janet from #RHOM getting in on some badminton action.

So many vintage babes!

 Too fabulous!

 OMG!

I wore my pastel splash Gorman dress with a new Forever New floral headpiece, Tony Bianco pastel pink slides and a silver Decjuba bag (which is perfect for events like this cos it fits my camera!).

 I just wanted to hang out here forever. Such a beautiful location!

 Now time for some #RHOM #selfie action. Here we are with the oh so lovely and chic Chyka and her daughter. This is the second time I've met Chyka at an event now and she remembered me! She said my wardrobe must be fabulous because I always look incredible. Yep, I died right then and there!

 Here we all are with new #RHOM housewife Gamble Breaux whose style is just incredible. Can't wait to see her on the show next season!

OMG Janet too! So fabulous in person, watching next season is going to be even better having met her.

The QUEEN! Ginal Liano you have my heart and you wore pink too!!! How did you know it's my favourite colour? My sister introduced us between filming (we weren't allowed to interrupt them during takes) but unfortunately we didn't manage to get a #selfie with her as she was so busy, but there's always next time! We also met Ben 'the rockstar' from Silverchair (check out my instagram for my #selfie snap with him) and spoke to Jackie briefly too but it was her big launch so again she was too busy filming for us to interrupt her but safe to say she looked amazing stealing the show. I can not wait until season two begins next year now, this has made me even more obsessed with these incredible glamourous ladies. I'm totally having a big La Mascara party at my place the night this episode airs to celebrate, whose in? Hopefully you'll be able to see us all in the background, we sure do stand out. Pink ladies forever!!!

Tokyo Halloween

I love a good Halloween party and Tokyo sure knows how to throw the best parties. This Halloween I went to a party at my old favourite club in Tokyo - Trump Room.

Mademoiselle Yulia dj'd (she also dj'd at my wedding back in the day) Here she is playing her new single Harajuku Wander which I LOVE!!!

I almost didn't recognise her with he 1980s Japanese pop idol costume. This karaoke style performance was so funny, be sure to watch my video at the bottom of this post to see.

Tokyo girls really have the best Halloween costumes!

Kawaii!

Manan and Brandon as themselves but still cute.

Baby twins!

I was really excited to see someone dressed up as Bananas in Pyjamas, which is a popular Australian children's tv show.

Furby twins!

Sexy usagi twins!

There were a lot of costume twins hey?

Mademoiselle Yulia and her Mademoiselle Yulia twin.

Somehow I only managed to get instagram shots of what I wore. I didn't have much time to come up with a costume so I just bought a sparkly and furry Halloween headband at the ¥100 store and teamed it with anime inspired face stickers that are actually intended to be stuck on your mobile phone case. I wore it with my DI$COUNT bones tee which I feel is pretty Halloween-y and that was it, pretty simple and no fuss but still fun.


Watch the video to see Mademoiselle Yulia perform, a bikini clad dj dance para para style and all the wacky costumes from the night. Also as a special bonus there is some drunk dancing by me. Enjoy xoxo