Lola PR | Blog

Schooled with Wikifashion

2012-01-18T11:55:00.003+10:00

So I'm back! I wanted to try out a blog tag that we've come up with at Wikifashion.

You know when you were at school and referenced Wikipedia, instead of using individual articles? Well if you went to fashion school, we want to be your ultimate reference.

This can only happen if the whole community seeds it + keeps it going..

In the blogger tag, try to link to Wikifashion pages. If you notice errors or want to add to the page- please do so!

If the page doesn't exist yet, simply search for it and create the page (if you want to).

1.Who is your favorite style icon? (easy!) Taylor Tomasi Hill.

2.Favorite fashion brand? Lauren Moffatt.

3.If you could have the wardrobe of any fashion blogger, who would it be? That would be a close tie between le Blog le Betty and the lovely Sydney's from The Daybook- adore her lipstick collection.

4.If you had were granted your ultimate fashion splurge, what would you get? YSL Oval Arty ring.

5.What style tip should you have been taught at school? How to tie a scarf.

6.What is your fall back style tip? Wearing a breton stripe tee and red lipstick.

I'd love to tag ~ The lovely Sweet Lime + Spiced Tea, All Cats are Grey at Night, The Autumn Castle and Fashion Testimony.

Feel free to add images to your tag, the prettier the better!

+ if you want to see what I've been up to, I'm pretty fanatic about instagram right now. Follow me @Wikifashion. Here are some snippets...

My favourite motto..

Love tan and pale blue..

When I get bored, I like to switch up my wallpaper...

Window shopping..

Sorry if my last post was obnoxious..

2011-11-13T22:23:00.002+10:00

So I was beginning to think that my blog was broken. But I think that my last post may have come across as too boastful. Sorry if that was the case, I was simply proud that I'd been published in the NYTimes (and I have no co-workers to share things with).

I think from now on I might not talk about those kinds of things. I've realised this week that I care about it a lot more than anyone else does.

So this weekend I made a pie, here are the results. The crust was revolting and I'm considering binning it or scooping out the custard and eating it straight from the dish. What to do...

Don't get mad, get in The New York Times ....

2011-11-03T09:10:00.005+10:00

Best morning ever, the lovely Simone from the New York Times contacted me to let me know that we've been mentioned on her blog today...

At first when I found out that Vogue Italy and Vogue USA had essentially copied my idea I was a little crushed to say the least. But then I realised that this only validates the fact that my company is a good idea and worth pursuing. I've been boot-strapping this thing for nearly 2.5 years now and I can tell you that all of the tinned tuna for lunch is really worth it to be mentioned in The New York Times. Here's hoping that Wikifashion will continue to get bigger ....

Mini Brisbane fashion meet up at Zuri..

2011-10-01T14:29:00.002+10:00

Our second fashion meetup was held at Zuri bar where we celebrated my lovely friend's Summer 2012 collection launch for her label ~ Zafiro. Gosh I need to start running if I want to wear those gorgeous pieces, eek. When did it become October?

It was lovely to finally meet Fran from Opinion Slave..

+ Kaity of modernlegacy..

Can't wait for our next meetup! If anyone is in Brisbane and would love to join the Brisbane fashion meetup sign up here.

All photos are from Opinion Slave... (silly me didn't take one photo).

Brisbane Fashion Industry meetup ~ Zafiro Summer 2012 launch

2011-09-21T07:20:00.003+10:00

My lovely friend and founder of Zafiro Australia is launching her Summer 2012 collection at Zuri bar on the 29th of September. So I decided that it would be a great opportunity to hold a Brisbane Fashion meetup to celebrate + cheer the brand on.

If you're in Brisbane and would love to come along and have a few cocktails and buy a new bikini, you should RSVP here. It would be great to meet some fellow Brisbane bloggers!

The Sydney Morning Herald..

2011-09-19T12:56:00.002+10:00

While I was in San Francisco, the lovely fashion editor from The Sydney Morning Herald wrote a feature on Wikifashion. After a full day at a conference I rushed back to our hotel to do a skype interview at 11pm with her and this is the result. I'm really happy with how things turned out and thankfully didn't mumble (too much).

While I was in New York I had a few meetings with editors and fashion founders + the lovely Karlee from Business Insider interviewed me, here's the article.

I'm still a little jet lagged though I promise to put up a few pictures from my trip. Unfortunately I didn't do any sightseeing (didn't even see the Golden Gate bridge, even though I was in San Fran for two weeks), so my photos are really limited..

Laduree New York + I'm still jet lagged...

2011-09-07T16:27:00.002+10:00

It's 2:30 am in New York and of course I've woken from my sleep, this jet lag will be the death of me. I'm contemplating watching Home and Away (not homesick just really bored). Yesterday was probably the most exciting/fun/incredible day of my entire life. I can't believe I flew into New York for the first time, maneuvered my way through the city alone, met so many cool people who are doing even cooler things and decided that I need to come back here on a more permanent basis. This place is just way too good not to fall in love with it.

On my way to a meeting I stopped off at the newly opened Laduree, I was there when it opened at 9am and already the line was out the door. Strangely enough it was my boyfriend who asked if I could drop by, he loves macarons. For a guy that is otherwise very manly with his tastes, I can't help but laugh at this picture when I think of him begging me to buy some for him.

New York for one day...

2011-08-03T12:28:00.002+10:00

When my boyfriend told me he would be traveling to San Francisco for three days I was a little sad and decided that I should be going too! Although being the founder of a startup doesn't really offer me the luxury of such spur of the moment travel. Lovely C said that he would help me come along too if I made it worthwhile for Wikifashion. Worthwhile I have made it! We're having a meetup in San Fran and over 20 bloggers are attending..I'm suffering from mild (extreme) event planning anxiety.

We're also meeting up with a lot of cool people there who hopefully can give us some advice about which direction to take the site in.

Last but not least I get to fly to New York for 1.5 days. Yes I'm flying 7 hours there and back for less than two days. I'm a little miffed that my second time in New York will be as short as my first, but I am not going to complain because it's New York. I would be a spoiled little brat if I did that. I hate when people say this, but I can't divulge why I'm going, suffice to say if things pan out I will be able to tell you in September sometime! Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in another visit to Magnolias, TopShop (I missed it last time), Kusmi Tea and Central Park (I didn't visit in April, silly!).

I turned a quarter of a century...and a few other things.

2011-07-17T18:19:00.005+10:00

I had my usual catch up with my lovely friends on Tuesday over tea and decided to splurge and purchase a sticky date pudding instead of a scone. It was yummy and a lovely way to celebrate Wikifashion's 2nd birthday!

On Friday I turned 25. It was such a lovely few days in the lead up to it... I went to Harry Potter at Gold Class, saw Cirque du Soleil and then my boyfriend had organised a surprise party with all of my friends at a Japanese restaurant in the city. We had our own room, which was in a traditional Japanese style. Far too spoilt! I purchased my birthday dress from Princess Polly. It's always good for finding something unique..

I've been reminiscing about White Sands in New Mexico ~

I have a major book lemming ~

I took my lovely Delilah to the park today, she had fun as per usual.

Who would have thought I'd find my life quote in a American chain restaurant? Not me.

There's Wikileaks, Wikipedia and then Wikifashion. I love that we were included amongst these wikis! It made me laugh a bit. Very sweet though!

Meetup San Francisco, Union Square ~ September

2011-07-12T11:53:00.003+10:00

So because I just couldn't get enough of San Francisco (two days was not at all sufficient!) we'll be returning to San Fran in September for a few days. If you'd like to come to our meetup, we'll bring some lovely little totes and share some sweets too, no doubt!

We'll be meeting on the 4th of September in Union Square, location + time have not been decided. If you have any tips regarding a venue, please do share! Friends and partners are very welcome too.

If you'd like to come, please join our page here + for more details..

Love to see you all there if you're in the area...

Tsumori Chisato, polka dots + bircher muesli...

2011-07-06T19:49:00.002+10:00

While making a page for Tsumori Chisato I noticed that the web page matched my tea cup. So naturally I took a photo on instagram! Cute, no?

This is the lovely bircher muesli I devoured on Tuesday morning. I prepared it the evening before by soaking half a cup of oats in greek yoghurt and apricot nectar. I then topped it with a fresh date, stewed apple, almonds and blueberries. It was delicious!

Vodka & Caviar and Finn's 1st birthday..

2011-07-03T17:10:00.002+10:00

My gorgeous little nephew had his 1st birthday party today. It was blue and orange themed, my sister went to so much effort, even the cake was blue and orange sponge with white icing. I think he appreciated it, although he had tanked it by the time we cut the cake...

My favourite nail polish for the moment ~ a bright glossy red. It's Vodka & Caviar from OPI.

I made cake pops for Finn's birthday. I'd spent an hour threading straws through one another, as I couldn't find lolly pop sticks anywhere...at first the icing was a bit tricky, but I think I got the hang of it. They gave the adults a major sugar high though!

My boyfriend went straight to bed after the party, I think he was so exhausted from being around ten babies..

How were your weekends?

Wikifashion forum... what do you want?

2011-07-01T12:15:00.001+10:00

I'm in the process of creating the subjects within the Wikifashion forum and wanted to consult my lovely readers.

So what would you like to see in our forum? I'm all ears! Weddings, relationships, book club.. what else?

Hope you all have lovely weekends.

Ellegirl says I put the wiki in fashion?

2011-06-27T17:25:00.002+10:00

Well I certainly don't put the fashion in wiki, that's for sure! The lovely Jaclyn over at Ellegirl was kind enough to interview Coen and I for a feature on their site last week. Being so far away we also organised our own photo shoot. It was a little awkward to say the least, I really didn't like people watching us out in public. I wanted to scream at them, "Yes I'm not crazy, I don' t have any aspirations to be a model. I'm simply a little nerd on the net".

Although our photographer was so awesome and very professional- it was his 30th anniversary as a photographer that day. He also detested green, which made things a little difficult- grass is rather hard to avoid. Although I couldn't stop laughing at the look on his face when he found out about our obnoxiously bright green ute.

If you're interested in reading our little feature, hop on over here.

Sorry again for being such a lousy blogger, I'm a wiki girl at heart I guess? Speaking of Wikifashion, the handsome person in the photo above is hyped up on energy drinks and programming a forum as I type! I'm very excited, I'll actually have people to talk to while I'm wiki-ing it up.

It won't just be for fashion though, we'll also be introducing a general section, where you can talk about whatever you'd like. I think I'll even create my own book club. What do you think?

Kerbside rat..

2011-06-05T18:54:00.002+10:00

Excuse the drowned rat appearance, I can assure you I attempted to 'do' my hair before I went out. Though it tends to resume its default bird nest look after about three drinks or so. I believe the look on my face is a result of my boyfriend informing me of the name of my drink- escort. Sacrebleu!

If you squint really hard, you'll be able to see the dark yellow polish from my previous post. I've decided I do like it. Although it reminds me of McDonalds and everytime I glance at my hands I get a hankering for french fries.

Just in case you're wondering where this photo was taken, it's from Kerbside Bar on Saturday night. If you're in Brisbane you must go. They furnished the bar with seats/couches that they picked up from the footpath. It doesn't sound too appealing, but trust me it's really fun. They even have a swing chair..

AA polishes..

2011-05-23T15:39:00.004+10:00

Here are a few polishes that I grabbed from American Apparel while I was in Vancouver. The darker yellow resembles baby food to me. Although my boyfriend seemed to be rather enamoured with it, so I decided to give it a whirl..

Sorry for being really lazy with blogging lately. To be honest, I can't do "outfit posts" because I'm back to my usual schedule which involves me sitting for 10 hours a day in front of my computer in my lovely house clothes. You don't want to see this!

Tomorrow I'm joining my local library and need some recommendations for good fiction books. I usually only read non-fiction, so I'm a bit lost as to good fiction reads?

SS Bacon Bits.

2011-05-20T17:10:00.002+10:00

During our five weeks in the USA we drove around in a rather large, 25 foot to be exact! RV. I wasn't very fond of it to begin with. We had no hot water during the Rockies and the smoke alarm gave me an electric shock after it fell off the roof.

But after the first week or so and the boys figuring out what was wrong with the hot water, I grew quite fond of our RV. We quickly named him SS Bacon bits. Why? Because people in the US seemed to be bacon crazy. Every spinach salad had bacon in it, the cocktails had bacon, even the toothpaste. I took photographic evidence to prove this...can anyone explain the bacon obsession in the US? I'm still a little confused.

Road tripping....can I go back now?

2011-05-16T13:17:00.003+10:00

This is on day one of our roadtrip, we'd just unpacked and I'd piled clothing on myself like I was a pack horse. I think at that stage we were starting to drive through the Canadian rocky's. So it was more than a little cold....

Poor Coen's shoelaces kept coming undone everywhere we went. So it was only natural that we documented this all over the USA. We have photos of him tying his shoelaces in every city and tourist destination you can think of. This is a photo of me frantically trying to get the camera function working on my iphone so I could take a snap of him in Washington. Thankfully our resident cameraman had his fancy DSLR around his neck at all times.

Here we are at Niagara Falls. Naturally the water isn't bright pink, I think it was mood lighting for all the lovely guys proposing to their girls.

Happy to be home...would rather be back on the teacup ride th... on Twitpic

2011-05-11T15:21:00.000+10:00

Happy to be home...would rather be back on the teacup ride th... on Twitpic

New Mexico...

2011-04-28T15:09:00.002+10:00

This is one of my favourite photos from the trip so far.....This was taken a few days ago at the White Sands in New Mexico.

After this we went to a shop off the highway to buy fireworks and the biggest sparklers I've ever seen and lit them in the middle of the desert while listening to the coyotes in the background.

A few photos for Coral: California....

2011-04-27T06:21:00.002+10:00

At the Hollywood Bowl and sign lookout... it was a little windy!

The Grauman's Chinese Theatre was so much fun... my hands were a perfect match for Emma Watson, Marilyn Monroe and Bette Davis. My boyfriend's matched Gregory Peck's and Matt Damon's..

A few snaps while walking down Sunset Boulevard, during sunset... it was so pretty.

Sorry for the lacklustre blogging. I'm attempting to write this while driving in an RV on our way to San Francisco...the roads are not fit for blogging here. I'll be sure to upload more photos and videos when I have better internet access. Hope all is well with my lovely blogging friends ♥

Kelly Cutrone in Australia...

2011-03-25T13:39:00.004+10:00

via Boy Moments...

I just read on the Vogue Forums that Kelly Cutrone was in Australia for the launch of Gideon Shoes. She also attended book signings and graciously spent several minutes with each of her fans writing them personalised messages...

To say that I'm a little heartbroken is an understatement. I would have hopped on a plane to Sydney with my tattered copy of her book to be signed in a heart beat. If you haven't read her book, I suggest you do. Especially if you're deviating off the school-uni-work-mortgage-etc path (that's just my choice, this is a great choice for many people ♥ ).. basically her book was like listening to my parents advice in reverse.

Not many people are going to really tell you to do what you want with life and mean it. Really they'll most likely suggest the most boring degree to complete (in case you're wondering it's economics) so you can get a stable job (government) at the end of it. But no one will ever tell you that that's so so very boring. Kelly probably would. That's why you should read her book. (Don't bother with Borders, not many physical stores have copies. Try the bookdepository)

Maybe when I'm in New York in a few weeks for my Wikifashion meetup I might run into her? Perhaps I can park my motorhome outside People's Revolution and pop in for a quick chat...(that would be hilarious).

PS. Just looked at the book depository and she has a new book up for pre-order, "Normal Gets You Nowhere").

Wikifashion USA/Canada road trip + meetups

2011-03-20T18:09:00.009+10:00

According to the count down in my diary, I'm leaving on my trip in 11 days! That means I need to hop to it with our Wikifashion meetups. We'll be traveling 13,000 kms across Canada and around the USA in a little under a month.

I've decided we'll be having meetups in:

New York (most likely on the 12th April at Spot Dessert Bar 6:00pm
San Francisco
Portland
Austin

Here's our travel map if you want more details ... or if you want us to organise another meetup!

I'll be writing most of the details here and also on the Wikifashion tumblr. Let me know if you'd like to come, we'll be giving out free Wikifashion bags and a few other goodies. Love to see you there ♥

Join our meetup group for all of our details + RSVP. Once I'm on the road this will be much easier for me to organize and make restaurant bookings...

Wikifashion at SXSW...

2011-03-16T13:02:00.007+10:00

Over the weekend Wikifashion was one of the sponsors at the Texas Style Council at SXSW. Unfortunately I wasn't there, I was sleep tight on the other side of the world. But the point is Wikifashion was there! Next year Coen and I will join our totes in Texas ♥

The gorgeous Indiana of Adored Austin was one of the organisers of the event. How cute is that tutu? Gosh next year I'm going, if only to wear cowboy boots and a tutu!

You can see our tote in the middle of the pic...

Found more photos of the bag here and here.

Brisbane Fashion Industry meetup part deux...

2011-03-15T11:38:00.003+10:00

Following the success (three people is good going for our first meet) of our first meet, I've just scheduled another meetup for this month. We'll be gathering again at Kerbside Bar on the 28th of this month at 6:30pm.

If you're a blogger (I know there are a few of you in Brisbane!), someone who is just a little curious about fashion or if you are involved in the industry we'd love you to join us...RSVP.

Why women and wikis do mix...

2011-03-06T15:20:00.008+10:00

via weheartit.com

Over the last few months there has been a discussion surrounding the fact that only 13% of Wikipedia's contributors are female. The study that discovered this statistic is the catalyst for Sue Gardner's new initiative to involve more women in Wikipedia and to increase their contribution rate to 25% by 2015.

After reading the debate in the New York Times, something that seemed obvious to me just didn't seem to really pop out from any of the debaters. Or perhaps it is obvious and other women just wouldn't say it? Women like things that look pretty..I know that a lot of people might jump out at me for over simplifying the problem and being patronising. But I really don't think that it's something that people should feel shameful about.

Men and women find different aspects of sites, cars, clothing or food appealing for whatever reason. For a lot of women something that looks down right gorgeous is more appealing and they may be more likely to form an attachment to and want to use. I'm not at all a techie, nor am I an expert in design (I'm a trained econometrician). But I am a founder and dedicated user of a wiki that has a contributor base of 94% women-in fact many are fashion bloggers who are not usually described as geeks.

This statistic is not something that I set out to achieve, quite the contrary, I wanted to make sure that just as many men as women used my wiki. But this just hasn't happened. If you take the time to look at my wiki you might see why. It's more than a little pretty, but don't just take my word for it- quora agrees with me. When I say pretty, I mean aesthetically but also it's user friendly. It's less cluttered and a little less overwhelming than traditional wikis have been- très girl friendly.

Another argument as to why it has such a high female contributor rate is the content-fashion. Many might argue that this topic is not something that appeals to many men and they may very well be correct. But a key thread that appeared throughout many of the articles I've read on this topic is that women are disinterested in technology and prefer to use social sites such as facebook or twitter. I think it's this notion that women just don't like technology that is the most damaging. Although a lot of our users who have first used the site found the syntax confusing, many of them persevered and learned how to use mediawiki effectively.

Consequently many would contact me or report that they loved using it once they got the hang of it and would then feel a form of ownership over the pages they were creating. This would be the same intrinsic motivator that causes many of the men who contribute to Wikipedia, to continue to do so. For anyone who remembers their first edit on Wikipedia and is not a programmer themselves, they may remember it as being a little daunting. It takes time and effort to learn how to contribute properly. Something that editors on Wikipedia may not be so encouraging or forgiving of?

What I've unintentionally highlighted with my own site is not that women don't like wikis or are willing to contribute to them (wikipedia's study on the site's usage revealed that 31% of their readers are women), but that they perhaps don't find the site all that intuitive or appealing to edit, ergo Wikipedia you're that really smart nerd in high school that all the cool girls secretly wanted to date but wouldn't dare.

Although the site has made strides in it's appearance lately, with a new redesign and the introduction of mediawiki v16 came an easier editing system, I think it will take a little more than that to attract women to the site. Perhaps make the help sections a little more understandable for the average non-techie and introduce some mechanisms for a more encouraging environment for learning the syntax (this would also prove helpful for new male editors)? Of course being easier on the eye wouldn't go astray.

Wikifashion contributors are the coolest...

2011-03-02T11:29:00.003+10:00

Not only did the gorgeous Fi from Previously Owned write the loveliest post about us, she re-jazzed our badges and made two of the cutest badges I've ever seen (only a little bit biased). See for yourself...how cute are they?

If you love them too, feel free to take one for yourself ♥

Guess what? The Wikifashion USA/Canada tour is only 30 days away now! Getting so so excited...now I just need some recommendations about what I should pack. Any Vancouver girls, what should I wear in April? Will it still be really cold? Any advice would be fantastic...

Brisbane Fashion Industry meetup part one...

2011-02-24T15:22:00.003+10:00

Here are a few quick snaps from our first meetup at Kerbside. I think it went rather well considering there were only three of us (haha). Oh well we have to start somewhere! It was great fun, as you can see from my photo I look very pleased with my iphone for some reason?!

The drink that looks vaguely like a mojito was in fact alcohol free and quite delicious apparently. I had a berry number which was really lovely, and also sans alcohol. The bartender was a little horrified when we asked for them, although slightly less so than when we had asked for the tea menu!

All in all it was a lot of fun and hopefully next time a few more Brisbane fashion (bloggers, designers, business owners etc) peeps come out of the woodworks and join us. Would you be inclined to join us if I brought cupcakes? Because next time there will be some ♥ I've heard bloggers like cake!

Happy Valentine's Day ♥ Wikifashion

2011-02-14T22:10:00.004+10:00

Happy Valentine’s day… to show our ♥ to our contributors we’re giving away a Tiffany heart necklace + a Diana mini en rose…. simply go to our Facebook page to enter. Happy Valentine’s Day xoxo

I'd love all of my blog readers to enter, I know so many of you have supported us over the last 18 months! What did everyone do for Valentine's Day? C was lovely enough to buy me a bunch of pink tulips, which were so pretty...

Wikifashion was on Mashable this week + meet our lovely video bloggers

2011-02-12T09:25:00.005+10:00

As you all know we relaunched Wikifashion this week, I basically have had no sleep and developed a family of ulcers in my mouth (eek). But who cares, when you're in Mashable? I'm not sure if many of my readers would know what Mashable is, but suffice to say if you're in tech, it's a pretty cool thing to happen.

Not only that, but about 20 minutes after it was published, the lovely Tony Wang (of Google boutiques fame) mentioned us at the IFB conference in New York-watching the livestream at 3am in the morning was definitely worth it.

Also, Wikifashion has its own blog, which I don't think I mentioned before? We have two super cute Californian gals who have done an awesome video for us on how to style high-waisted pants. Hop on over and take a look, I would really appreciate it.

I'm off now to have a lovely breakfast with the workaholic boyfriend before he heads off to his office for the weekend. I hope you have lovely weekends x

Hey wiki you're so fine..

2011-02-08T00:10:00.000+10:00

Wikifashion from Wikifashion on Vimeo.

You're so fine you blow my mind, hey wiki, hey wiki.

The redesign is finally here... it's taken over 18 months of slogging away and living off noodles (+ strawberries) but it's here.

It would mean so much to me if you could reblog this video or even mention the redesign on your blogs. A wiki is only possible with the help and obsessive ♥ of its contributors + I know just how obsessed my readers are about fashion!

There has been much talk over the years (Mashable + WSJ) about how women simply aren't interested in wikis, I think that's untrue and I'm going to change that with Wikifashion. I think that women just need a wiki that they love, are passionate about and lets face it, one that looks this pretty really helps.

Grab one of our Wikifashion tote bags...

2011-01-31T12:43:00.003+10:00

Our tote bags just arrived this morning.

If you would like to buy one, just hop on over here. I'll do my best to ship them out as soon as possible... I know that uni will be starting soon and many of you will need a good book/library bag to haul everything around. Mine's already filled!

♥

Brisbane Fashion Industry meetup...

2011-01-29T10:55:00.003+10:00

This year I'll be organising the Brisbane Fashion Industry meetup and would love for any Brisbane bloggers to come along. Or if anyone is feeling super nice, would like to help organise the event? Here's the link to the group if you'd like to join. I'm currently scouting locations for the first meetup.

It would be perfect to just have anyone who likes fashion to come along, chat, have a few cocktails and get to know others in the industry/or who want to be in the industry. I'm shy myself, so it will be really casual and fun...

So far I'm thinking that Kerbside would be a perfect spot. Has anyone been yet?

Wikifashion tote bags...

2011-01-27T22:20:00.005+10:00

As you can see we have a lot of Wikifashion tote bags coming in the mail. If any of you would like one I'd be happy to send you one (I'll be using mine to stock up on library books). We'll be having white ones made later on as well.

We'll also be selling them for $5 at the markets in Brisbane if you'd like to meet us...

Another sneak peek....

2011-01-05T14:22:00.004+10:00

By now I'm sure you're sick of hearing about Wikifashion. But I'm just so excited that it's finally about to happen. We have a few bits and pieces to work on and I've secured two awesome girls from California to make videos for us. Can't wait to introduce them.. I'm not going to put a time on the relaunch, but suffice to say that if it's not up by Valentine's day I will never make one of these posts again. Promise.

Weekend Wandering...

2011-01-03T17:09:00.002+10:00

I just came across Sretsis' latest collection entitled weekend wanderers and I started to think about my favourite things to do on the weekend. Mostly I like to laze around for hours working on Wikifashion until I can't take it anymore. Then I take my puppy down to the park and laugh at her while she roams around. Usually I'll then spend a few more hours devouring tastespotting trying to decide what to make for dinner...

What are your weekend habits? For the entire lookbook skip on over...

Is this not the best photo ever?

2010-12-19T22:41:00.002+10:00

Thank you to the very lovely Sonia over at The Riotous Belle for taking these very awesome snaps. Sonia organises the Blogger Yard Sale in Indonesia and I offered to send a few of our wiki postcards I had lying around. Completely blown away that people loved them that much.

So weird to see that other people (who aren't my friends or Grandparents) know what Wikifashion is. Feels awesome!

Storm + new badges ...

2010-12-17T17:58:00.005+10:00

(say hello to our new redesign badges, they'll be available when the infamous redesign is complete). Cute no? They were done by the ever so talented Joelle. I think our new wikifashion characters need a name. What shall we call them?

This is the storm that hit Brisbane yesterday. Such a stunning photo, although the storm flooded the front part of my house. The hail was quite scary too. I'm such a sook when it comes to storms!

Airbnb + Paris

2010-11-30T13:21:00.004+10:00

One of my favourite things to do is look at interior design online. Another one is to look at hotel websites and visualise myself staying there (sounds a little kooky but its a little technique I picked up from Creative Visualisation, also helps to motivate me and limit procrastination).

My fav fake hotel trips have included the Tokyo Park Hyatt and the Hotel Plaza Athenee in Paris. Imagine my delight when I stumbled across airbnb.com. It's basically a site where people rent out their apartments (the entire house or rooms) to complete strangers... I spent a good two hours looking at all the Parisian apartments and settled on this one... my crazy dream is to be able to rent this pretty thing out for a fortnight, eat Laduree + tea (my name is french so I can get away with being so stereotypical ha!) everyday for breakfast on the balcony while working on Wikifashion. A girl can dream right? (also love the painting on the wall, it looks like a hipster version of my boyfriend, which he scoffed at!)

My trip will then include these gorgeous abodes in Barcelona, London and Berlin.... comment below with your favourites. The site is like crack to me at the moment and I need to stop looking at it. So I'd appreciate your finds!

Instagram...

2010-11-24T14:19:00.006+10:00

I think I've finally turned into a fully fledged geek. It happened a few weeks ago when I explained to my super coder boyfriend about this new app I had found called instagram. I spent around two hours on it, pouring through the gorgeous images.

Basically it's photo fairy dust for the creative klutz, like me. See I tend to just put whatever I'm photographing into the middle of the frame, point, click and fail. But instagram is pure genius. Just select your inferior photo and add a filter and you're Henri Cartier-Bresson. I've included a few of my snaps below..

très jolie Deli...

2010-11-22T11:27:00.006+10:00

On my way....

I just came across this pic on someone's tumblr account and love it! The Wizard of Oz is one of my favourite movies and this photo really pepped me up. Last week was pretty rotten. It included two hospital visits (not for me- lucky!), my phone was cut off (stupid me forgot to pay it and now my family think I've become homeless) and what seemed like all of my friends leaving for long term overseas trips. But I don't like to dwell and this week will be better. Here's hoping all of my lovely readers have great weeks too.

By the way, I think I'll change my profile name to wikigirl, everyone seems to think my real name is Lola and it is confusing people a lot! What does everyone think about that? Probably won't be a big deal seeing as I've been so lazy on the commenting front as of late...

Me and Manu...ooh la la

2010-11-07T18:50:00.007+10:00

(note to self: buy some frizz free serum, or a hairbrush!)

I went along to the Good Food and Wine Festival today in Brisbane with my boyfriend and our friend. Earlier in the morning I'd casually mentioned to the guys that Manu was going to be there. They of course said Man-a what? Silly boys, how can they not know Manu?

After only being at the festival for about 30 minutes we walked around a corner to see Manu having photos taken with people. I pretty much screamed his name and my friend dragged me over for a photo. Me being the introverted mute that I am, didn't say anything but smiled at him like a crazy person. Then he called me darling in his gorgeous french accent and I died a little inside ahhh. The boys couldn't stop laughing at me being all giddy over the french guy.

We managed to make our way around the crowds and picked up a few bottles of moscato, Byron Bay beer and some yummy pomegranate liqueur.

How were your weekends?

Anne Hathaway for Vogue November 2010....

2010-10-19T10:12:00.002+10:00

'Breath of Fresh Air' by Mario Testino.... Anne Hathaway is quite possibly one of the most beautiful actresses in my opinion. I have quite the penchant for Audrey Hepburn and think that Anne has an air of Audrey about her. Wouldn't you agree?

You can see the rest of the editorial for Vogue November 2010, as well as her stunning cover here.

Valentino, Douglas Kirkland, Max Brenner + the Golden Age of Couture...

2010-10-10T11:31:00.004+10:00

I don't know about the rest of the country, but Brisbane's weather has been decidedly grizzly this weekend. It's dare I say cold, in Spring... so instead of being cooped up in our house. C and I joined a few of our friends at GOMA and visited the Valentino exhibition.

I'm kicking myself for not attending the media event I was invited to. Mainly because then I could have taken some photos for you. It was gorgeous, I had so much fun spotting Oscar dresses and who wore them. The guys I was with looked at me like I was some kind of dress whisperer. Well I couldn't very well call myself the founder of Wikifashion without knowing a dress or three could I?

Although it was a really lovely exhibit, I was very taken by the Douglas Kirkland exhibit on level 3. Everyone in Brisbane should take the time and go and have a snoop. I'd never heard of him until yesterday, but I knew most of his photographs. I've linked a few of my favourites below. Although there was a three-part series of Elizabeth Taylor with her maltese that I adored, unfortunately google has me stumped.

After making our way out of the exhibits, we made a quick detour through the gift shop (who am I kidding, I dragged C in there. I was like a kid in a candy store, so many fashion coffee table books!). I purchased the Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London, 1947-57 (the cover dress is by Balmain, 1957).

After GOMA, we wandered through Southbank and stumbled upon the heaven that is Max Brenner! The line was so so long, but my soy coconut hot chocolate was worth it. Run don't walk! I later found out that it had just opened that morning. Good bye bikini!

It's rainy again this morning, so far I've made banana, coconut and buttermilk pancakes served with raspberries and japanese lime tea (purchased from the Tea Centre yesteryday). Not doing much else today, except doing wiki work and baking. How about you?

No se si exista algo mas gay que "wikifashion"...

2010-10-06T10:42:00.004+10:00

"No se si exista algo mas gay que "wikifashion" para algunas personas supongo que es productivo, siempre y cuando sepan que buscan"

That's what a lovely soul wrote about Wikifashion on twitter. According to google it roughly translates to-

"do not know if there is anything more gay than "wikifashion" for some people I guess that is productive as long as they know that seeking.."

Why yes I am very happy and if economics taught me anything, it's that everything has a value if someone demands/wants it. This was something I struggled with, leaving my job as an econometrician to pursue my site. Yes, being an economist probably adds more value to society but Wikifashion has more value to me. At what point do you do want you want to do, even if people think it is vapid and unproductive? What is the opportunity cost for your happiness?

Sorry if this sounds whiney, it's my first criticism of wiki and at first I laughed and found it funny. But then my old feelings of doubt and embarrassment niggled back..

On a more positive note, I've kept up a regular exercise routine for the last six weeks. I've almost finished the couch to five k program and have been doing pilates four times a week. This is amazing for someone who regularly forged notes to get out of sport at school.

How is everyone else going? Ready for short short season?

Sorry for my abysmal blogging..

2010-09-22T21:32:00.004+10:00

Things have been rather busy on the Wikifashion front lately. It's been a lot harder than I thought owning a startup. Things take a lot, and I mean a lot longer to do than you predict or plan for. Although to be positive, some lovely surprises pop up around the corner when you least expect them, our feature on Sportsgirl's website being one of them.

One of the things I didn't plan for was the fact that as the site became more popular, that I'd be spending most of my time fending off piggybackers, aka (people who don't like to think of their own ideas) eek! I'm defiant that everything will be ok, that my hard work and ability to treat others kindly will help wiki to flourish.

Enough of the boring business, my days have also been spent cooking up a storm (pop on over to Heidi's blog for guilt free + yummy recipes). One of my boyfriend's friends, kindly pointed out to him that I might be nesting. I think my new love of the kitchen is more to do with stress eating than cluckiness. Although he did manage to get C a little worried, the poor boy :)

How has everyone else in the blogging world been?

Sportsgirl loves Wikifashion... excuse me while I fall over!

2010-08-26T21:12:00.004+10:00

The very gorgeous peeps over at Sportsgirl wrote a lovely little piece about Wikifashion today... I'm a little speechless, to have an established brand say how much they love our site makes me so happy. Living off beans and an absolutely no shopping ban for the last 13 months has been worth it...

What a lovely way to start the weekend. Speaking of the weekend, my boyfriend is entering a 48 hour programming competition with a few other guys and will be camping out in our dining room for the entire weekend. I'm going to occupy myself with baking, window shopping and having dinner with my lovely friend. What is everyone else doing?

Apple + Berry Pie

2010-08-13T16:35:00.004+10:00

Lately I've been on a baking kick. Last night I managed to snap a photo of the apple and berry pie I made, before my boyfriend demolished it. I served it with some passionfruit greek yoghurt instead of icecream, so much yummier and much lighter!

Here's a recipe for those of you looking to get your rolling pins out this weekend ♥

Ingredients (serves 6)

1kg Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, quartered, cut into 1.5cm-thick slices
200g frozen berries
75g (1/3 cup) raw sugar
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
Dash of vanilla beans
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbs plain flour
1 egg white, lightly whisked
1 tbs raw sugar, extra
Double cream, to serve
Pastry
525g (31/2 cups) plain flour
215g (1 cup) caster sugar
250g chilled butter, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs

Method

To make the pastry, place the flour, sugar, butter and salt in the bowl of a food processor and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the eggs and process until the dough just starts to come together. Shape into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for 1 hour to rest.
Roll out two-thirds of the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a 28cm-diameter disc. Line a 20cm (base measurement) pie dish with the pastry. Trim excess and reserve. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine the apple, berries, sugar, spices and flour in a bowl. Brush the base and side of the pastry case with half the egg white. Spoon the apple mixture into the pastry case.
Roll out the remaining pastry on a lightly floured surface to a 24cm-diameter disc. Place over the pie dish. Press the edges to seal. Trim excess pastry. Roll out with the reserved pastry. Use a leaf-shaped pastry cutter or a small sharp knife to cut leaves from pastry. Place on pie to decorate. Brush pie with remaining egg white. Top with extra sugar. Cut 3 slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until pastry is crisp and golden and the apple is tender when a skewer is inserted into the slits. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool. Cut into wedges. Serve with cream.

We reached 50,000 edits....

2010-07-28T14:50:00.002+10:00

Well technically Wikifashion has reached around 49,000 edits. But I wanted to say thank you beforehand to make sure that our giveaway coincided with when we reached the 50,000 mark.

To show how much we really adore our contributors we've decided to give a little something to one of our facebook fans... chanel signature earrings no less!

My heart breaks a little about not being able to keep these, but I know they will be going to a good home. To enter just pop on over to our facebook page.

PS. Sorry if you're completely sick of me talking about Wikifashion. When the redesign comes along we'll be incorporating a forum and blog, for me to talk about wiki in a more appropriate space... can't wait!

Bedtime Stories...

2010-07-25T12:19:00.002+10:00

In order to really switch off for the day, it's so important for me to read for awhile before I hit the hay. These are the books I'm currently working my way through. As you can see, I'm terrible at sticking with just one book. I'll usually choose which one I want to read according to my mood...at the moment I'm reading Murakami's and the Google book.

What type of reader are you? Do you stick the book out or start another at the same time?

I hope you are all having lovely weekends, it's considerably glum here in Brisbane.

Mini office reshuffle...

2010-07-21T12:46:00.003+10:00

You know when you just can't seem to be productive? Well this morning I had the worst case of the jitters and just couldn't focus. When it gets this bad I find I need to rearrange my office and alter the aesthetic a little.

I whipped out my Caitlin Quiet poster from last month's Frankie mag and did a quick albeit dodge framing job... I added some pretty fabric behind the poster so you can't see that the frame is actually a wall calendar. Genius. Thanks Coral for my very good fabric scissors ♥

Some new additions to the wiki office....

2010-07-17T11:57:00.003+10:00

I tweeted a little while ago about my new sewing machine. It's rather cute don't you think? Well it has one problem... I purchased it from the US and didn't consider that it wouldn't work in Australia. What can I say? I was lured by the Hello Kitty. I'm currently working on finding a transformer that doesn't cost more than the actual machine.

My lovely friend has offered to teach me how to sew. She's very talented and often makes her own clothes, I can only dream of being able to do that! One step at a time...

When I purchased the sewing machine from Urban Outfitters, I also placed an order for a pink vintage phone. Shortly after, I received an email from them saying they had cancelled that order. I wasn't given a reason, although it's probably because it wouldn't function in Australia. Why am I such an airhead around pretty things?

To console myself, I purchased this vintage phone from Australian ebay for $20.

On Thursday it was my birthday and my lovely boyfriend gifted me with this gorgeous orchid for my office. He was a little hesitant, because I've killed every other plant I have ever owned. I'm hoping I can break this record. If anyone has any tips about how to look after orchids, I'm all ears...

I hope you all have lovely weekends... we just arrived home from the farmer's markets armed with fresh fruit + veg, yummy rye bread and greek yoghurt. All for $30...

Also we have an entire bag of limes that were given to us by C's auntie, if anyone has lime recipes..sharing is caring ♥

What I'm loving this week...

2010-07-14T12:54:00.002+10:00

Cupcakes and Birthdays ♥

2010-07-11T19:14:00.004+10:00

Last night Coen and I held a small dinner party at the lovely Vapiano in Brisbane's CBD to celebrate my 24th birthday and Wikifashion's first birthday....my time flies when you're having fun! I snapped a few photos for you and decided to post them here at the request of the gorgeous Coral and Grace.

The above photo is our take on the Wikifashion badges. Unfortunately the cupcake girls didn't use white writing and it didn't have the effect I was going for, but hey they tasted delicious, so they did the job.

My very lovely boyfriend gifted me with a pink rose necklace from Make Believe ♥ I've been drooling over this piece for months. I was quite taken aback when I gave it to me early so I could wear to my party! Best boyfriend ever or what?

Here is a quick snap of my outfit for the night. Don't mind the silly pose, I was attempting to block out the moon shine.

What did everyone else get up to on the weekend? Did anyone go to the farmer's markets? As FF would say, I always find produce shopping "soothing".

Christian Dior Fall 2010 Couture

2010-07-06T13:40:00.004+10:00

Christian Dior Autumn Winter 2010-11 Haute Couture show was a mixture of floral hues, inspired by nature, John Galliano said. From the looks of the collection, it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. The colours he has used are so beautiful and vibrant. Each dress is like a beautiful flower. To see the rest of the collection, hop on over to Wikifashion.

PS. Givenchy just unveiled their Autumn/Winter 2010-11 collection in Paris....Obviously, being the girly girl that I am, I'm partial to Dior's show. Although Givenchy is rather stunning too. Check out the rest of the collection here.

Winter Reading List....

2010-06-16T17:33:00.005+10:00

It occurred to me that the only books I am currently reading are serious business books. It's a genre that I really enjoy, mainly for the tips and tricks of those who have gone before me and the motivational kick in the behind I get after reading them.

On my bedside table I currently have- The Google Story, Too Big to Fail (It's about the GFC-loathe this term) and Female Chauvinist Pigs. Not exactly light reading. So this morning I jumped on the book depository (the lazy woman's Borders) and purchased the following....

What does a girl who owns Wikifashion really need? A fashion dictionary! *cough* tax deductible...

After the train wreck that was SATC2 I decided to lick my wounds and purchase this. I'm attempting to wipe the slate clean and fall in love with Carrie et al, all over again.

I was a little hesitant to purchase this initially, due to it being ghost written, but under the guise of good girly fun I thought it would be inappropriate not to buy LC's book.

Out of all the books I have purchased, this is the one I am really looking forward to. Zoe Foster, a gorgeous former beauty editor, online editor of primped.com.au and published author. Basically I want to be her! (I'm not sure if many of you would remember, but a while ago I said I wanted to write a book. Well last night I sat down for three hours and wrote a 3000 word plan). It's a start at least!

So what books are on your winter reading list? Do any of you have some tips for a budding author?

Sneak peek at Wikifashion's redesign....

2010-06-11T15:50:00.003+10:00

If you're a regular to this blog you'd know that I'm the girl behind Wikifashion. Over the last few months I've tormented you with continuous chatter about our redesign. Well we were keeping it under wraps until our launch, but I never was very good at keeping a secret! So I thought I'd let you lovely ladies and gents be the first to have a look. Let me know what you think.

At this stage the new site won't be going live until late August. This is through no fault of our own, unfortunately we are waiting for the software that we use to release its latest version. Ahh well such is life!

Sorry for the lack of interesting posts as of late. Once our relaunch is over, I'm going to try and actually live a little so I can participate in *shock* outfit posts....

Hope everyone has good long weekends in Australia. What do you all have planned?

Cognitive surplus and why people like wikis....

2010-05-31T16:17:00.011+10:00

source: weheartit.com

Preface: If introductory economics bored you to tears, I can assure you I've done my best to take the dryness out of the subject. I myself was never drawn to harsh economic subjects like econometrics. Instead I soaked up behavioural and information economics. Both of which are very relevant to online media and the change in the way we now consume news.

It may not come as much of a surprise to you, but I am somewhat of a geek. I studied economics for five years and worked as an economist for the QLD Treasury once I graduated. Becoming a co-founder of a wiki has not really helped my cause, although I hope the fashion side of that has at least redeemed me a little.

One of the most fascinating things with economics is its ability to explain the way people behave. Why do they contribute to one forum and not the other? Why do people tweet? Where did all the wikipideans come from and why do they while their hours away editing pages?

After coming across Clay Shirky's "Cognitive Surplus", it jogged my memory about intrinsic motivators and the idea that one is not enticed by external factors such as money or rewards. Instead people are far more motivated to complete tasks due to the warm and fuzzies they feel once they are done. Curiouser and curiouser, if a person were offered an extrinsic reward for something that satisfies them nonetheless, they are far more likely not to complete the task.

Clay talks about a person's cognitive surplus, basically this is a fancy way for saying, one's spare time. He explains that with the rise of consumerism in the 1920s and the subsequent adoption of television, people's cognitive surpluses were once spent mostly on staring at the black box.

With the rise in online media, twitter, facebook et al, cognitive surplus has now evolved into participatory surplus. People now have choices, while TV is a one way street, the internet can be akin to getting lost in New York. It's a busy hub, an avalanche of information is thrown at us everyday. People are not only consuming this information, but they are now sharing it, discussing it and adding it to wikis. There is no shortage of ways in which you can disperse of information.

Due to the sheer volume of information that we are exposed to online, we are seeing a shift from professionalism to mass amateurization. A group of people learn bite size pieces and add them to the the puzzle. The social networks that are now popping up, have brought down the barriers to entry, allowing everyone to share and produce a higher aggregate value. This slow pull away from consumerism is changing society and will in the long term create a higher production value.

Technology is causing a fundamental shift in society and dissolving the dichotomy between professionals and amateurs. Anyone who is interested or would like to learn something new regardless of their education or skill level can join in on the conversation. That's what's so fantastic about technology and online media, it endorses the "more the merrier" notion.

This is exactly why I created Wikifashion, with so many barriers to the industry, fashion is in a sense the last of the impenetrable fortresses. Almost impossible to peek inside, one has to "pay their dues" before being invited to the party. I am hoping to bring down the walls so that those who simply like to flick through Vogue once a month can edit alongside those who write for Elle magazine. Anyone is welcome and we certainly believe the "more the merrier".

Spot the difference: Betty Autier v. Zara

2010-05-23T11:08:00.009+10:00

The rise of blogging and its influence on our sartorial choices has meant a swift change in the way fashion houses and brands are doing business. Pandora, Betty, Jane and Alix have all witnessed the beauty of Coco Chanel's Parisian apartment, once closed to the public it is now open to a select few who are the new muses of fashion.

While some brands are openly transparent with bloggers and the projects that they work on together, others seem to skip over them all together, forgetting the key to many blog's success- involvement in their communities, open discussion and acknowledgement that our opinions count.

This morning I stumbled across Betty Autier's post, trawled through 250 comments all of which were utterly dismayed by Zara's lack of courtesy. This is quite similar to the uproar that started on IFB a few weeks ago surrounding Payless Shoes and Chictopia using member's photographs without permission or credit.

It seems to me that a quick telephone call, or email would have sufficed and even worked in Zara's favour. Now, I'm no blogging it-girl, I've never had Chanel inviting me to sit on Coco's steps, but if a company such as Zara called and said, "hey Lola we want to put a cartoon of your ever so gorgeous mug on our t-shirts" I would have been absolutely flattered. I may have even whipped up a lovely little blog post and all of those 250 comments and rising may have translated into a little pot of t-shirt gold.

Instead, the company has most likely risked any future cross promotion with Miss Autier and alienated a fair chunk of their targeted demographic. Not such a smart move when most of us no longer look to magazines for style inspiration but Betty et al.

What do you think? How should companies deal with situations like this? Sink their heads in the sand or try to understand the dynamics of the blogging economy a little better?

Chanel Cruise 2011 collection

2010-05-12T12:19:00.004+10:00

I spent the morning uploading the Chanel Cruise 2011 collection to Wikifashion. You can view the entire collection here. This dress really struck me... I adore the swirly pastels. It reminds me of rainbow ice cream that I loved as a child.

In a magical land, I'd buy this gorgeous floaty dress and wear it while strawberry picking. I'd then indulge in fresh crepes and strawberries washed down with a vanilla milkshake. A little ostentatious? Yes. But this is imaginary after all....

Which piece from the collection would you wear and where would you show it off? (just mention the file name or blog about it with the pic)

Startup Monday: Whiteboards and retro phones...

2010-05-10T19:07:00.006+10:00

Today I realised that the official birthday of Wikifashion is fast approaching! On July 12th, a few days short of my 24th birthday, my burgeoning site will celebrate being one years old.

Throughout these ten months, I have basically breathed Wikifashion. It has consumed my thoughts, I dream about it and spend my days typing furiously away at Miss Mac. All the while pursuing marketing, organising our lovely interns, creating content and helping new visitors navigate their way.

Some days I find it hard to keep going, when traffic takes a dive or someone gives up with the sometimes difficult syntax. It is always easy to do this, but the one thing I remember is that people who fail are the ones who give up too early. I have never been one to give up, I keep on plugging away and trust that my hard work will eventually pay off.

It's the little things each day that keep me going, here are my little mood lifters...

♥Purchasing a new whiteboard with crazy crayola markers. I mentioned in an earlier post that I am mad for making lists. This board should help me do just that...

♥Every few hours I like to give myself a break and browse net a porter. I like to plan pretend outfits for pretend events. Maybe this is a little weird, but I like to think of it as window shopping.

♥I like to browse tripadvisor and look at photos from 5 star hotels. The very first goal I had when I started Lola and Wikifashion was being able to go back to Tokyo in December 2011 and stay at the Tokyo Park Hyatt Hotel and sip cocktails at the New York Bar every night. This sounds so frivolous, but I am a big big fan of Lost in Translation. Anyone who has seen this movie will understand.

♥Finding a gorgeous retro phone on ebay (look above)... she's a lovely meringue colour. I think she and Miss Mac would get along swimmingly! What do you think, should she join my little office?

I'd love to know what little things you do to encourage or motivate yourselves throughout your careers....

RAFW on Wikifashion.....

2010-05-07T14:33:00.006+10:00

Thank you so much for all of your lovely comments in my last post! Sorry for the lack of posting over the last two weeks. Things with Wikifashion have been very hectic. Without further adieu here are a few picks from Rosemount Australian Fashion Week. Click on the links to see the entire collection.

Marnie Skillings....

Obviously I'd wear pants with this outfit. I just adore the colours and the cardi is such a vivid blue!

Camilla and Marc...

This might not suit my figure, but I love the mix of pastel pink with orange.

Zimmermann....

I definitely couldn't get away with this. But I love the colours nonetheless. Hopefully they come out with a more hip friendly bikini in this shade.

Alex Perry....

If Cinderella were around today, I believe she would wear this to the ball. No pumpkin needed, she'd probably ride home in an Audi R8. (My dream car....)

Garance Dore for Westfield

2010-04-28T16:50:00.003+10:00

So this morning I woke up at the treacherous time of 4am to make my flight to Sydney. I'm not complaining at all though, if this is what is in store for my career, then I'm pretty happy..... all in all Garance Dore was so so lovely, charming, sweet and funny. I am a fairly timid person and she was so easy to talk to!

After the party I managed to spy Scott Schuman (a.k.a The Sartorialist) in action. Look out for a gorgeous girl with a cute pixie blonde do' and pastel yellow skirt on his blog in the near future...

Dace Fall 2010 Look Book

2010-04-18T11:26:00.002+10:00

For everyone in the Northern Hemisphere, I know the last thing you want to think about is the colder months. Nevertheless this is what you have to look forward to in Fall. Gorgeous silk camisoles, a bevy of neutral tones and some cute coats to boot. Have a look at Dace's Fall 2010 look book here. What are your favourites?

Sretsis Stolen Moments SS 2010-11

2010-04-15T03:45:00.002+10:00

Sretsis Stolen Moments SS 2010-11 collection is so utterly breaktaking. The collection is a mix of girly pinks, ice blue, silks, chiffons and applique. If you want to have a look at the entire collection, waltz over to Wikifashion and have a look.

You're hot and you're cold...

2010-04-14T10:27:00.005+10:00

Yesterday I listened to a podcast featuring Natalie Massenet of net-a-porter.com fame and designer Rouland Mouret. They discussed the way in which fashion will be consumed in the future and that how we shop will be revolutionised. They didn't specify what form this will take on exactly, although they did press on to say that more video content will become available.

While listening to this I became rather excited. Fashion, shopping and online media is somewhat of a new fish in the online ocean, still floating around trying to take it's rightful place.

Then this morning, I became a little frustrated at a certain designer and their pr. I have been trying to no avail to secure the look book of their Winter 2010 range for Wikifashion. Suffice to say that this exercise is akin to finding a sober person in a bar.

Now this look book is not under such tight wraps that no one can see it, rest assured I know that a lot of customers have been sent the pdf copy. It's just that the designer, I believe does not want to release a copy to the media. I can understand their point of view, this is how things have always been done. Look book is released to retailers, retailers let their customers have a quick peak and then the media are thrown the crumbs and left to squabble like a couple of seagulls at the beach.

I do not for one second think that Wikifasion is so important that I deserve a copy, but we are one of the top searches for "insert designers name winter" "insert designer's name winter 2010" and "insert designer's name", you can catch my drift. So when people click on our link looking for this look book, it's more than a little embarrassing to only have a few pictures and a summary of the collection available. Like I've said before, Wikifashion is a community site, it's for the good of designers and their customer's alike. I'm trying to help, I pinky promise.

This brings me back to my first point- fashion and shopping is apparently about to become revolutionised. How? If I can't even secure a look book, how is it that I will secure video content, or designers will even feel the need to create this type of material? Perhaps I'm a little new school, but sometimes I think that designers and pr act like a couple of kids on their first day of kindy. Some designers may literally be online, but that doesn't mean that the way they conduct themselves online isn't exactly the same as in a bricks and mortar world. I think it's high time for many to adapt and adopt new methods, to stop fighting the wave and go with it.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Sorry if this came across a little negative. I do think that there are a lot of designers and online stores doing marvellous things online, who really understand how to create content that is appropriate for internet users.

*update: The designer's pr have sent me a copy of the look book in question. Yay!

Support Wikifashion....

2010-04-10T12:01:00.002+10:00

So most of you would know by now that Wikifashion is a project that myself and my geeky boyfriend whipped up. It's plodding along really well... thanks to a lot of lovely girls and guys in the blogosphere. Thank you so much for your support by displaying our badges on your blogs.

If you'd like a badge please go here and take your pick! Let me know if you need any help editing a page for yourself or using the badges.

xoxo

Happy Easter..... and Wikifashion redesign ♥

2010-04-04T18:16:00.002+10:00

Home Office: Gabrielle Adamidis of Hopeless Lingerie

2010-03-30T11:11:00.003+10:00

The very lovely Gabby of Hopeless Lingerie kindly shared with me a few snaps of her work area..... I love all of her knick-knacks. She says that they help to cheer her up and keep her work area exciting! I can definitely relate to that ♥

Lola's Mood Board:March

2010-03-30T02:08:00.002+10:00

So the other day I was feeling rather sluggish, a little lost about how I was going to approach a few projects and just generally like things were going over my little head. All in all, that morning I was very unproductive.

So I grabbed my empty pin board, a stack of Frankie, Shop til you drop and Vogue magazines and started cutting. It was very cathartic piecing together this fairy floss theme. It really helped me with Wikifashion and I had a very productive afternoon. What do you like to do when you have a brain block?

How to create a page for your blog on Wikifashion.....

2010-03-27T02:06:00.001+10:00

The Wishing Jar

2010-03-22T06:27:00.000+10:00

Sorry I know I haven't done a wishing jar for a few weeks... so for those of you who are new to this blog, all you have to do is pop in a few wishes for the week. Here are mine:

To keep up with my exercise regime. Last week I went running five times, this week I'd like to do pilates twice as well.
Find a way to stop stressing a little bit!
Keep chipping away at Wikifashion and on my clients' campaigns.

What are yours?

Lola's Snail Mail & Wikifashion postcards....

2010-03-19T12:30:00.004+10:00

Follow the Wikifashion twitter account....

If you'd like one of our Wikifashion postcards feel free to comment below and email

me your postal address.....

I am so in love with our Wikifashion tote bags, we've ordered a few more.

You'll soon be able to pick up a few for yourselves...(puppy not included).

Some new stationery and some other exciting news.....

2010-03-17T13:03:00.005+10:00

I recently placed a small order on Vistaprint.com for business cards, compliment slips and tote bags for Wikifashion. The totes will be used to send a thank you gift to the lovely Keiko Lynn and Phyllis for all their help during New York Fashion Week...

Refinery 29: A Brave New Online World

2010-03-12T19:43:00.009+10:00

This afternoon I attended Portable Presents Refinery 29, at The Edge in Brisbane, where the founder Philippe van Borries and style director, Piera Gelardi of the site, discussed the future of online retail, the role of social media and the new direction in fashion reporting and business.

Refinery 29 is one of New York's most forward thinking online fashion publication's, it's one part global fashion guide and two parts fashion editorial. With over one million unique visitors each month, the site is no small fry in the fashion world.

Listening to Philippe and Piera was so incredible, the way they dissected their business and carefully explained how they built their site to what it is today was so inspiring for me and has only fuelled me to work harder on Wikifashion.

With only $5000 to launch, they managed to introduce their site to the cream of the New York fashion world, interviewing Alexander Wang in his apartment and partnering with YSL and the Gilt Group.

They have managed to create a unique and dynamic dialogue with consumers and their audience, shaping their content to them and being able to envisage trends. Their out of the box approach to content and editorials have allowed them to forge an important place for themselves among online fashion publications.

They understood the way in which fashion is consumed was changing and designers would no longer have control over their brands if they didn't participate in the online conversation. Part of their success was their championing of independent stores and designers like Alexander Wang and Erin Fetherston, their ability to develop unique relationships allowed Refinery 29 to not only report on fashion but to allow designers to truly communicate and listen to their customers. In short, they created a higher level of personalisation and customisation.

Their discussion of upcoming trends in the online world was fascinating. Content, mobile, crowdsourcing and location based services are the next wave of technologies that brands and publications must come to grips with. It seems that fashion is only getting more fast paced and if you are not adapting you will miss the boat.

One of the most important pieces of advice I have taken from the night came from Philippe, all you need is one idea everyday and risk is more important than experience.

I'd urge anyone who is interested in social media and fashion reporting to snap up a ticket or two for the Sydney or Melbourne events, it's invaluable for brands and communicators alike.

edit: The above photo is actually of Piera and Philippe, it was used on their wedding invitations.

Office Space: Wikifashion

2010-03-09T16:18:00.003+10:00

Part of the joy of working on your own business is having the freedom to decorate your own office. This is what my desk looks like at the moment. I can assure you it's not as neat as this, but it's pretty close to it. I believe that in order for me to be highly productive, I need an organised space with with a lot of natural light and paper to quickly jot things down. Here's a run down of my office essentials:

Tea pot and cup
Note pads
Sticky notes
Lots of pens and highlighters
Diary
A stack of fresh magazines
Folders and clear document slips
A white board and cork board
Miss Mac

What are your office essentials?

Techno Vogue: Conde Nast to launch magazines for iPad

2010-03-04T10:04:00.004+10:00

When the iPad was announced a short while ago, my interest in the device was certainly piqued. I had already convinced myself that I not only wanted this device but I needed it. Isn't it funny that before it came along I had no use or desire for a portable screen in which to read material from?

Maybe I just love Apple products, or the one and a half hour key note sucked me in and kindly spat me out? Either way I am giddy with excitement for the release of Apple's newest toy. Although being the sensible consumer that I am, you will not see me camped outside the Apple store to be one of the first to purchase the iPad. Even though those who do, have been promised a free "gift".

You might ask why someone who is *relatively technologically inept would want another electronic device? This brings me to my other insatiable love, magazines. I adore them, the first Monday of every month is denoted as "Magazine day" in my household. I love the glossy pages, fashion editorials and feature articles. When Conde Nast announced that they were developing versions of their magazines for iPad, I turned into kid in a candy store.

Can you imagine receiving all of your subscriptions every month on your iPad? You can forgo the unreliable postie and that knot in your back from carrying your stash out of Borders, nestle your iPad on your lap and literally flip through hundreds of pages, without so much as reaching over the coffee table for your next hit. That is unless of course you want another Tim Tam.

Up until yesterday, the majority of magazines to announce an iPad version have been relatively male orientated: GQ, Esquire and Wired. However, Conde Nast have announced that Glamour, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker have been added to the line up. Under Cindi Leive, Glamour has become a digital success story, with their blog driven approach, the magazine has seen a surge in traffic over the past year. This combined with their substantial, youthful print and online audience, Glamour has the potential to attract a large number of iPad users.

The only qualm that I have about this form of publication, is that it is creating an element of intangibility. I love the scent magazines have from the sample perfumes and the feeling of glossy paper between my fingertips. Will this factor in your decision to read magazines this way? Or will the convenience of the iPad triumph? I believe that there will always be a place for traditional media although online media can certainly provide added value to consumers as a whole. All in all it is an exciting time for the publishing industry.

* I say relatively because I live with a super computer genius. Obviously I run a website, blog and love social media, so I'm not completely befuddled by my computer.

The Wishing Jar

2010-03-01T10:18:00.005+10:00

Welcome back to the Wishing Jar. How did your week's pan out? Did you work towards your bite-size goals? Here's how it works: Pop into the jar a few small wishes for the week. Nothing too big, something small that is achievable in seven days. Here's mine:

Make time for having fun. This weekend I adventured out to the city for the first time in months, read magazines at Borders, found a new tea shop and an Italian restaurant and walked through my city's new tunnel. I had so much fun not doing any work.
Finish the Oscar's page on Wikifashion...I'm attempting to create fashion galleries for as many years as I can find pictures for. Wish me luck, or better yet do you have any photos of the Oscars? Feel free to upload them on Wikifashion.
Schedule featured articles on Wikifashion for everyone who has used one of our badges.
Send out thank you gifts to the two lovely bloggers who tweeted for Wikifashion during New York Fashion Week.

your turn.....

Lola's Chain Mail:Week ending 26th February

2010-02-27T01:24:00.000+10:00

Welcome back to Chain Mail Friday ♥

Meet Doe Deere ♥

2010-02-24T15:11:00.001+10:00

image courtesy of Doe Deere Blogazine.

Without further adieu here is my interview with the very lovely Doe Deere, unicorn lover and creator of Lime Crime cosmetics.

♥ I love your line, the one thing that really strikes me about Lime Crime is that it is so fun and vibrant! If you were given only three words to describe your products to a beauty editor what would they be? Like an elevator pitch? I would say that it's bright, pigmented, & whimsical! I think our slogan says it all: "So bright it's illegal!"

♥ Lime Crime is primarily sold online. How did you market your products to your customers? We sold exclusively online for the first year, but are currently branching out into retail stores in US, UK, Canada and soon Australia. When we were first starting out, my main marketing tools were MySpace, Twitter, and my blog - Doe Deere Blogazine. I enjoy writing and sharing, so I started posting makeup tutorials on my site back in 2005. Those were the dark ages of makeup tutorials, and, believe it or not, I was the only girl on the internet doing tutorials. Now we have YouTube, and LiveJournal communities, and lots of other sites! It's pretty awesome how the whole thing took off.

♥ Does selling online have any advantages over selling in physical stores? Yes, absolutely. You don't need a display, don't need to convince buyers to carry your product, and the overhead is significantly lower. However, the obvious problem with selling beauty online is that people can't try it. My dream was always to let my customers experience Lime Crime in person - which is why it's so exciting to finally have my products carried in physical stores!

♥ What was the hardest thing for you when beginning Lime Crime? Designing packaging and establishing a customer base. I love packaging and insisted on designing it myself, without having prior experience. Hit a few bumps on the road here and there. But in the end, I'm glad I did it myself - I have a much better understanding of how things work now, plus I love learning new skills. Getting the word out about my brand was tough. When you do something so far removed from the mainstream, you don't know where you fit in - and finding your customer can be a challenge. But in the process, I got to know my customer much better and even learned a thing or two about myself!

♥ How has social media impacted on your company? How have you approached using this method? I think the internet in general lent a hand. I've been online since 1996 (while still living in Russia) and marveled at the possibilities this invention brought us. I've made friends, business partners, even met my husband online - launching an online business was just a natural step. I love social networking, and enjoy connecting with new people very much.

My favorite sites:

Twitter
Facebook
Formspring (the new thing where anyone can ask you a question, anonymously or not).

♥ Lime Crime has recently been picked up in Urban Outfitters, congratulations! What do you think are the main contributors to this happening? Thank you so much! It's a milestone for us for sure, since Urban Outfitters is the first retailer to believe in our line and carry it in their stores. How did we end up there? Well, we were featured in Daily Candy, and that generated a great deal of buzz. Urban saw our lipsticks and wanted to carry them in their stores immediately. Our opaque lipsticks can be found in UO stores throughout Canada. I think we're a great fit with Urban because we are young, playful and tastefully edgy - just like their customers!

♥ Should we look out for Lime Crime in other stores soon? We are launching in Space NK this April, in both, UK and US. Space NK is a wonderful chain that carries cutting-edge brands such as Nars, Laura Mercier and Lipstick Queen. We are proud to be joining the family!

♥ What would you say to other women who want to start their own businesses? Go for it! If you have an idea, don't wait, do it now. Don't be afraid of failure - behind every great men there is a string of failures.

♥ What are your most used beauty products? Lip balm and eyeshadow primer - they keep my lips chap-free and my eyeshadow bright all day!

Thank you Doe...these answers have been really helpful to me and hopefully other aspiring entrepreneurs will enjoy them as well.

My Weekend....

2010-02-23T03:12:00.006+10:00

Weekends at my abode are usually spent whiling hours away on Wikifashion. The wiki geek is currently working on a forum for the site and I am fielding photos from lovely bloggers who are reporting on behalf of Wikifashion from both New York and London Fashion Weeks. Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that one day this might technically be "work".

On Sunday morning we met up with the lovely Joelle from Hello,Lovely who will be working on Wikifashion's redesign!

So excited.....and if that wasn't enough, I arrived home from our soy chai latte filled gathering to find that none other than Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) had contacted me to say he loved the site! This completely boggled my mind. If it weren't for Jimmy's work on Mediawiki and Wikipedia, Wikifashion simply wouldn't exist. So to have him stumble across my site and be kind enough to let me know that he liked it, makes the many hours (and 29,000 + edits) all worth it.

If you could peak inside my head right now, the above picture would best describe what it looked like. Suffice to say that email will never be deleted.

The Wishing Jar

2010-02-22T05:26:00.001+10:00

Pop in your wishes for the week....

Mine are in no particular order:

Finish the New York Fashion Week pages on Wikifashion.
Get the London Fashion Week pages up to date.
Spend less money on groceries.
Keep up with my exercise and weights routine.

Lola's Chain Mail:Week ending 12th February

2010-02-19T06:01:00.002+10:00

It's Lola Chain Mail time again! These weeks seem to fly by! So in homage to Valentine's Day I thought it would be sweet to give each other a compliment this week. No need to be sappy, something you genuinely like about the blogger would be nice. So if you didn't have a Valentine, now you do. If you're new to this blog and don't know what I'm talking about, have a look at instructions here.

Comment away....

Lehman Brothers once rejected me for a job...phew

2010-02-16T03:06:00.000+10:00

Because of my background in economics, the tale of Lehman Brothers, has been drilled into the back of my brain. I was studying Global Banking in 2008, so the collapse provided for excellent fodder for my lecturer, who consistently ran over time.

However for those that do not know who they are, the gist of the story is that they were one of the first of the financial institutions to fail in 2008 during the unravelling subprime mortgage crisis.

My reaction to this was a little peculiar, I am a little ashamed to admit this, however I felt a little bit smug. Around five months prior to their collapse I attended a very intense interview for an American company. Although the job advertisement was a little cryptic, the salary that they were offering popped from the screen like a carrot dangling above my head.

So along I went to this interview, one of many I had attended during this time. I sat in the waiting room, nervously reflecting on my resume and strengths. The interviewer was nice enough, he asked few questions and I asked if he would be able to tell me who this company was? He told me that wasn't possible, I asked if I could take a guess? The look on his face when I said Lehman Brothers was so satisfying. He said that I was the only person to have guessed who the company was. Surely my fantastic googling skills would transfer to financial analysis? I had it in the bag.

He asked a few more questions and proceeded to leave me with the most difficult problem solving questions I had ever encountered. He set a timer for one hour on the desk and left me to wonder what on earth I was doing?

It is probably one of the only times in my life that I have felt defeated. These questions was so perplexing, it would have been more productive to have counted the threads in the carpet. That too would have been just as difficult, so I did the only thing I knew how to do. Write whatever came to mind and spend the rest of my time staring out the window and deciding what I could do.

Here's what I worked out:

I certainly did not want to clean windows on skyscrapers. I watched a man dangle from the building across from me, flinching every time he swung from floor to floor.
I hate problems, they are just that, problematic and frustrating. Why would I want to become a professional problem solver? Some might argue that's what an economist is, however I think they are best described as scientists of life. Puke! My political econ tutor would be proud.
I love fashion, economics, blogging, the internet, entrepreneurship and information. It was no surprise that my favourite subject at university was Information Economics. It delved into social media and the new economy and studied how the flow of information is best utilised.
These loves would be very difficult to combine. However I would do my best.

Wikifashion was conceived around six months later and I think it's the best combination of my interests.

Moral of the story..don't do what you think sounds impressive. It will more than likely crumble around you. Try and figure out what it is you like doing, seeing, listening to or reading about and try to form a job that way.

So what are the things that you love? Do your interests sum to your career? Try listing them below, it's always advantageous to write things down. It will help you to visualise things and form a clear picture.

The Wishing Jar

2010-02-15T03:55:00.001+10:00

Mine are:

To keep up with my running/walking everyday.
Find someone to tweet from London Fashion Week for Wikifashion....anyone interested?
Start reading the books we chose for Book Club.

Pop in your weekly wishes .......

Happy Valentine's Day ♥

2010-02-11T18:20:00.004+10:00

So I can finally reveal my present to you! I have been slaving away at Miss Mac for the last three days creating a Wikifashion page for everyone who has been kind enough to comment on my blog, in all I have created around 100 new pages.
You can have a look for your blog on this page here, they will be listed alphabetically and categorised under country. You can also use the search box to find your blog. If you can't find yours, feel free to add it or ask me to help out. I'd be more than happy to do so.

Joelle from Hello, Lovely has created some gorgeous badges for everyone to place on their blogs. You can see an example of one in the sidebar and also above. They are available in blue, green and pink, take your pick!

If badges aren't your style you can tweet the link to your page, post about it or create a page for someone else you might know. Here are the instructions for creating a blog page.

Starting from next week I am going to be using the pages to create the front page articles on Wikifashion. If you'd like to be on the front page, all you have to do is add a badge to your sidebar and tweet @Wikifashion. A lot of the pages are quite sparse, so it would be really great if you could jot down a bit of information about yourselves in the "About" section. That way I can create the best featured articles possible.

If you want to be part of the Wikifashion community and you need a little help creating a page, feel free to comment below, email me, tweet me....whatever you like. I basically don't leave my desk unless I need sleep or strawberries, so I'm always here to help out ♥

If I've forgotten anyone, I'm so sorry. Please let me know and I'll hop to it!

note: I'm wearing my strawberry macaron necklace in this video ♥

xoxo

The Economics of Tavi 101

2010-02-09T22:05:00.023+10:00

A lot has been discussed in the past week about the antiquated debate of fashion bloggers versus fashion journalists. My general feeling, is that it's basically a game of the pot calling the kettle black. Fashion journalists have accused some of online's most publicised bloggers of being "sell outs" and mouth pieces for public relation consultants. To me this is the height of hypocrisy, magazines have long been chained to advertising dollars, journalists' words at the beck and call of their editors and editors scramble to feed their readers advertisements disguised as genuine articles and so the cycle continues.

For the most part I think journalists have their Stella McCartney knickers in a knot because they do not understand the online world, the free flow of information and user generated content. For too long they have controlled the ship, they liked their absolute advantage over fashion content, now they too must navigate the murky waters. Magazines once operated under monopolistic competition, they understood one another and knew the game like the back of their hands. They can see fashion bloggers forming a comparative advantage over the online narrative and did not anticipate their own slip.

The print media are suffering from what is called adaptive expectations, this basically denotes that ones views of the future are depicted by assuming past trends and errors will continue. If only journalists could be more dynamic and understand that if they let go of the golden rope, they would be able to change and grow with the online world. By holding onto their tried and true methods they are risking defeat. The online world has opened up a raft of new opportunities, the barriers to entry are extremely low and so a lot of new players have entered the game.

It seemed that both bloggers and journalists were playing nice, until a simple bow construed the view of certain editor. The bow in question belonged to none other than Tavi of Style Rookie, a seemingly unstoppable force in the fashion world. I would liken Tavi to that of an asymmetric shock. Her establishment into the online world created a minor stir, but once she stepped over that invisible line into the tangible fashion industry, her bow acted like a satirical noose to the print media and editors alike. The bevy of bloggers now vying for their precious advertising dollars have caused a raucous.

No longer will the two be divvied up like first class and economy. Both forms of media serve different and very important purposes. It's high time the market and readers had access to a wider variety of content. Although in the short term a flood of information may decrease quality, the market will correct itself and return to a fashionable equilibrium. Until then, why can't the two enjoy a friendly oligopoly?

Chictopia 10 Social Influence Summit

2010-02-09T22:05:00.007+10:00

Many of you would have heard of Chictopia, it is a fantastic community for the fashion industry and bloggers alike. On February 13th they are holding a summit which will involve a mixture of technologically savvy brands, upcoming designers and the cream of the crop fashion bloggers. In all, three hundred bloggers will be attending the event in New York. Topics covered include, blogging and the future, who is the next Rodarte? and why we value individual style?

Unfortunately living in Australia has restricted me from attending. However, being resourceful I thought just because I can't physically attend, why not attend online? In short the lovely Phyllis from "For a Delicate Few" will be attending on behalf of Wikifashion. During the event she will be our guest tweeter, take photos and conduct little interviews. I am beyond excited to see what she comes up with.

Once I started to wander down the yellow brick road, I thought New York Fashion Week starts the day after the summit. Why not attend that too? Unfortunately I did not receive invitations, but why not find someone who did? This lead to the very gorgeous Keiko of Keiko Lynn offering to be Wikifashion's guest tweeter during numerous shows, a Mod Cloth party and the Independent Fashion Bloggers conference. I'm sure my head will be spinning trying to keep up with the flood of tweets, photos and information I receive from these two super bloggers in the following week. So if I am a little absent, you know why!

If you want to take a peak into any of these events, why don't you follow Wikifashion?

note: I have been working hard on your V-day gift and hopefully I will finish it tonight.

Full steam ahead....

2010-02-08T14:38:00.005+10:00

I'm working on something very exciting this week. Let's just say it involves everyone who has ever commented on my blog and anyone else who wants to join in (basically one giant Valentine to you all)!

I am posting this to help keep myself on track and accountable to my "to do" list. Can't wait to give you your present, I am aiming for Thursday morning....so if nothing eventuates, do feel free to give me a prod.

If you would like to join in and you haven't already commented, do feel free to leave me a message. I know this is a little cryptic, but perhaps you can think of it like a virtual lucky dip.

Here's to sleepless nights sitting at Miss Mac.

The Wishing Jar

2010-02-08T10:58:00.003+10:00

My wishes for the week are:

♥To finish updating the Oscar's Wikifashion page.

♥To find someone to tweet from New York Fashion Week for Wikifashion.

♥To get things done on time and not forget about them.

What are yours?

Ask me anything...

2010-02-07T07:38:00.004+10:00

So I've just signed up to Formspring. Basically you can use it to ask me anything, you can do this anonymously or choose to leave your details. My answers will then be visible for everyone to see. So ask away....my page is here.

Lola's Chain Mail:Week ending 5th February

2010-02-05T06:30:00.000+10:00

It's chain mail time again! Here are the instructions for those a little perplexed. Have fun ♥

Let them eat cake ♥

2010-02-04T01:16:00.000+10:00

I love ostentatious jewellery, it's so far removed from my quiet personality. I think it really helps to show my creative side, the side that loves colour, feminine things and anything happy. This piece of jewellery was purchased in 2008 from a department store in Tokyo. After returning to Ginza to attempt the queue at LADURÉE for the third and final time, I promtly gave up when I saw the line curl around and around the third floor.

As we walked back to our hotel, we visited another department store, the name of which escapes me now. Inside, I found this cute little macaron necklace. It was like my consolation for not having tried a real one. It's strawberry, pink, sparkly goodness is now forever etched in my trinket box.

My first Lush Haul

2010-02-02T01:00:00.001+10:00

Lola's Picnic ♥

2010-02-01T13:00:00.001+10:00

I thought it would be a nice idea to spend some time each week collating sweet things that I had stumbled across. Often I will find images and news items that are just too bite sized to fit into the blog.

Think of Lola's Picnic as visiting your very own tapas bar each Friday. Delve into the basket to find a mix of fashion, media and business goodies. 100 % fat free I promise! Sign up here to receive your invitation.... the more the merrier ♥

The Wishing Jar

2010-02-01T06:30:00.000+10:00

It's Monday again! No case of the Monday Blues for me ♥ Hopefully you know the drill, pop into the wishing jar some small goals or dreams for the week.....

Here are mine:

♥ I wish that my lovely boyfriend will be ok today (he has to go into hospital).

♥ I wish for more subscribers for Lola's Picnic (you know you want to join in!).

♥ I wish that I will be able to clear my head and focus better this week!

What are your wishes?

Join the Itty Bitty Titty Committee

2010-01-31T12:12:00.004+10:00

Sorry if the title is a little offensive to some, it's my way of making light of an extremely irritating political view that has arisen in Australia within the last week. Several days ago it was announced by the Australian Sex Party, that the Australian Classification Board will now be refusing classification of small breasted women in adult publications and films.
The National Classification Code dictates that anything that describes or depicts a person who is, or appears to be a child under the age of 18 will be refused classification. As someone who is small breasted, this has made me feel more than a little insecure about myself. Not that I intend to publish nude photographs of myself on the Internet, however if I were so inclined, they would be deemed illegal.

Why on earth would the Government choose to pass an incredulous law like this? This will not only serve to make women feel more insecure about themselves, but will also continue to shape the notion of "sexy" = "endowed". Not fair I say! What about my hips, the indentation at my waist or my rather large derriere? Will these be my saving grace for my illegally small breasts? Will there be a minimum cup requirement? Or will breasts be stopped at the gate merely by guesstimate? Who is this person who decides what is underdeveloped? Let's just hope little ladies that this person does not have a subscription to Ralph.
Thank you for tuning into this post, we will now return to Lola's regular programming schedule.

Lola's Chain Mail:Week ending 29th January

2010-01-29T13:59:00.009+10:00

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date....sorry lovelies, the chain mail completely slipped my fuzzy little mind-this week has been fun (Australia Day) and very very stressful (emergency room). To join in on the chain mail, have a look at the instructions here.

You may have noticed a new addition to the sidebar, Lola's Picnic. It's a weekly picnic that I am going to throw for all those who would like to join in. Every Friday morning Lola will send you some yummy things to snack on during the day, expect fashion, media and entrepreneurship in snack size bars ♥ I will be blogging more about this on Monday....in the mean time, if you feel so inclined, do sign up I promise you it's 100 % fat free.

From my travels...

2010-01-29T13:05:00.001+10:00

Whenever I go away, I like to buy a Babushka doll. I don't know how that tradition came about, but now it's a nice little thing to do. The first isn't from my travels, but was a present from my mother. The second was my first Babushka doll that a bought on my 21st birthday from a little shop in Melbourne.

My favourite, is the third. He originally lived on Miyajima Island in Japan. This island is inhabited only by deer. They wander the streets, searching for silly tourists like me to feed them. The last doll, lives on a fob chain, that has been in my family for over 60 years.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my brother is moving to Denmark for seven months, he has kindly offered to buy me a few more for my collection!

What are your holiday traditions? I know the lovely Porcelain Blonde takes a candle with her whenever she travels.... (such a gorgeous tradition ♥)

The Wishing Jar Video

2010-01-28T01:33:00.000+10:00

Lola PR | Blog

Schooled with Wikifashion

Sorry if my last post was obnoxious..

Don't get mad, get in The New York Times ....

Mini Brisbane fashion meet up at Zuri..

Brisbane Fashion Industry meetup ~ Zafiro Summer 2012 launch

The Sydney Morning Herald..

Laduree New York + I'm still jet lagged...

New York for one day...

I turned a quarter of a century...and a few other things.

Meetup San Francisco, Union Square ~ September

Tsumori Chisato, polka dots + bircher muesli...

Vodka & Caviar and Finn's 1st birthday..

Wikifashion forum... what do you want?

Ellegirl says I put the wiki in fashion?

Kerbside rat..

AA polishes..

SS Bacon Bits.

Road tripping....can I go back now?

Happy to be home...would rather be back on the teacup ride th... on Twitpic

New Mexico...

A few photos for Coral: California....

Kelly Cutrone in Australia...

Wikifashion USA/Canada road trip + meetups

Wikifashion at SXSW...

Brisbane Fashion Industry meetup part deux...

Why women and wikis do mix...

Wikifashion contributors are the coolest...

Brisbane Fashion Industry meetup part one...

Happy Valentine's Day ♥ Wikifashion

Wikifashion was on Mashable this week + meet our lovely video bloggers

Hey wiki you're so fine..

Grab one of our Wikifashion tote bags...

Brisbane Fashion Industry meetup...

Wikifashion tote bags...

Another sneak peek....

Weekend Wandering...

Is this not the best photo ever?

Storm + new badges ...

Airbnb + Paris

Instagram...

Me and Manu...ooh la la

Anne Hathaway for Vogue November 2010....

Valentino, Douglas Kirkland, Max Brenner + the Golden Age of Couture...

No se si exista algo mas gay que "wikifashion"...

Sorry for my abysmal blogging..

Sportsgirl loves Wikifashion... excuse me while I fall over!

Apple + Berry Pie

Ingredients (serves 6)

Pastry

Method

We reached 50,000 edits....

Bedtime Stories...

Mini office reshuffle...

Some new additions to the wiki office....

What I'm loving this week...

Cupcakes and Birthdays ♥

Christian Dior Fall 2010 Couture

Winter Reading List....

Sneak peek at Wikifashion's redesign....

Cognitive surplus and why people like wikis....

Spot the difference: Betty Autier v. Zara

Chanel Cruise 2011 collection

Startup Monday: Whiteboards and retro phones...

RAFW on Wikifashion.....

Garance Dore for Westfield

Dace Fall 2010 Look Book

Sretsis Stolen Moments SS 2010-11

You're hot and you're cold...

Support Wikifashion....

Happy Easter..... and Wikifashion redesign ♥

Home Office: Gabrielle Adamidis of Hopeless Lingerie

Lola's Mood Board:March

How to create a page for your blog on Wikifashion.....

The Wishing Jar

Lola's Snail Mail & Wikifashion postcards....

Some new stationery and some other exciting news.....

Refinery 29: A Brave New Online World

Office Space: Wikifashion

Techno Vogue: Conde Nast to launch magazines for iPad