I went to SXSW

The Thursday before last I left for SXSW in Austin, Texas. If you haven't heard of it, it's a huge music, interactive, film and fashion festival that occurs each year. For some reason the organiser asked me to speak on a panel about the future of fashion and technology, I thought why on earth not?

So I packed my bags and left a few days later. To cut a very long story short, I had a great time and met some awesome people. It was my first time travelling by myself overseas and I was a little bit taken aback by my spontaneity. I'm glad I went, although I will never ever ever fly United ever again. My bags were lost on 5 out of 6 of my flights with them and they smashed open my lock.

Then when I tried to get home, I missed my flight from SF to Sydney due to the tornadoes in Austin. It was so surreal flying around the storms, in a small jet nonetheless! It was actually really fun and I met a couple of really lovely musicians who were also stranded. Silly me hadn't heard of their band before and when I arrived home I realised that they're actually really well-known. I'm such a dweeb sometimes.

I had to fly via Auckland and was then told that they hadn't booked my flight back to Australia, oh and they lost my bags again. I swear my cheeky bag must have grew legs and ran around the plane.

Now for the food....this is what I ate on Sunday at the W Hotel. It was so yummy and definitely goes by the philosophy of everything being bigger in Texas!

Yummy mexican vanilla cupcake from Delish! I also purchased an oreo cupcake, which I devoured before I could take a photo of.

The crepe cafe! This was a charming little cafe run by a French couple. The queue was so long, but well worth it. I had the Chloe crepes, with sugar, nutella and strawberries. This was my breakfast pre-panel. To say I was nervous was an understatement, although I was so incredibly jet-lagged.

Poor bike-cab guy had to take me from 3rd to 11th street, up hill. I gave him a huge tip, because I felt so bad. It was slightly terrifying riding on that through Texan traffic though.

note: if you've read my last post, you'd know that my engagement ring was damaged. We've since found out that the damage is irreparable. So now we're going to lodge a claim and hopefully be compensated. Funnily enough I found another ring that I love just as much in Austin...

This is what happened when I asked for my band to be resized...

My boyfriend proposed to me on Valentine's day and gave me the loveliest ring. It's a 200 year old Georgian rose cut diamond cluster ring from a store in the USA, which we chose together on our last trip to the states. Due to the way the diamonds are set and its age, when having it resized it was very important that the jeweler take care not to allow any moisture inside the setting.

I researched jewelers in Brisbane who could cater for this and was advised of a jeweler to use. On the 15th I dropped it into the store and explicitly told them that the ring could not under any circumstances get wet. I simply wanted the band to be resized from a size 6 (US) to a H 1/5 (Aus).

They asked me what metal the ring was, I told them it was a 14k gold shank and had silver foil underneath the diamonds which couldn't get wet. I also explained that it was an 200 year old antique Georgian ring from San Francisco, that had foil backed rose cut diamonds. I asked to give them a printed sheet of extra information about the ring, which they said they didn't need as they knew what they were doing and that I could pick it up on the 21st.

I didn't call into the shop until the 23rd, as I had been sick. They said they were about to call me as they ring was not ready yet. During the ring resizing they noticed that the diamond had turned black, so they soaked the entire ring to try to remove this. Even though I had told them the foil behind the settings could not get wet.

They then said that they almost refused to finish the ring, but went ahead anyway and pulled the middle diamond out, without ever consulting me. They were also confused as to why there were gaps between the diamonds. I had told them the ring was originally a button. They then told me that the middle diamond would need to be reset with claws. I told them I did not want this, but was assured the ring would look exactly the same and that the claws would be completely invisible. I was never ever told that there was a problem with the surrounding diamonds and setting.

On the 24th I returned to pick up the ring and noticed that the diamond was quite raised they dismissed me and said it looks identical. Upon showing it to my fiance, he was disgusted and we decided to return the next day.

Yesterday we returned to the store to discuss this with them. They denied knowing that the diamonds couldn't get wet and denied that they had filled in between the diamonds with a material. Even though she had previously questioned why there were gaps. They told us to leave the store and that the ring is exactly the same as before. Clearly it is not. There are now disgusting silver claws around my diamond, gunk surrounding the outside diamonds, some of which are now partially covered and some of the filigree on the button has been completely eroded.

After receiving some fantastic advice from the lovely Vogue girls we are going to pursue every avenue to have this situation rectified. If we can have the ring repaired, we will seek compensation for the damage. However I fail to see how 200 year old filigree can be restored onto a button.

I know that in the scheme of things, I am so lucky to have a lovely fiance. I am just disgusted with the lack of respect the store has shown to me and my partner as well as a very delicate and irreplaceable ring.

note: I want to point out that this ring was not damaged by the jeweler we purchased it from. I adored their service and store and can only wish we had the ring resized there.

Schooled with Wikifashion

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..

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 ....

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..

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).