Living Coral; authentic and immersive, connection and intimacy, sociable and spirited…

Gifting personal experiences, instead of simply more stuff, is becoming more highly valued than ever.

Colour makes you quicker and lets you find the good stuff! Train your eye to filter out what you don’t need.

When I delve into a woman’s wardrobe I usually see one of two things… either there’s a conglomeration of disparate but potentially exciting items or there’s a sparse, neatly ordered system with few pieces but in co-ordinating colours.

The Design Museum, London – notes for other hardcore colour enthusiasts from Hella Jongerius’s exhibition and research. An object’s colour only becomes tangible through its material. Objects absorb, reflect and resonate colour and are influenced by the colours of surrounding objects.

Confounded by colour? Confused when co-ordinating? Then come along to my Captivating Colour workshop. This fun, informal and education workshop introduces you to how colour can enhance your look and easily coordinate with your wardrobe.

You may have heard that for the first time since Pantone begun releasing their Colour of the Year (in 2000) that they have declared a pairing of two colours to be ‘Colour’ of The Year. And, they’re pastels… Take a look here.

Black is strong, rich and dramatic. Black is easy to coordinate with and can sometimes give the impression that an item is better quality than it is. So it’s easy to see why it appeals to so many women. Because of its increasing ubiquity, however, black – in Melbourne particularly – is at risk of losing its impact.

I thoroughly enjoy Iris Apfel’s refusal to fade away, as sadly so many women past a certain age do. Those who read my last blog post: Iris, part 1 will know this. It was reinforced when I recently saw ‘Iris‘ – the documentary by the late Albert Maysles. She succeeds in making a confident and colourful statement because she is not concerned with being ‘pretty’ or obsessed with trying to appear young, which often results in looking sad and dissatisfied with life.

The photo is actually a shot of all the clothes I quickly threw together for a 10-day road trip up the east coast of Australia. Despite having plenty of space in the car for my stuff, I still wanted to ensure every item could be worn together so I didn’t have to think about what became dirty and what was still clean – anything I picked up to wear any day co-ordinated. Find out how to use the colour wheel and other colour facts to help you pack a capsule wardrobe that coordinates.

Colour lesson 101: colour is relative. Whether I’m conducting a personal colour analysis or talking to groups about how colour works, this is the first thing I like to emphasise. And this is absolutely why there was so much debate about whether the dress chosen by Scottish mother of the bride, Cecilia Bleasdale, was gold and white or black and blue.