The Silver LiningHerschel Bag review – Little America
Posted on July 17, 2013
When Rushfaster.com.au offered to send us a Herschel Supply Co. Little America backpack to review, we jumped at the chance. Both Sarah and I are great fans of Herschel and already have a small family of varying styles (backpacks, totes, duffles, you name it!). Their products are a great combination of look, quality, comfort and practicality, and the Little America Backpack is no different.
When I first opened the package containing the backpack, I was immediately struck by its size. It is a large bag, measuring approx 51 x 29 x 13 cm, and is significantly larger than its little brother, the Little America Mid Volume (which is 13cm shorter). It can fit almost anything in it. It’s a very good looking backpack I have to say. The outer is made of a tough woven polyester and is complemented with synthetic leather detailing. There are easy release magnetic clasps for both the main and front compartments. The styling is modelled on American mountaineering backpacks and definitely wins in the looks department.
Herschel certainly don’t skimp on quality and attention to detail. The reverse side and straps of the backpack have padded, breathable mesh panels that ensure ongoing comfort even after carrying the backpack for a few hours. The top of the backpack is closed with a drawstring in a traditional way, which makes it easy to open and close. This is then covered by a flap, which helps to stop rain and the weather from getting into the pack and handily acts as a deterrent to pesky thieves hoping for an easy way in.
The main compartment is very spacious and can fit a lot of stuff in it. There is a dedicated laptop compartment than can hold up to a 17” laptop. If there was one criticism, it would be that the compartment is so large that many of the objects may get lost inside the pack. Perhaps more compartments would be a better way to divide the space. The front compartment is handy for keys and other smaller items that you want easy access to. There is a small keychain clip attached to the inside of the compartment as well. The piece de resistance is the small port for headphones in case you want to keep listen to your tunes whilst toting your incredibly good-looking bag.
Overall, this is a great backpack for students, travellers, and even the fashion-savvy worker. It has a very good size to carry whatever you like, as well as a padded laptop compartment. It can hold a lot of stuff (even enough for a weekend away!), but you may find yourself losing items within the vast cavern of the main compartment. All in all though, I’m very happy with this bag and would highly recommend it.
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Aztec in Broome
Posted on June 13, 2013
Wearing – American Apparel t-shirt, Sparkle & Fade skirt, Gorman sandals, Profound Aesthetic cap, ring and metal bracelets from So We Are, Freckle & Co tassel bracelet
If you look really closely you can see I sunburnt my nose! I don’t know about you, but sometimes as painful as they are, I often cherish my little sunburns as signs of a great weekend just passed. Rach said she was itching her mozzie bites fondly on their return to Perth! (And yes, I do not condone getting sunburnt and heartily endorse the whole slip-slop-slap thing, but I think I missed a patch on my nose!)
I’m absolutely digging the whole neo-90s look that’s sweeping the UK at present. I’m slightly obsessed with the crop-top-pencil-skirt silhouette, updated with new prints and colours. And can you blame me for adding neon into the mix? I bought this skirt from Urban Outfitters in London and it is oh. so. comfortable. The downside to comfort? No external holding in of the gut so I have to remind myself not to carb load just before wearing this one! But hey, who cares – I love it!
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La tour Eiffel
Posted on June 6, 2013
Wearing – Sessun dress, Tintoretto stockings, Madewell boots, Freckle & co earrings
One of my absolute favourite cold weather colours is mustard. I just love the way it works so well with other earthy tones as well as a great red lipstick. I’d been dying to wear this cute little Sessun number since I bought it in New York last year! I waited and waited through the Australian spring and summer only to find out that work was sending me to the Kimberley for six months, the land of eternal summers! There went all my dreams of styling my 50kg of NYC-acquired clothing…Yeah, first world problems, I know! So I jumped at the chance to bring some of it halfway across the globe to France with us on our recent holiday. 🙂
These amazing suede tassel earrings were handmade by none other than my super-talented sis-in-law Rachel from Freckle & co. Be sure to take a look at her other equally pretty creations on her Etsy site, the perfect destination to find that special and unique gift!
Photos by Jinn
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Jardin des Tuileries
Posted on June 5, 2013
Wearing – Madewell shirt, Comptoir des Cotonniers jacket, Orla Kiely trousers, Camper shoes, Kate Spade necklace
The French people have seriously got the whole “aesthetically pleasing” thing down pat. Take this incredible Tuileries Garden which is so perfectly symmetrical that it’s hard to believe that these are trees and not some manmade structure! We wandered here after spending an amazing day at Musee d’Orsay which houses a vast collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art (the largest in the world in fact!) including paintings by Monet, Cezanne, Degas and Van Gogh just to namedrop a few.
I absolutely had to have this Chanel-esque boucle jacket. I had so much fun shopping at Comptoir des Cotonniers where I found it! The shopping attendant was so amazing, if I even simply lingered on a piece of clothing for a moment, I’d turn around to find he’d already put it in the change room for me – and in the correct size! Impressive!
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Pointe Saint-Mathieu
Posted on May 29, 2013
Wearing – Karen Walker t-shirt (on sale at Anthropologie!), ASOS overalls, Madewell sunglasses, Fossil bangle (similar), Donelli shoes (similar)
What he’s wearing – Urban Outfitters jumper and jeans
Our first destination in France was the incredibly picturesque and tiny little village, Pointe Saint-Mathieu, perched right atop part of the spectacular coastline of Brittany. It gets its name from an old abbey in the centre of the village (sixth century according to legend) which was said to have housed the skull of the apostle Matthew until it was lost in the ocean off the point. After the icy cold of Glasgow it was nice to get out into some sunshine. Look! No coat!
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All hail Bowie
Posted on May 21, 2013
Wanting to do something a little different to the usual gallery hopping, we jumped at the chance to see the David Bowie exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum (or V&A for short) in London. Come on! An exhibition about one of the greatest music and fashion legends of all time that’s sponsored by Gucci and Sennheiser – haw yeah!
I have to admit, my ardent love for Bowie was something that crept up very gradually over the years. I’d hear songs on the radio or on TV shows and be like, “Woah, that’s so good”, then I’d google/Shazam them, and I kept coming up with a common theme – they were all by none other than David Bowie! This made me explore his back catalogue more and more, and I just kept striking gold.
Not only is Bowie a groundbreaker and major influence in the music world but he also never failed to make a massive statement with his fashion choices, constantly remaking himself to smash down new boundaries. He mastered androgyny with his 70s alter-ego Ziggy Stardust and has often collaborated with avant garde designers to create his outlandish stage costumes.
The V&A hosts a large collection of Bowie’s actual onstage outfits, instruments and even snippets of original lyrics – it was simply amazing to see them in real life. The exhibition also allowed us a greater insight into his early days before he finally “made it” and we learnt interesting trivia such as the fact that one of his pupils is permanently dilated after a fisticuff-related injury! And here I always thought he deliberately wore some kind of fancy contact lens!
After spending a couple of hours immersed in the fantastical world of Bowie, we recharged our batteries with hot chocolates in a courtyard overlooked by a number of the museum’s lovely red-bricked facades. If you happen to be traipsing around London any time soon, this exhibition needs to be added to your must-see list! The online tickets have long sold out but you can still buy tickets at the museum. We arrived at opening at 10:00am and managed to get tickets to the 10:30am admittance, and I highly recommend you do the same!
The Victoria & Albert Museum / 10:00 – 17:45 daily / 10:00 – 22:00 Fridays / David Bowie Is exhibition / Adults £15.50 / 23rd March – 11th August 2013
Wearing – Marcs dress (high end or affordable styles), Wolford merino tights, Madewell boots
He’s wearing – TopMan shirt and blazer, Urban Outfitters trousers, Converse shoes, Ona camera bag
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Hi there, Horatio! – Trafalgar Square
Posted on May 20, 2013
Wearing – Zara jumper (similar), ASOS overalls, Happy Socks (try these colours), Madewell boots
He’s wearing – J. Crew shirt, TopMan blazer, Urban Outfitters jeans and socks, Pointer shoes via Kaeho, Ona camera bag
First things first, why is no one called Horatio these days? It’s one of those cool old-school names which has sadly fallen from popularity, like Chauncey, Mabel, and Hattie…But I digress! (I may have read a few too many Enid Blyton books as a child…Omg, there’s another amazing name, Enid!)
We hadn’t done a whole lot of touristy stuff in London even though we’d already been there a few days, so we thought we’d take ourselves on our own little whirlwind tour of the sights – Trafalgar Square was our first stop, then Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus, and then I joined Jinn (read: got dragged along) on an Arsenal Emirates Stadium for a tour with Charlie George, an ex-player and legend of the soccer team. Do I sound like I know what I’m talking about? It’s because I’ve been brainwashed/educated by Jinn who is an absolute diehard Arsenal fan. Last time we were in London we went to an Arsenal match and I actually thought we were going to die when tempers and overly passionate team-patriotism boiled over at the game. So at least this time round my life wasn’t endangered in the name of soccer!
It was actually a pretty freezing day for an on-foot tour as you might be able to tell from my less than discrete turtleneck. I absolutely love playsuits so I decided to try out their cold weather cousins, overalls! And amongst all the cute spring dresses all the London stores were selling (Spring??? You call this Spring??? Madness…) I found this gorgeous Zara jumper which begged to be worn with my newly acquired overalls. Jinn looked pretty dapper himself I must say!
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The zebra and the Shard
Posted on May 15, 2013
Wearing – Gorman jumper (love this bralet – perfect for Broome!), Madewell shirt, Urban Outfitters skirt (a faux leather option), Wolford merino tights, Camper shoes, Kate Spade necklace
Just shortly before going on holiday, we watched a Doctor Who episode that featured this glass-clad skyscraper as the headquarters for an alien organisation that was trapping people in its WiFi and converting them into energy (make sense?). It was quite an exciting episode and I can’t quite seem to translate that into plain words, but that might have something to do with the pyrotechnics and motorcycle ride straight up the side of the Shard that made it more thrilling.
I was half expecting to see Matt Smith aka the Doctor during our visit to this glistening modern day pyramid. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, but we still had a great view over the centre of London city – we were so high up that even large structures such as the Tower Bridge were dwarfed! See if you can spot some landmarks in our photos below! Also, I’m not quite sure what possessed me, perhaps I was having such a good time or it’s quite possible that the cold had cut off all circulation to my brain and I’d become delirious – but I decided that it was perfectly appropriate to have a little dance around the viewing platform. The incriminating evidence is below!
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Red letter day – Hyde Park
Posted on May 13, 2013
Wearing – Marcs dress (this season’s version), Wolford merino tights, Madewell boots
This red dress is one of my favourites. Gorgeous colour, great shape and fabric, and a skirt that falls just so. So why does it often hang neglected and overlooked in my closet? Well, this dress has “history”. I bought it last year for one express purpose – for an exam. And not just any old exam. For the single most scariest exam I’ve ever done in my whole entire life. No joke. Just thinking about the whole process leading up to it and the day itself is giving me the heebie jeebies. Thank God I passed, but even so the entire experience was so traumatic that my hand would try not to linger over its hanger whenever I came across it in my wardrobe, and I’d always find an excuse to wear something else.
Well, it’s been eight months since that-day-which-shall-no-longer-be-mentioned and I decided that it was time that the curse be lifted. And once I slipped this dress back on, I realised what a fool I’d been to let it languish behind lesser dresses. It’s effortlessly elegant, can be dressed up or down, and is so so soooo comfortable.
On another note, this was one of the few days during our holiday that I could venture safely out without a heavy coat in tow. We’d just eaten at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (for free!) and just hopped across the street into Hyde Park to enjoy the snippet of sunshine and admire the daffodils and giNORmous white swans. They’re twice the size of our black swans! The sunshine, the greenery and the sugar high we were still on made for a lovely, laughter-filled afternoon (probably more like giggles and snorts) and off we trotted on our merry way.
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Hello London!
Posted on May 8, 2013
Wearing – Madewell jumper, Urban Outfitters jeans (similar), Happy Socks, Madewell boots
Barely had I recovered from the fun whirlwind of cake and conversations that was my birthday party, then we were packing our bags (in a very frantic manner) and flying off to London for the first leg our holiday. It was the perfect way to celebrate entering a “new age of maturity” (haw haw haw, I just lol-led at that, meh!) and also to attend a very good friend’s wedding in France! Double yay!
Jinn booked us in (as a surprise!) to stay at the gorgeous Langham Hotel, which is just around the corner from the string of shops along Oxford St. Great views over London, fluffy feather pillows, and countless shops just a wee hop-step-jump away – ooh yeah!
The Silver Lining 
