As someone who has always spent a great deal of time thinking about their hair, I’ve always been envious of the girls who could just run a brush through it and go. For context my hair is not exactly curly, but very far from straight. It’s frizzy and textured, with dry patches from a decade of bleaching it blonde every three months. In the lead-up to my wedding, I decided to embrace my natural colour. I knew I couldn’t maintain the blonde for the rest of my life, and I didn’t want to look back on my wedding photos and see a completely different person. When I eventually made the call and went ..read more

Australian Fashion Week is a busy, brilliant, beautiful and chaotic time for everyone involved. For a long time in preparation, designers and their teams work into the wee hours of the morning, with dwindling sleep and almost zero downtime. PR teams can barely keep on top of their inboxes; journalists’ minds are melting between research, preparation and planning; and influencers are urgently finalising each outfit, show and corresponding post with many more moving parts than you’d probably expect. So what does Australian Fashion Week (AFW) look like for a fashion buyer responsible for curatin ..read more

I grew up in a small town where almost everyone wore the same thing: activewear. While I didn’t mind wearing activewear to exercise, I failed to see how I could express myself through a pair of simple black leggings. Yet there I was in my local mall, a fresh-faced 15-year-old purchasing a pair of black leggings and a puffer jacket just to fit in with the people I was surrounded by. The thought of wearing something different and being labelled as ‘weird’ terrified me, so I followed the crowd. For more style inspiration, head to our Fashion section. Ironically, trying to fit in sartorially by e ..read more

Comfortable, high-quality layering pieces are a fashion saviour in the in-between months. While the weather’s in limbo, trans-seasonal pieces like mid-weight tailored pants, breezy button-downs and bamboo basics come into play. Australian womenswear label First Colours offers a range of consciously made essentials, designed to build an adaptable wardrobe. First Colours is offering one lucky Fashion Journal reader the chance to win $500 to spend on its range. Just fill in the form below for your chance to win. Name Email State Select… TAS ACT NT SA WA VIC QLD NSW ENTER By enteri ..read more

When it comes to my love life, I’ve previously tried to avoid cosmic intervention. I resented the TikToks that demanded you repost to get a text back from your crush; I hated when friends used their partner’s star sign as a means to dismiss bad behaviour. Emotionally evasive? ‘Scorpio behaviour.’ Astrology felt like a defensive dating tool, a way to justify questionable personality traits and let the good bits rise to the surface. In saying that, I had a string of disappointing dating experiences before meeting my current partner. They’d often follow the same pattern – a great first date, some ..read more

We’ve all seen that part in the romcom, usually somewhere around the middle, where the couple splits up. Cue the boxes of tissues, pints of ice cream, TV re-runs and tear-stained pillowcases. Anyone who’s gone through a particularly bad breakup knows this scene isn’t far from the truth – in fact, it might even be an understatement.  On the day of my last breakup, I skipped work, took a random train to the end of the line and drank a $5 champagne on a wintery beach. Then I cried at the florist, fell asleep in the cinema and found my way home, phone dead, sometime around midnight.  Lo ..read more

Choosing an engagement ring, whether it’s for yourself or your partner, is famously a difficult task (not that I’d know, but so I hear from friends who’ve been through the experience). Do you want something glitzy and diamond-encrusted? A subtle, classic band? A brilliantly blinding gemstone? Or maybe you want to bypass the engagement ring altogether and just opt for a wedding ring instead? For more fashion news, shoots, articles and features, head to our Fashion section. The options are endless, and if you work in fashion, chances are you’ll be even more specific about what you wan ..read more

We know personal style is a journey (I’m looking at you, Tumblr years), so we’ve introduced a new series Hey, I Like Your Style!, diving into the fashion psyche of our favourite creatives. We’re talking the good, the bad and the 2007. While the internet has made our fashion icons feel closer than ever before, even the most effortless of outfits came from a closet with some (well-dressed) skeletons. Clickable product tags, photo archives and lives chronicled in 30-second clips just don’t tell the full story. For more fashion news, shoots, articles and features, head to our ..read more

Whether it’s the aroma of baked bread wafting through your house, a pile of freshly cut grass on a summer’s day or the ocean’s salty, enveloping smell, scent punctuates our lives in meaningful ways and adds depth and detail to our memories. I often find myself transported back to a specific time or place through scent and as a longtime perfume lover, I was curious as to why. As it turns out, scent is processed by our olfactory system which is directly connected to the hippocampus and the amygdala – the brain’s memory and emotion centre. It is this connection that causes the deeply intertwined ..read more

Having lived in Melbourne now for just over eight years, I have my favourite food and drink spots down to a curated catalogue. When it comes to date nights of any kind (platonic, romantic, casual, special occasion, etc), I revel in the opportunity to plot the perfect evening. Interested to hear how others navigate the world? Head to our Life section. If millennials were the generation of frivolous avocado toast purchases, Gen Z might be the one of anchovy toast and natural wine, and I’ve accepted that. Whether you’re organising a night with a friend, celebrating an anniversary or pl ..read more