Please Find Me A Stylist
Source: www.three2seven.com

Fashion is definitely more complicated for some than fashion editors think. I try to compare it to cooking - god only knows why because I'm a failure in the kitchen - where you have a specific recipe or a formula for success.

I know fashion has formulas all over the place - fashion magazines are always talking about body types and the clothes that work best. But it's not like you walk into a store and there is a label on the shirt that says "for women with a flat chest, long torso and matches with pants x or pants y". Okay, so that's where sales assistants come in. But more often than not if you get a shirt from one store you need to find a skirt or pants from another. That isn't even the bad part. It's the accessories. I can't think of anything worse: bangles with different colors and various shapes/edges, necklaces long or short with one thing dangling or with several, beads or no beads - big or little, belts with sparkles, wide belts, narrow belts, woven and unwoven, curved belts or straight, silk scarves long and short, pink scarves alone come in twenty different shades and that doesn't even include the patterns.

Maybe some girls just get it, while I find shopping near impossible without my fashion friends right by my side. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love fashion. I love to see people looking great: funky, classic, glamorized, the works, but to do it myself is another story.

Having said that, there's one place where all those formulas are thrown out the window. New York City. The place drips with fashion and I love it. I can't help but want to be funky and fashionable when I'm lucky enough to be there. Anything goes so you would think that I feel liberated. On one hand I do. I feel quite safe purchasing bright green pumas, a white handbag and super tall wedges part blue and pink. What the heck, it's NYC.

But at the same time not having any rules is a complete nightmare for my brain. I see a woman walking down the street with a big beaded necklace, a tank top and sweatpants. How did she do that! If you asked me I would have put that necklace with a dress but she looked pretty darn good.

Walking into the department stores in NYC make shopping at David Jones Sydney in peak season look like a corner store. I have never seen so many people let alone the selection of clothes. Where do you start? For a fleeting moment I almost appreciate Sydney for its small selection - unfortunately I don't appreciate the price tags which are double that of NYC. Those designer jeans that everyone dies over for $150-250 in the US see us paying $300-500.

Keep that in mind and drop an Australian into the US shopping stores and she turns into a dog in heat - matching becomes an afterthought!