Sonya | Your Styled Collective (00:00.622)
Welcome to another episode of the Style and Strategy podcast. Today, I'm taking a little bit of a different direction and predominantly focusing on some style elements, but always with some strategy. So recently, I was invited to a white party and being someone who had grown up watching Gossip Girl,
One of the parties that they always used to have down in the Hamptons was a white party. So being invited to one, I was extremely excited because I thought, oh, a white party, this is gonna be quite cool. However, what I have noticed is actually, I don't normally wear a lot of white when it comes to wearing dresses and so forth.
probably for some of the obvious reasons as soon as I wear white, normally it gets something spilt on it or there's an issue. But also wearing white for me wasn't that practical. However, I had a lot of white tops, but no sort of white dress. And I was really keen to wear a dress because when I build an outfit to wear, I really like to consider
where is it being held, what is the theme of that environment, what else is happening around arts, and this particular white party was being held up in warm, beautiful Queensland, and we were gonna be near the sand. So thinking about that, I knew I had to, I went out and actually purchased a dress, but again, being the,
practical version of me. It needed to be something that I was going to wear more than once. Cause you know, my mantra is if you can't wear it more than three times, then you know, maybe it's to the side, unless it's a real statement piece that you really, really want. And, but for me, this one here, because it was going to be white, I wanted to get maximum wear out of it.
Sonya | Your Styled Collective (02:19.726)
And I did actually go and have a look and see if I could hire that dress. And I also visited some thrift shops as well because I knew white again wasn't really a color that I had worn much in my wardrobe. However, prior to moving out to go get this white dress, I actually started my journey.
in thinking through what this whole look and outfit was going to look like, really starting with a piece of jewelry. And this is how I've got inspired to do this podcast. One of my very dear close friends and mentors, Tracy Harris, had asked me on the day of seeing her what...
inspired you for your outfit. So I thought I would do a podcast walking you through how I actually create and build, because it's never about a single piece. It is a very strategy driven process that I actually go through. So I actually started with this one beautiful piece of jewelry, which is by a designer, jewelry designer called Vanessa Barone.
And I absolutely adore her pieces. I am a huge statement necklace fan. So even though right now in trend is, you know, the layered and thin and the gold necklaces, I will never go past statement necklaces if it's in a design that I love. And Vanessa Barone actually does pieces that are like pieces of art.
And what I love most about her particular design methodology and the way in which she pulls things together is that it is actually all about that statement piece. So that necklace, all that bracelet, all that earring. It's actually about making that center stage and just like a piece of art.
Sonya | Your Styled Collective (04:40.846)
would be if you were to visit a gallery. And the piece that I own, I own a couple of pieces of hers, but the piece that I own is called a great necklace. Yes, D -R -E -A -T necklace with gold in a light Bernstein, sort of a natural colouring. So natural browns and warm browns in it. And...
That piece there, why I love it so much is because she uses something called plexiglass in her designs and it's absolutely stunning. And this piece here happens to connect to a couple of gold chains, a gold section in it. So if you have a chance to go have a look at some of her pieces, you'll see why, but I will post a photo as well.
Um, so this piece is really quite a chunky, uh, piece. And so I wanted to design and pick an outfit that would sit in the background of this piece. And this piece, um, really stand in the forefront very much like her methodology. So I started with the necklace that I had, and I also had the, um, matching sort of round earrings as, as well.
And so starting from that particular pace there, next was, as I said earlier, looking at what, what was the surroundings? Where are we going? What was the temperature going to be like? Was I going to need a jacket or not? Um, and, and I knew that the temperature was going to be warm, so I wouldn't need a jacket. Um, I knew that I'd likely be walking from the hotel to the location.
So I needed something that if I was gonna be sweating in it, then I didn't want any patches or anything like that. So for me, that was instantly, it either had to be a sleeveless or it had to be strapless. And given I was going for this piece, it needed to be strapless, I thought, because I really wanted the piece to stand out, given it was...
Sonya | Your Styled Collective (06:59.086)
the center point of the design. And then working through that, it was then thinking about what fabrication did I want? Now, knowing that the weather up in Queensland is extremely humid, could be tropical, but also you're in a beach environment, I wanted classic linen.
a beautiful thicker weave of linen was very important to me because I knew it was going to be breathable. So that sort of ticked that next box. The third section or the third consideration that I had was around the length and the shape. Now, given it was an evening event and I knew that it
would likely be a little bit dressier. I wanted something that was either going to be maxi length or at least ankle length and no shorter. And so for me going out and looking for those pieces, it was quite quick to be able to search for what I wanted and being able to go online and really putting in those key attributes in looking for a dress. And there were actually two.
that came to mind and one was a Shona Joy and another one was actually in Chic as well. But in the end, it came down to the Shona Joy dress predominantly because of the fit and structure and being able to get more wear out of it.
So if you're wondering what that dress looks like, I will be posting an image of it on my social media. But that particular dress then was strapless, a really simple design. Again, thinking about the fact that I wanted something that pushed to the background and let the necklace take its cue and center stage. And...
Sonya | Your Styled Collective (09:14.062)
When with that particular dress as well being sort of almost full length on me, I think on anyone else taller probably would have hit about ankle. It was perfect in terms of that and it was a lovely fit as well. So then the last thing that I had to work through was actually the shoe. Now, given that I had touches of gold on the necklace,
It was a no brainer that I had to go for an open toe gold shoe and went for a beautiful bed shoe because I wanted a bit of comfort, but it's a shoe I already owned. And then it was about a handbag because I needed to have something that if I was walking, I could potentially wear cross -bodied and also picked up on the neutrals within the necklace. And so I had,
uh, actually quite an inexpensive, uh, little bag that I use all the time. Um, but has the ability to pop open and it's got a zip so I can put a carry actually quite a bit in there. And given I knew that at the end of the night, I'd likely be walking back, uh, to the apartment. Uh, I was thinking practical and a pair of very comfy and very thin flip flops.
went in there so that way I could swap out of the heels and the heels could easily go inside the handbag as well. So very strategic in the approach of thinking through what I actually needed. And so that actually pulled together the whole outfit. And if I go back to the reason why I picked that particular dress and wanting to be able to wear it multiple occasions,
is that I knew that I could very easily, even though it was a strapless dress, very easily pair that dress back with a denim jacket, a black crossbody bag and some black velcro sort of chunky sandals to wear during the day and walk around with that. Alternatively, I could actually also wear it.
Sonya | Your Styled Collective (11:37.934)
I own a pair of suede and neutral colored Adidas sneakers, so Samvers. And I know I could pair that back with again, a neutral Cardi. If I was gonna do that oversized and more transisional wear, I could do that. And again, pop that with either,
a white or a cross body neutral handbag in a more casual sense. So it was really important for me to be able to get maximum wear out of that piece, given I'd made the decision that I wanted it in the wardrobe. So why didn't I hire? So when I went and had a look at what was available to hire, for me, it just wasn't...
hitting the mark. Many of the pieces were either really, really sort of dressy dressy, so lots of satins, polyesters, that type of thing, which I knew I would get really hot in and given the price, I thought, you know what, I'm not really going to enjoy wearing that. And it wasn't in my style. So there was no point settling for something that I thought this will do because I know I would have felt it.
uh, on the night. And so that really is how I came up with, um, this particular outfit for the white, uh, party. And if you're interested in seeing some more about some of the outfits and how I could wear it multiple ways, uh, I will be doing a real on, on that as well on socials, but.
I hope you found that really interesting and maybe insightful as well. I'd love for you to let me know if you think about that, those sort of things when you put together an outfit or you are trying to consider whether it meets your brand and style, whether some of those elements are things that maybe you hadn't considered and you will consider going forward. So thanks so much for.
Sonya | Your Styled Collective (13:53.006)
joining me for another episode. If you enjoyed it, please leave a review and let a friend know. I'd love to hear from you. Take care.
