Squad goals … forget Taylor Swift’s posse, this is the girl gang you want to be a part of (oh, okay, I’ll take Taylor’s too!)
After launching What Brooke Wore earlier this year, I quickly jumped on board with the #everydaystyle movement.
Brisbane blogger, stylist and author Nikki Parkinson of Styling You started using the hashtag #everydaystyle two years ago when a few of her followers asked to see what she wore on a daily basis.
Like many of us who don’t work in an office, Nikki had fallen into a rut of wearing pretty much the same thing everyday so she agreed to take a quick iPhone photo each day for seven days.
Two years and 730 photos later, Nikki hasn’t missed a day—and she’s inspired thousands of women around the country to get on board and share their #everydaystyle, myself included … so I was pretty excited to receive an invitation to lunch last Saturday to celebrate two years of the hashtag.
Nikki believes #everydaystyle has given women the confidence to play with their style and has encouraged some to use more of their existing wardrobe.
And while it’s definitely done both of those things for me; the best part has been that I have found myself embraced by an amazing group of women.
While some expect a fashion-based community to be catty and bitchy, I can honestly say it’s quite the opposite; the women I have met so far, and those who take time each day/week to comment on my outfits, are encouraging and supportive.
I’ve made some brilliant (and hilarious) new friends who I can honestly say have enriched my life—and my wardrobe.
I was pretty excited to find some of those new friends would also be attending, so as well as getting to enjoy a divine poolside lunch and drinks at Hilton Brisbane, courtesy of Nikki’s sponsor Olympus (thanks Olympus!), I also had a girlie catch-up.
Champagne in hand, we headed to the table and instead of your typical place tags, Nikki had printed out an #everydaystyle pic of each of us (very cool) as well as goodies from Brisbane brand LouenHide. Mine had been chosen to match my outfit in the photo. Because … fashion.
After lunch we were treated to a lesson in posing from Simone Merlo, a former international model, who gave us eight awesome tips on what to do with our arms in outfit photos and how to pose to look taller, thinner and a little bit cooler (who doesn’t want that?!). Although she didn’t do my preferred ‘twist the peanut’ pose, I’ve now got a couple more moves in my repertoire.
When I popped back to my seat after an impromptu mini photo shoot with Helen from Rhubarb Photography, I found my LouenHide goodies had been joined by a fashion illustration of me by the very talented Jakomina Vidakovic.
To top it all off, Nikki started the festive season early and, thanks to her sponsors and supporters, we each won a lucky door prize (it was like The Price Is Right with a little less screaming). I won a gorgeous silver suede clutch from Read & Bell and picked up a voucher for a pair of FRANKiE4 shoes for taking the most creative photo on the day. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
All in all, I had an amazing day (and quite a big night) as lunch turned into drinks, drinks turned into dinner and suddenly I found myself at the Pig N Whistle at 1am! Thanks to the lovely Nikki for inviting me to be part of such an amazing event and to her very generous sponsors and supporters for our lovely prizes and gifts!
If you’re looking for some super cool and fashionable gals to follow, check out: katy_potaty, desperatelyseekingsuzy, retailgenie, traineemama, Ilovethatskirt, mrs.lauren.roney, individualstyle101, madamcassowary and, of course, the woman who started it all, stylingyou.
Or jump on to Instagram, search #everydaystyle and see who you find and join in the party. And check out the Styling You blog tomorrow (Thursday) for your chance to win an Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7, known as the selfie camera, (although I plan on winning!).
