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EPISODE 10 FEATURES STYLIST MEGAN MORTON

We thought it was about time we talked about beauty. Beauty is one of the major motivators for people who work in creative industries – they want to make beautiful things, whether it’s a garment, textile, show or picture. They want, as Megan Morton puts it in this Episode: to capture beauty, to try to understand it.

Megan is a stylist, author and “house whisperer” with a life-long love for vintage and the stories behind old things. She grew up on a banana farm in Queensland, where her mum subscribed to 1970s back-to-the-land magazine, Grass Roots. Megan was raised to see the beauty in nature, while figuring out how to make stuff.

Today her styling work is focused on houses and interiors, but she turns her eye for beauty on everything from her wardrobe, to teaching to travel to Instagram. She’s worked for magazines like Vogue Living and Elle Decoration, and is the author of four books. The latest? It’s Beautiful Here (Thames & Hudson).

In this Episode we start with ICONIC FASHION QUOTES. Then go off on a lot of beautiful tangents about managing stress in the creative industries, the heart and soul of getting dressed, the value of vintage and the importance of the handmade. We try and pin down beauty, what it means and why we seek it, and discuss the beauty of provenance, generosity and sharing.

“Being flush and doing well affects everybody in your circle and the only way to keep that going is to be generous with your knowledge. The more you give away, the more free you are.” says Megan.

Megan is also the founder of The School, a creative hub in Sydney where you can learn things like shibori dyeing and extreme knitting from the best-of-the-best craftspeople inside the industry. All good crafternoon inspiration.

THE QUOTES:

"Fashions fade, style is eternal" - Yves Saint Laurent

“You can never really go wrong if you take nature as an example.” - Christian Dior

“Give ideas away. Under every idea there's a new idea waiting to be born” - Diana Vreeland

“Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” - Coco Chanel

"Buy Less, Choose Well, Make it Last." - Vivienne Westwood

LINKS

Megan just watched this movie and urges, it's a must for those, like her, who chase beauty.

Lee Jofa is the interior design company Megan mentions. It's very chi-chi; think collaborations with the likes of Mulberry and David Hicks.

Here's a bit of eye candy from the Mulberry's Bohemian Travels collection

Megan mentions ELAINE SCARRY's writings on beauty.

"Beauty brings copies of itself into being. It makes us draw it, take photographs of it, or describe it to other people. Sometimes it gives rise to exact replication and other times to resemblances and still other times to things whose connection to the original site of inspiration is unrecognisable."

You can read the essay here. And you should!

Tired but wired? Is there such a thing as "Rushing Woman's Syndrome"? Whether or not you give credence to Dr Libby Weaver's theories around stress, Megan's personal solutions to dealing with the too-much-to-do of her life make sense. Go to a park or garden and smell the smells. See the colours. Schedule in a digital detox.

4 THINGS YOU CAN LEARN AT THE SCHOOL

Jacqui Fink, extreme knitter extraordinaire

1. Extreme knitting. Yes, that's thing. The needles are 1.5 metres long.

2. The Science of Styling.

3. A hybrid of floral appreciation and photography called...FLOROGRAPHY (natch)

4. Shibori, the ancient and beautiful art of clamping and resist-dye Shibori techniques

BEHOLD! THE GRASS ROOTS MAG COVER I FOUND ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB. WHO WANTS TO HELP ME BRING IT BACK?

THANK YOU FOR JOINING THE WARDROBE CRISIS CONVERSATION. WE'LL HAVE A NEW EPISODE FOR YOUEVERY WEDNESDAY. CAN YOU HELP US SPREAD THE WORD? WE'D LOVE YOU TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS & LEAVE A REVIEW IN APPLE PODCASTS.

Until next time,

Clare x