The New Sweater.

As the mornings become fresher and the nights crisper we know that winter is slowly creeping upon us. One winter item that used to be left for sunday evenings lazing around in our 'comfy' clothes is the humble sweater. However, this year the sweater has matured and grown into a more sophisticated and versatile item. Perfect for layering, the sweater can be paired back over jeans with boots or simply worn over bright shorts or skirts for those tran-seasonal moments. This is a more casual, day time look compared to a blazer or leather jacket which has shone as the staple items for many seasons. This winter get excited as it's all about comfort, class and rugging up in those winter woolies.

LMFF favours the everyday fashion consumer.

It's that time of the year again, time for L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. This is the ultimate event for fashion lovers around the country. LMFF is an event open to the public so no matter if you're in the fashion industry or not you are welcome to join in the fashion festivities. This fashion event puts the consumers as the focus as they parade their best looks around the cultural hub. This year, Melbourne was turned from a sea of black into a colourful rainbow with pops of colour and different prints.  There was a lot of individuality and eccentric looks in patterned pants, neon accessories and florals as well as the 'classic' women who choose blazers, black and white and clean lines. Whatever you're look or style there was something for everyone and a true event for real woman on the street runway.

Stella McCartney Creates the Balance.

If there is one designer that knows the fine art of perfecting man-style power dressing mixed with femininity, it's Stella McCartney. And the world agrees. She is continually opening more stores (fingers crossed she lands on our shores) and is also the official designer of the British team's 2012 Olympic uniforms. At her recent Fall 2012 show at Paris Fashion Week, McCartney said the "Stella woman is about balance."

This is the balance that women around the world seek to find and create. The balance between juggling family, career, other relationships and inner self. It is a hard balance to come by and one that takes years to perfect. Only the strongest, most confident and powerful woman find this balance. But what it all stems from is your inner balance and inner happiness and being content with yourself and your surroundings. It doesn't come from how other people perceive you or how much you have succeeded in your career, but from the feelings inside.

Stella McCartney creates clothing for this woman. Shirt dressing, skater skirts with oversized jumpers and tailored pants with intricate detailing in a palette of cobalt blue, black and white. This type of tailored power dressing that is still a touch feminine is perfect for the modern woman. McCartney manages to perfect it season after season and you can too.

Without the Mask...Style & Spirituality

There are special days and celebrations throughout the year providing us with remarkable opportunities for personal growth and transformation.

The Jewish Festival of Purim provides a peak into our untapped power provided we are willing to take a journey of discovery to find out who we are under the masks we wear every day. One of the limitations of the five senses is an inability to see our true nature. We identify ourselves as an artist, doctor, mother, entrepeneur, police officer - but these are just paths we've chosen in life.

It’s not all that we are, in reality we have infinite, great abilities that have yet to be revealed and our daily lives provide us with the opportunity to reveal our true nature instead of our selfish, ego and primal instincts which make us no different from wild animals.

The festival of Purim is a holiday with the practical power of removing the doubt & fear that keeps us limited, and helps us to connect to our source. For centuries, kabbalists have been hosting masquerade parties on this night, using joy, song, spirits and special meditations to reconnect to the soul hiding just beyond the sense of “me.” And the following day, they would always do acts of sharing within the community, to help them live from this connection.

It's really the one way to be in the world, to give and to share your love and your life. It really is a beautiful life and behind our masks we too are beautiful souls here with a purpose to share and spread the light within. We are here to touch the hearts of people who care for us and to transform each other in the process, to make each of our lives greater, better and filled with light.

And it feels good to know I have made other people's lives better and brighter just by being my real self and a few months ago I received a beautiful greeting card from a beautiful soul (you know who you are) as a reminder of how one person can change someone else's life for the better.

We are in essence divine beings with pure souls. We simply need to let go of limiting, illusory and false concepts that we have misidentified as ourselves. This is why Purim is such a joyous holiday filled with unique energy that you can access only on this day. Discover how life looks when you can see through the masks of our physical reality and see Light in everything and everyone.