A handbag is more than a practical purchase to most women. A handbag is the one constant that is worn everyday while the rest of the ensemble changes depending on mood, season and occasion. It’s fair to say that a person’s clutch, purse or tote can often represent their personality. Lily Bloom handbags are adorned with fun, expressive patterns and bold colours. Not only that, the signature fabrics are made from recycled plastic bottles. Exclusively at Strandbags, the Lily Bloom collection comes at a time when sustainable fashion is in vogue and provides a balance between functional fashion and eco-friendly chic.

Beijing’s fashion landscape is known for being avant-garde, high-end and on trend, and is often the location for well-known brands to try something a little off centre. Maison Martin Margiela’s  largest ever retail space is the newest edition to the city’s luxury fashion fold and is as grand in size and appearance as the creations it houses. Known for being somewhat of a phantom within the world of fashion, Belgian designer Martin Margiela has mirrored this aesthetic in his newest store, with sleek, modern and slightly sterile industrial interiors that create a soothing environment for shrewd sartorialists to peruse the racks (the sales assistants are also said to don white lab coats). For the more adventurous – or if you simply can’t be bothered taking the stairs – the fit-out also includes an aluminum slide from the first to the second floor where you can tumble into a pile of cushions.

Bored with your banal breakfast cereal? Let New York food blogger, Tricia Clarke-Stone add a dash of luxury to your morning with her renderings of cereals gone haute-couture. Inspired by her love of fashion, style and amazing food, she has given a luxury lift to favourite breakfast treats. This tasty, chic collection gives a high-end, expensive and glam aesthetic to cereal couture. But not only has the food lover designed breakfast cereals, the glam-foodie has also created a collection of luxury icy desserts. It’s ice cream sans the calories but full of style. Burberry milkshake anyone? That will definitely bring us to the yard.

The world is increasingly growing in population and as a result, hair will and continue to be abundant in supply. But how do you turn flimsy follicles into a durable yet lightweight structure? Expanding the booming production of hair extensions beyond the beauty industry, the dynamo duo behind Studio Swine have discovered a way to turn their hair cuttings into stylish sunnies and vision sharpening eyewear. Made of simply hair and bioresin, Hair Glasses are 100% biodegradable with no harmful substances released during production. Whether you’re a bright blonde or a bold and brazen brunette, these stylish, sustainable specs are sure to turn heads.

Do you choose the dress or a skirt and shirt combo? Do you accessorise with a brooch or necklace? Do you wear your hair up or down? And finally, do you choose flats or heels? These are just a few of the questions a woman will ask herself when getting ready of a morning. ze o ze literally means ‘this or that’ in Hebrew – a reflection of the back-and-forth decision making process that goes into choosing the perfect pair of shoes. The creation of designer Daniela Bekerman, ze o ze is a modular pair of flat shoes that comes with four different sets of heels. The different heels slide into the sole of shoe, transforming a simple pair of flats into an entirely different pair of shoes. Imagine the possibilities.

It’s hard to believe that the world looked completely different just a century ago. Here’s 100 years of fashion in 100 seconds.

Pins and needles may be an integral element of most garment construction, but for designer Rie Hosokai, the pointy tools could leave her creations a little flat- literally. Far from the latex animals seen at children’s birthdays, Hosokai deftly twists and manipulates balloons into creative, statement pieces. The former florist started her company, Daisy Balloon ten years ago creating wedding gowns and now continues to create masterpieces in the world of balloon art. The creative designer has won multiple awards at Belgium’s annual The Balloon Festival for turning these light, latex toys into incredible dresses.  Seems like she’s got a lot more than hot air going on!

While it might still be a bit too early to get excited for summer, it’s hard not to feel a little bit tired of winter when there are so many amazing summer styles popping up all over the globe. For all the fashionable lads out there, The Style Blogger has compiled a list of brands that produce the best summer suits out there, as well as a few tips on how to wear them. Emphasising the importance of good tailoring, TSB’s tips are great if you want to look effortlessly cool in the summer heat.

Nothing defines a Brazilian fiesta than lounging around by the poolside under the beaming sun with splashes of fruity cocktails and lashings of delectable delights. After dark on August 16, the glittering Queensland Terrace at the State Library will be transformed into a night of colour, with the newest crop of up-and-coming models and emerging designers lighting up the Copacabana sky at the 2nd Annual Young & Emerging Designers Party (YEDP). Teamed with the fashion juggernauts at Vogue.com.au, felix & slink’s YEDP will offer a platform for emerging fashion forward young individuals to introduce themselves to the city. Dive into the Brazilian fun as fresh-faced Vivien’s models showcase collections from Brisbane emerging designers such as Bianca Batson (batson.) and Madeleine Murdoch (Zhou).

When looking at your wardrobe, could you select just 10 pieces that you would want to wear for an entire year? Setting themselves the challenge to create 10 organic pieces of clothing that could be mixed and matched, the folks at eco-fashion label, ULTRA, have created the ULTRA 10 Challenge. As part of the challenge, ULTRA has designed an entire wardrobe consisting of 10 items of clothing made from organic and recycled materials. After accepting the challenge, ULTRA encourages participants to post their different looks on the photo log. While you may not want to abandon their cherished garments for a new wardrobe, the challenge demonstrates that simply choosing to adopt a slow fashion mindset in favour of trying to keep up with fast fashion trends can go a long way to helping the environment.

Denim never gets old. Inevitably, fashion itself changes as each season drifts by, as trends fall to the side and as the “new black” emerges along with the next “it” bag, yet denim always remains a secure piece in our wardrobes. Artist Jeffrey Wang, creator of Blanq World has kept this prominence of denim alive with the creation of recycled denim sculptures in his latest work Persona. The project in collaboration with Levi’s and Taiwan’s Fubon Art Foundation, was inspired by necessity and created solely with jeans. There were no cutting, sewing or technical changes to the jeans, they were simply connected with safety pins. His interpretation of the blue jeans challenges the perception of denim whilst preserving their shape and familiarity in a visually modern and fashionable art project.

Looking part school-art project and part metroid, Peter versus Toby’s latest lookbook is an explosion of colours and textures showing the garments with a new aesthetic point of view. PvT has created unique masks for its collection, fashioned from twisted foils, cellophane, fabrics and newspapers. Designed by Byron Bay boys, Marco and Antoine, the label is taking a leap in the right direction after the boys decided to throw in their corporate and sporting career towels for shiny fabrics, slim cuts and zany pants. They’re two boys claiming to make trouble yet priding themselves on messages and designs,the 2011 Post Gravity collection speaks well to this other than just being another humdrum brochure. Fact: every tag on every shirt is handwritten either by Marco or Antoine.

If you can wear your heart on your sleeve, why shouldn’t you wear your green thumb on your lapel? Wearable planters are more than just quirky conversation starters. Carry sprouts, succulents or petite posies with you during the day to freshen the air you breathe and harness the beauty of nature. To complement the chic verdure, eco fashion world inspires socially aware style by offering a guide to all things green and gorgeous. Arm yourself with a repertoire of sustainable fabrics and innovative designs and check out the glossary for the latest terminology. When it is time to nourish your home as well as your wardrobe, these ideas are perfect for the urban gardener who is itching to get their hands dirty.

Many a modern thinker has philosophised about the true origins of style – Mademoiselle Chanel made the famous distinction between ‘fashion’ and ‘style’ – but, for most, there exists a person whose personal style they admire above any other. For some, it’s the classic garb and innate elegance of Audrey Hepburn, for others it’s the feminine rock chic of Charlotte Gainsbourg, while for others it’s the statement-making outfits of Lady Gaga. Whomever your style icon might be, there’s boundless inspiration to be found in photographs of them. How I Met Your Style (HIMYS) is the brainchild of two photographers who wanted to reveal the true style gurus behind some of fashion’s most coveted blogs and brands. By portraying these fashionistas in a series of intimate photographic portraits, the duo aims to ‘focus on life on the other side of the mirror’.

There is something simplistic about canvas bags. They are robust, effortless, raw and ready to get old. A canvas bag speaks of the minimalist lifestyle, of shopping for local fresh produce at the local farmers market or a morning stroll to the boulangerie for deliciously sweet patisseries. “Le Ballon Rouge” by Teddyfish is a reminder of this simplistic culture – a brand birthed in Spring 2010 whose mottos were robust and sweet. The project was hatched in an inspiring old teahouse with a mission to create objects for daily, peaceful life. Two designers immersed themselves in modern craftsmanship to produce nothing less than originality and quality. Teddyfish’s embodiment of hand-made qualities, speaks to the well-made products that are (ironically) meant to age gracefully with every shopping trip.

Often ink-stained and coffee-smudged, it is easy to spot an artist who has been hard at work. Arms laden with a mass of pads and pens, things can get messy in the world of a designer. For those inclined to sketchings of the sartorial kind, Fashionary is a combination of a diary, dictionary and sketchpad, and is a practical accessory for anyone interested in the fashion game. Available in two versions – men and women – Fashionary contains 400 templates for quick sketching as well as handy information such as body measurements and stitch patterns. There’s also a comprehensive glossary that details clothing styles, fabric varieties and even button types. For anyone looking to unleash their inner creative and try their hand at design, Fashionary provides the perfect place to pour sartorial thoughts.

Faithful companions, our sneakers do so much for us that it hardly seems fair for such a supportive shoe to end its life by being mercilessly thrown to the rubbish tip. Like all things we cherish dearly, such as beloved childhood goldfish, Oat Sneakers can be given a full burial in the garden when their lives ultimately come to an end. Born out of a deep respect for shoes and the environment, the folks at Oat Shoes poured two years of research into developing a line of sneakers, called the Virgin Collection, made entirely from biodegradable materials. That means you can throw the shoes out with the compost, bury them or, for the thrifty designer, use as a pot for plants (preferably not those you intend to eat).  The shoes won second prize at the Green Fashion Awards during the Amsterdam International Fashion Week and should be available for purchase soon.

A colourful array of toe-tapping fun from Miuccia Prada’s gaggle of well-dressed dancers.

Another product of the creative  Brooklyn, New York scene – is dutch designer Marianne Van Ooij. Her most recent artistic offerings are her best yet; clothing-themed bowls and plates. Bringing fashion and food together through detailed ceramic-work, her designs are truly unique – think business shirt sleeves on plates, buttons and zips on gorgeous shallow white bowls. The pieces aren’t on sale yet but Marianne has a lovely collection of her other artistic pursuits on her website.

A pair of worn pointe shoes, wide satin ribbons neatly wrapped around the lithe legs of a ballerina, are a rare sight to be seen on New York City’s industrial wharfs. Photographer Dane Shitagi follows the routine of a ballet company in the Big Apple, photographing ballerinas dancing amidst iconic New York haunts. The New York City Ballerina Project juxtaposes the elusive behind-the-scenes life of a working ballerina with a stark and busy New York backdrop. Dane’s project includes a ballerina performing a graceful arabesque in the Meat Market, en pointe in Washington Square and donning a full tutu in an apartment in Queens. Taking ballet from the stage to the streets, each of Dane’s portraits explores the collaborative relationship between ballet, fashion and photography.