I’m off hoooooome for a week, Brisbane here I come!

I’m heading back with a bunch of my amazing NZ personal styling clients on our Aussie Shopping Trip (you can find more info on the 2027 trips here if you’re keen to know more). We’re hitting the Sunshine State to find colour, print and just things that are a little different than what we can pick up here in Aoteoroa, so I need to pack versatile, weather-appropriate pieces that can mix and match, and stand the test of 8-hour shopping days! (as well as a few extra days with my fam after the girls leave).

So the aim of the game: Pack as little as I can, to get the most looks I can! I took some loose inspiration from this blog on the 5,4,3,2,1 packing method I wrote a little while back, but decided that I didnt need 4 bottoms, so only packed 3 (haha I know, who am I!)

Here’s what I’ve packed (all the things that are still available are linked)

Now, in order to make sure I could actually get the most use out of all these pieces, I did something I don’t often do (but now highly recommend) and I tried EVERYTHING ON before I packed it! I needed to see how it actually worked in outfits, rather than just assuming it would be useful (which is my usual way of packing).

Can you guess how many outfits I got out of these 13 items? TWENTY FOUR!! I can stay for a month! woot! And honestly, that wasn’t all the different combos I could create, that’s just where I stopped because I got tired haha!

Now I know the weather can be changeable, and some of these looks are not as “wintery” as they might need to be, but I need to make sure I’ve got the right layers going on under the jackets and jumpers, we’re inside all of the time, and I’m also peri-menopausal, so those hot flushes are coming through thick and fast.

I’m a Brisbane girl, so I DO have some experience with a Brissy winter (cold in the morning, lovely and warm by lunchtime usually), plus I’ve acclimatised to NZ temps so the forecast 12-21 degrees is relatively balmy compared to what we’ve had here this week!

I’ll try and document what I do actually wear each day (and night) so we can really see how useful everything was.

Wish me luck!