Brown Town

Baby's first Substack.

A Broader World

Right! This Substack is here because I crowd-sourced opinions about starting this Substack. (99.99% were a resounding yes, with one typically blunt editor friend saying, “It better be laser focused. There are too many newsletters”). Hmm, I’ll try?

Firstly, a note on the name: credit goes to Alexa Chung, who has called me “Brown Town,” for years, and to my other pal, brilliant comedian Alex Edelman, who suggested the damn same thing in an Insta poll last week.

It makes me laugh. Even though it is very… brown.

That done, I started thinking what I would write about. Then I realized that it was in my original question to you all: a broader world.

A broader world was the reason why in 1997, at 22, I bought a $585 one-way ticket to London from Sydney when I’d never been overseas before. I packed a huge backpack and set off with three girlfriends on a curious, boisterous European tour. We ate almost exclusively bread and cheese (we were poor!) but of course I thought it vitally important to buy Gucci sunglasses in Madrid and carry around a door-stopper sized September American Vogue (you never know when you need to reference).

A broader world was why, in 2001, I left Sydney once more, saving a heady $5000 and taking off to NYC, complete with one friend and a dodgy visa. My timing was not ideal (I arrived September 4^th, a triumph of strategy) but I was safe, and my desire to stay in this crazy town never left me. There’s a term that is often used critically of people, but I am fond of it: I was guileless. And well, I was here now, wasn’t I?

That was – oof – almost 22 years ago, and I can say that New York has been kind to me. I showed up, hustled, worked hard and most importantly, I was genuinely happy and excited to be here. (My first star sighting, which now makes me chuckle-cringe, was Calvin Klein… in his own store with his name on it! We didn’t have that in Sydney).

I’ve met a few more designers than that now, and have worked in roles that teenage me, even early 20s me, would never have dreamed of. Harper’s BAZAAR, where I fell in love with 90s supermodels? InStyle, that big, fancy Hollywood magazine? (The 1994 premiere cover of Barbra Streisand with her armoire, so…woodsy!). When I was younger, all these things seemed so “other” to me – growing up at the end of the world with no internet, no social media, just three-month-old American fashion magazines and the local news.

The funny thing is the worlds you mythologize when they are foreign to you start to, when you become established, shrink. Vacuum-seal, even, with sanctioned behaviors, ambitions, destinations. The fashion business is built on ritual. On status, obviously, and, at its best, phenomenal, breathtaking beauty that makes you feel like a toddler meeting a princess.

But in so many ways, fashion is very old fashioned. And for most people who travel around to runway shows for months on end, it’s a borrowed life. The business class plane ticket you couldn’t typically afford, the luxury hotel room, the gifted flowers, the gifted handbag. It’s all beyond lovely, but once you think it’s yours, you’re in trouble.

I have great friends in fashion who take great comfort in these rituals, what they say about status, routine, what you’ve achieved to be in that room, in that front row. It is hugely seductive, and I am certainly not above it. But I’ve always had one foot in, and one foot out. Perhaps it’s as simple being Australian, having a keen bullshit detector, or just not seeing the allure of Balenciaga (too pointy for me). What I do know is it’s certainly been better for my noggin.

Now, after losing my job at InStyle a bit over a year ago, I am, once again, exploring those broader worlds. (Well, given I’m not an ostrich, I had begun said explorations before the hammer came down). And while anything you start on your own is a little rickety at first (I miss you, corporate health insurance!), it’s enlivening. I’ve always maintained that freedom of movement is the ultimate success, and I have that now.

Many adventures await – I’m off to South Africa with my new collaborators at (RED) to learn more about their work (hey, maybe I’ll write about it!). I’m planting my bulbs in television, film, luxury, tech, design, beauty and non-profit. I’m also advising some brilliant Australian companies (check out GreatWrap, by the way, they make cling wrap out of potatoes!). I’m going home to Australia more – ironically, the country I was so desperate to escape from for something “cooler,” is pretty bloody great.

Anyway, what thrills me the most is taking the vacuum-sealed universes of fashion, celebrity, influence…and opening the door a little wider to let in people from, you guessed it, a broader world. Isn’t that more interesting?

To some structural stuff: at the end of each weekly note, I will post some things I love under the titles of ‘Funny,’ ‘Clever’ and ‘Helpful’. This is inspired by my response to my husband Brandon when he says something stupid (I mean barely ever!): “That’s not funny, it’s not helpful, it’s not clever.” I might occasionally add ‘Cute’ because I enjoy a cool t-shirt or great trouser, and I think you would too. After all, I am still half a fashion girl.

I’m excited and intrigued by Substack, so I hope you bear with me on my journey of erratic storytelling and wonky formatting. Enjoy it, even. My intentions are pure.