Emily Highfield has been an inspiration of mine for a long time, so I was thrilled when she happily agreed to answer some questions about her career, the evolution of Stylebk and her minimalist approach to style.
Based in Melbourne, Emily started out as a Designer in the Fashion Industry and has worked with some of Australia's top fashion brands. With the success of her blog, Emily now works solely as Editor at Stylebk as it has grown from a self-managed blog into a successful business, housing a family of fashion contributors, photographers and creatives. Stylebk features fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle content focused around a clean, minimalist aesthetic. Emily is also designer and co-director of activewear label, Huntr and with over 50k followers on Instagram and countless street style snaps at MBFW, Emily is leading the way in the Australian blogging world and style stakes.
Stylebk is a visual wonderland, providing endless inspiration for the minimalist with an appreciation for simplicity, clean lines, tonal style and "less is more" beauty...
What is Stylebk?
Stylebk (style.book) is a blog on style. We appeal to the minimal style hunter, searching for inspiration for how to style their lives. Our minimal style aesthetic crosses over all our lifestyle categories of fashion, interiors, travel, beauty and food.
How has Stylebk evolved from an idea into the success that it is?
Stylebk started as a self managed blog about me and my style. It has evolved into a broader blog with a family of creatives and contributors. We work together to produce inspiring, interesting and beautiful content for our readers. I love what I do every day. It's my dream job!
How did your journey into the fashion industry begin?
Apart from the minimal fashion training we received at school, I didn't think about fashion again seriously until Uni. I began by doing a Fashion Design Course at Melbourne School Of Fashion, then moved to RMIT and in 2006, went into a design role straight out of uni. In 2014, I left my full time design role to work on Stylebk full time, in which time I also started my own activewear label, Huntr.
What does a typical day in your life look like?
I get up, make a coffee, do some mindset work on my goals, attack the emails and basically work through a to-do list every day. It gets tricky managing two businesses (Stylebk and Huntr), so I basically focus on whatever is top priority for that day. Sometimes I attend events, meetings and shoots that I can't avoid, so I try to group them in a day or two for the week, so I can have a few full days in the office. I also enjoy working on weekends because they always seem to be more productive with no distractions.
Favourite labels?
There's so many.. Celine, Prada, Givenchy, Alexander Wang, Dion Lee, Acler, Maticevski, Peggy Hartanto, Yeojin Bae and C/MEO Collective to name a few..
Define your style..
Minimal, Edgy, Clean.
Favourite hang out in Melbourne?
For food, I love Baby Pizza, Mr Miyagi, Hutongs, Supernormal, Lucy Liu, I Love Pho, Pillar Of Salt and if I ever go out to a bar, I go to my husband's venue, Bond Melbourne, in the city.
Where to from here?
I am continuing to evolve Stylebk, with exciting plans in the works. I am also working on the next collection for my activewear label, so plenty to keep me busy! We would love to eventually spend Winter overseas in a warmer climate, once we are fully able to work remotely. That's the dream!
Success is....
Having a comfortable life, home, travel; enough time to spend with family and friends; being able to make a positive difference in the world and leave a legacy behind.
All images sourced from Stylebk