What does your fashion comfort zone look like?

Ever since the photo in the paper the goes with my column changed a few weeks ago and you can see that I have feet as well as a head, a number of people have asked about the brown boots I'm wearing (Veronique Branquinho from Belinda about four years ago when I was trying to be J-Lo).

In magazine shoots you rarely if ever get to ….

….wear anything of your own because….well, the stylist likes to dress you from scratch. There are two reasons for this.

1) It's nice for readers to be able to buy what they see you wearing and to do that, it has to be currently in-store.

2) People's 'real' clothes are often a bit shabby or not the right look the magazine wants to project to its readers.

Now that I'm being photographed more for various things (and will be moreso in coming months with my book being released – GULP), I've had to be dressed by stylists. In many ways, it can be enormous fun to go to a shoot and look at clothes on a rack and try some on (and then buy some – I've been doing all my shopping this way lately).

It's a bit weird really. Especially when you're not a model and you're being photographed as 'yourself' but not dressing yourself. I know that I personally can get in a total rut with what I wear. Do you relate?

I have pretty fixed ideas about what flatters me and what I won't even consider. But when you're being dressed by someone else, there's no such thing as preconceptions. A stylist can look at you with a far more clinical, professional eye and sometimes the results can be pleasantly surprising. When I spoke to the Sunday Life stylist on the phone before the shoot, she asked me what I liked to wear and I started into this big speech about 'nothing-tight-and-loose-tops-and-no-bare-arms-and-Ginger-and-Smart-and-Lisa-Ho-and…" and then I stopped.

"Look, actually, I'm going to shut up about what I think suits me and just let you tell me what suits me because that is your job." And I did. Then we had some back and forth about what she thought looked good and what I was comfortable wearing. Same with the shoot I did for Shop magazine a few months ago (that where the shot above was taken). Sometimes it's good to be pushed out of your fashion comfort zone.

For me (as I've said before)  this looks like jeans, converse and layers of loose cotton, hoodies or cardigans. Oh, and a fab black Witchery parka I bought last week. What does your fashion comfort zone look like and are you ever jolted out of it?

PREVIOUSLY ON MAMAMIA….

How many sizes do you have in your wardrobe?

Shopping is not a team sport…I prefer to spend solo

I helped save Australia from recession, one shoe at a time

…and then I tucked my stomach INTO MY JEANS