Hi, I’m Debbie. I have had a long and successful career in the entertainment and lifestyle industries, as a writer – a journalist and a book author – and a PR whiz, as well as a radio presenter and producer. In all of those endeavours I’ve worked with leading musicians, songwriters and composers, filmmakers, scriptwriters, actors, visual artists, photographers, designers and many other creative people in Australia, the US, the UK, Europe and Asia.

It’s been fun, sometimes exciting, sometimes exhausting, and usually inspiring.

Throughout the years I’ve done it as stylishly as time and finances allowed. Shopping and collecting great clothes and accessories has always been a preoccupation and, I’ve believed, my birthright as a woman of taste, especially one born to a mother who was exquisitely beautiful and who loved clothes.

Growing up as a teenager in the 1970s and beginning my career in the 1980s meant finding my fashion feet was sometimes challenging, and in this blog I will at times refer to some of the fabulous and less remarkable moments in my style history. I have some amazing vintage pieces from successful adventures in fashion and travel, and some photos of me in outfits that have long gone and whose memories are cringeful at best.

I spent a big part of my life living in Byron Bay, a small coastal town in Australia where sophistication in attire was beyond redundant. I also spent most of my life in Sydney, big chunks of it in London, and whenever possible have had long stays in Los Angeles. My style has been influenced by all of these places, the many other parts of the world I have travelled to, people that have made great impressions on me along the way, and my own growing fascination with educating myself in fashion and beauty, as much for self-development purposes as for simple aesthetics.

In June 2012 I sold my house in Byron, a home I’d had for sixteen years, which I had renovated and transformed into a resort-style haven, Club Deb, that I thought defined me. I stored most of my worldly goods in Sydney and I set off on a period of extended overseas travel, planning to write my second book. While I did some work on that book, particularly a lot of research, and met some of the most beautiful and special people that have ever had come into my life, it turned out that my fifteen months of journeying back and forth between the United States and Europe was another kind of odyssey. My luggage was ludicrously copious and heavy, and grew more so each time I moved to another place, but the treasures within, and the joy I felt moving around the world fashionably – no shorts and t-shirts on this savvy traveller – made the back aches worthwhile. As I posted updates and photos on Facebook, my friends kept cheering on my elegance and many urged me to start up a fashion and travel blog. As I already had a personal website, albeit sorely neglected, and was active on Facebook each day, I didn’t see the need for a blog. But when my adventures started encompassing meaningful friendships with people in retail, beauty and design, the urging from them became tough to ignore. So Flights of Fashion was born.

Back in Sydney in October 2013, I am launching my blog with some retrospective posts on my recent travels and style adventures, but will often intersperse with current impressions along with long-ago recollections as available photos will allow. This is not just about the clothes I wear, the perfume and makeup I use and the places I’ve been, although there will be plenty of that. Flights of Fashion is about the meaning that style gives to my life. I hope you’ll take flight with me and I look forward to your company as I go.

Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills
September 2013