Photographer-turned-stylist and girl-about-town Olivia Croucher Buckingham says it's all about structure when it comes to styling herself. The realisation hit her the first time she wore a flirty Roland Mouret galaxy dress.
"I met Roland Mouret at a dinner. It was one of the first fashion events I went to when I moved back here," says Hong Kong-born Buckingham, who returned four years ago from London. "When I put it on, it was like a Cinderella moment that took me from a baby sophisticated dresser to a grown-up one."
Her obsession with the silhouette is evident in the custom-made closet in her Mid-Levels apartment. Think an oxblood Burberry dress with open back cut-out and cinched at the waist, a midriff-showing beige leather and silk gown from Chloé, a colour blocking body-hugging number from Stella McCartney and a structured jacket from Haider Ackermann.
"My style is clean cut, nothing too fussy, nothing too frilly. Everything should be quite structured," she says. "Take this Burberry dress, though it's pleated and pretty, it still has straight lines to define the silhouette, a zip finish and cut out at the back."
Buckingham started out as a portrait and landscape photographer, then worked at a public relations firm before becoming a fashion styling assistant.
"I absolutely love styling, especially coming from a photographic background, I have a deeper understanding of what people are looking for having been behind the lens myself," she says.