A lot of people think I go through clothes like Kinder Surprise toys – you keep opening more chocolate eggs to see what’s inside then the toys go in a box somewhere. It’s probably true that I buy more clothes than may be considered healthy, but it’s only because of my skittish tastes in clothes which tend to jump from one fad to another in quick succession. This time last year it was spikes and studs on everything, then six months ago it was perspex shoes, and most recently – black, black and more black. All of such vagaries are of course, meticulously chronicled on this very blog.

But unlike a kid’s sentimental relationship with capsule toys, and contrary to popular belief, I don’t have a particularly large wardrobe. My mild OCD with having things unaccounted for would never allow it. In fact, I have a regular sized walk in, half of which is taken up by my pretentious lawyer costumes.

I have hard and fast rules about when clothes must go. For example, clothes are not kept on the off chance they may be worn ‘some time’, and while poor quality is a strong reason for recycling after a few wears, good quality and craftsmanship alone are not reason enough to keep something that does not suit. I routinely resell clothes, mainly for funds to buy more, and partly as a means of atoning past style faux pas. I do have one rule that perhaps is more on the emotional side: before I sell a piece of clothing, I wear it one last time – its last chance to show me it shouldn’t be spring cleaned.

And that long story brings me to the last hoorah of my Zara biker coat, which was a frenzied, foaming-at-the-mouth kind of impulse buy from last season, when Zara finally opened its boutique in Canberra. I found no more seeming way to war this jacket over winter than with leather and more leather, today, with my Vera Moda leather skinnies, Windsorsmith studded western boots (which I also have in silver studs) and my 3.1 Phillip Lim satchel. I absolutely love the perfect contrast of gold hardware on black leather, and the oversized zipper on this Zara coat was a huge selling point for me. My only complaint is that the hip pockets are fake – don’t you hate that? I mean, when I wear a jacket, I can’t stand not being able to put my hands in those pockets. Is it just me?

Zara Biker Coat Bonds T Shirt Vera Moda leather pants 3.1 Phillip Lim Pashli Satchel in Multi-media Windsorsmith ‘Lassoo’ studded western boots Swarovski Pendant