I recently blogged about the gifts my mentor Joey Mead King has given me across the 10 years I have known her. We should all have mentors but we should all also have mentees. When you reach a certain point in your career, there is a time to give back to people.

Steph Audino is a very talented Perth designer who, unknown to me, wrote a high school assignment on me when she was still studying. At the height of my career in Dubai, she reached out to me through my website and asked if she could dress me for various events in Dubai. Her clothes were so beautiful and made me feel so womanly. How could I refuse? What struck me more was how ballsy she was, how courageous she was in reaching out to me. It also demonstrated an attention to detail and bags of marketing savvy.

Steph posted me thousands of dollars worth of clothes to Dubai, a whole batch of which got lost in the mail (pretty standard for Dubai sadly) before the Grazia Style Awards in 2012 and in the end I couldn’t wear her dresses. She sent me more again, always extending herself and proving to me she wasn’t deterred. I then managed to get her into Singapore Digital Fashion Week which I was co-hosting, as a guest and Steph dressed me for my interview with Naomi Campbell.

Above: Wearing Steph Audino to interview Naomi Campbell in Singapore in 2013.

I love Steph like a little sister, I hope I have communicated to her how much I love and admire her. She’s tenacious, ambitious and the hardest-working member of Gen-Y I have ever met. Maybe our work ethic is bonded by our migrant parents who came out to Perth, I cannot say exactly but since the moment we met, we’ve got a long.

Check out Steph’s amazing Beaufort Street atelier and me wearing some of her latest designs:

As always these images are not airbrushed or retouched. I want my readers to see the lines, warts and all and also to see the amazing true fabric and flow of Steph’s creations.

Follow Steph on Instagram here for more details on her amazing pieces.