About

hello there! I’m Xandra. I live a fabulously simple life with less stuff and more sparkle. I obsess over Pac Man and Harry Potter (I’m a Gryffindor). My role model for life is Kiki, teen witch from Kiki’s Delivery Service. I climb mountains, bake tasty things, eat like a stegosaurus, and write silly songs.

In 2010, I discovered minimalism, a movement about freedom through less stuff, physical and mental. Moving across the ocean urged me to adapt a minimalist lifestyle, and I’ve been loving it ever since. To me minimalism is about traveling and living lightly, but it is certainly not boring: it’s fashionable. minimalism has no requirements. It’s about slowly paring down possessions and commitments until you’re left with what you absolutely adore. Who wouldn’t want that? Minimalism applies to all fashions of my life – not just what I wear, but how I live. I am on a constant quest to find new favourites from fashion designers to cupcakeries, from songs to cities. To meet new fascinating people who share this quest. To make my life sparkle.

I started Fashionably Light in August 2012 to document it all, one little piece at a time. When I was just starting out on my minimalist journey, I searched for examples, particularly by minimalist ladies who also love colour and sparkles. This is my example, my contribution to the center of the venn diagram of minimalism and fashion.

Outside the tiny planet that is this blog, I am a third year English Language & Literature undergraduate at Exeter college, Oxford. My home base is Boston, Mass., so I am fluent in American and British.

Praise that makes me smile

“Bite-size installments of loveliness. As addictive as Laduree macaroons!” Caroline Gellatly, Sparkles & Crumbs

“A brilliant jellybean of amazingness” Latanya Rene Barrett, Sprinkles and Booze

“Each post is like a Baked by Melissa cupcake – bite-sized with frosting and cake base in perfect proportion.” Perrine Wynkel, My Scenic Route