Michelle Leslie used to be behind bars. Now she's designing them

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Frockwriter was interested to spot a recent series of Tweets from Michelle Leslie, who reports that on November 12, the doors opened to a new Sydney bar whose interiors she has designed: The Winking Lizard at 28 Chalmers Street, Surry Hills (below). With its stark refectory tables, old metal chairs and murals by Sydney artist Ben Frost, the ambiance is, according to Leslie, “industrial and distressed”. To our eye, it's a little Left Bank bohemian - not to be at all confused, of course, with Third World prison common room. Leslie has more than a passing acquaintance with the latter, having spent three months in Bali’s notorious Kerobokan Prison in 2005 following her arrest in the possession of two ecstasy tablets. Five years on from her annus horribilis, the former model has reinvented herself as a creative consultant. With interior design studies under her belt from the Sydney Design School - and entertainment/marketing industry work with Peer Group Media, the company founded by her fiance Adam Zammit - Leslie has launched her own interior design and styling business called Curious & The Specimen. This follows a first foray into design with the Miyow & Barkley pet clothing and accessories line, launched in 2007 with friend Traci Griffith, the first range of which reportedly sold out. 

the winking lizard via @_michelle_lee