On Getting Dressed
Finding inspiration, loving what you have, and exploring the outer limits of your comfort zone.
So here we find ourselves, slowly poking our heads out into that big ol’ outside world after over two years decently inside, looking down at our well worn, well-loved sweatpants, wondering who the hell we are. It’s the dawn of a new day, a new you (you’re not the person you were in 2020), and you have no idea who you are - a healthy mixture of routine existential dread and the sartorial dilemma that is your closet, and more importantly, what you left behind in the days of heavily booked social calendars and going into the office Monday through Friday.
I find in the current days of living fast fast fast, devour, indulge, gobble, consume content, scroll scroll scroll, there’s limited, fizzling joy to the creative process of getting dressed. Physical magazines continue to die off one by one (RIP Allure) as GRWM reels and TikToks dominate on almost every social channel, regurgitating super niche trends in an echo chamber and resurrecting head to toe looks most of us over 30 have no interest in revisiting (lace camisoles are back? bandage dresses? PLEASE, no.) While sociocultural trends have existed for literally thousands of years, in modern times we find them going viral at record breaking lightspeed, copied instantaneously by fast fashion brands, bringing the runway to the masses in 0.2 seconds (the devil works hard, the Steve Madden design team works harder.) With so much technology pumping through our fingertips, the slow art of fashion at its finest has become a money driven industry pushing people to consume at unrealistic levels and making most us feel like absolute trash for not being able to keep up with the 0.1% of the population that can afford an Hermès Birkin bag.
A criticism to an industry that has a digital age dark side and century old flaws just like everything else, but it’s not all bad - after all, would I be writing directly to you on a social platform if that weren’t the case? What I mean to say is, I miss the slowness of fashion, both in the production of the garments we consume and how we consume it. Masterpieces take time to paint, great novels take time to write - why do we rush exploring ourselves through how we present ourselves to society around us? Flipping through a magazine, there’s nothing better! Ripping out an editorial you can’t get enough of, sticking it to your wall, dreaming up who you could be - it’s a daydream that feels more distant than it once did, a mixture of growing up and having the Sunday Scaries and the changing landscape of finding inspiration.
I recently rewatched “Unzipped”, a documentary (directed by Douglas Keeve) that follows Issac Mizrahi (his then boyfriend) as he creates his fall 1994 collection after receiving a terrible review on his previous show. Maybe it’s the romance of grainy black and white film, or the fact he walks down to the newsstand to frantically search for his review in a *physical* newspaper, or the chain smoking with no abandon, but the 90’s nostalgia is palpable as we watch Mizrahi go through the creative process of designing. There’s a soft hum, a vibration that is felt as he goes through mad genius mania to create a masterpiece in the form of fashion, not fashion in the form of quick consumption and bottom lines. It was a reminder that creation, good creation, is likely to never come in hours of scrolling and consuming - the standard of every day life in 2022. Mizrahi framed in his stillness, a wide shot, sitting in his studio, the only movement the smoke from his forgotten burning cigarette, a masterclass in just “being.”
The true development of personal style comes from the slow art of just “being.” The moments where our mind drifts off, our personal outer space, a vista of infinite daydreams. The creative process of getting dressed takes time to hone and perfect, a process that is ever moving and requires the nourishment of knowledge to thrive and grow - you never know where you will find inspiration. Learning is fun! Learning and observing the world around us breaks down barriers, grows our perspective, and yes! can even inspire the perfect dinner date look! A book, a movie, a hobby, an hour people watching, there’s so much we’re missing when we have our heads down, glued to our dumb smart phones.
As I try to find motivation to wear the clothes in my closet that have been hanging, untouched, for months on end, I’m trying to meditate on what my personal style is in this new era of my life, and how to bring new life to my older pieces as sustainability and the preciousness of our Earth weighs more heavily on my mind.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I love a good mood board. Whether its a page in a magazine or a screenshot on my phone, I love to collect pictures that evoke “cool” - whether it’s an outfit or a shot of messy dinner party or an old building or tiled floors, I have an entire album on my phone dedicated to things I find on the internet I like. If you’re looking for a place to start on your personal style journey, I would highly recommend doing the same! Hot tip: if you’re unsure how to even begin styling yourself, browse websites that use stylists to style their models - I like to browse luxury sites like Net-a-Porter and Matchesfashion - and screenshot how the outfit is styled. This is a great reference when you’re not sure how to wear a certain item or have questions about proportions, lengths, and layering.
The one thing (literally like, only thing) I like about Instagram is its “saved” feature. If you haven’t been using it, I would highly recommend creating a folder and saving images, outfit lewks, and editorials you like from Instagram. It’s private to you and a nice, quick resource when you have a last minute event or occasion and you’re looking for new ways to wear things you already own. So much of the pressure to consume is rooted in having what’s new and now - but often times there are new ways to wear your “old” things that elicit the same vibe and furthers the ability to develop a personal style that isn’t rooted in fleeting trends.
(Instagram is also actually a fantastic resource if you love the way a celebrity dresses and want to know more about an outfit. Do a quick Google search for their stylist and see if they have an Instagram - this is a great way to not only find new designers and pieces, but get the inside scoop of how hard stylists work to make your favorite celebs look good.)
And of course, last but never least, is Pinterest (follow me!), the holy grail of digital mood boards (kind of, at least right now.) Pinterest is great because the algorithm is pretty swift at picking up what you’re looking for once you start pinning things you like. If you’re looking to try out a new piece and you’re unsure how to wear it, search for it, pin a fit you like, and your algorithm is sure to gift you with more ideas. This is a nice tool when you’re exploring moving outside of your comfort zone with something - looking for the comfort of a Birkenstock clog but not sure how to make them feel like “you” when you’re at work or meeting up with friends? Get ye to the Pinterest search bar!
From celebrity paparazzi shots, to street style, to instagram stories recycled, I pin everything that has some aspect of a look that I love or want to recreate or try in some way. It’s the perfect resource to reference when planning a new purchase or seasonal wardrobe update - which I would highly recommend (planning = less mindless consumption) and something I will get into in a future newsletter. 😇
Vital to this conversation is the importance of mentioning that copying, and worse, appropriating, is not the jam. If you’re looking for loads of internet clout and taking the credit on a specifically unique put together outfit that is a straight copy from someone who spends their time and energy in this industry, you’re lame! And being inspired by cultures outside of your own is a place that is best left for looking, respecting, and not touching - something the fashion world has been slow to learn. Sometimes things are meant to be admired for their beauty and not replicated - this is something that comes back to our need to consume - sometimes it’s better to acknowledge the beauty of something and have that be enough.
Thus concludes this first little chapter into getting dressed and developing personal style. There’s that cheesy loaded saying about when you feel good, you look good blah blah but somewhere in all of that lies some truth - because if you’re living your truth from the inside out, you should feel good. How we dress is just one layer of self expression and how we can communicate who we are to the people around us.
I would love to know your thoughts, feels, and how you seek out inspiration when getting dressed!
See you on Friday as we take a sartorial journey to Flavortown 🔥
Xo,
G