On Inspiration
27ish years of absorbing fashion...
When I was young, my dad gifted me a Vogue subscription. I want to say it was probably when I was in middle school-when the norm was to plaster your walls with cut outs of boy band members from hoarded Teen/Seventeen/Bop magazines. While I definitely joined the trend and had the Hanson brothers glued to my bunk bed-there faces always sat next to some sort of high fashion outfit I adored next to cutouts of the latest Delias catalogue. From an early age, I found myself absorbing ideas around color, around fit, around proportion from the pages of Vogue. I couldn’t then and can’t now afford the clothes they put on display-but I could take away the essence of style.
Eventually blogs came onto the internet and those stacks of magazine cutouts turned into inspiration folders with saved images. Sea of Shoes, Fashion Toast, Garance Dore-I can admit that while working my first job in DC I spent a considerable amount of work time surfing fashion blogs. Amassing images into different virtual folders. (to be fair my job was rudimentary and the biggest challenge was finding something to do for 40 hours)
These days it’s no different. There’s still stacks of Vogue and Bazaar under my desk. My computer has an inspo folder. And my saved instagrams are embarrassing in number. I have a million screenshots and some sniper shots of outfits I’ve loved from people on the street.
In many ways-all this inspiration has been absorbed over time. The collection of images informs my shopping decisions and dressing decisions but not in a direct line. I don’t necessarily utilize a copy/paste action from the saved images.
But this summer has been pretty dang cold and rainy which has put a serious dent on social gatherings and a dent in my inspiration to get dressed. So I turned to some saved images I had saved to spruce up my outfit even it it’s just for walking to the store during the 20 minutes the sun decides to come out.
I (re)learned two things from this exercise-that I don’t need to always buy something new to recreate an outfit I admire. And that sometimes someone else can help draw you out of your monochromatic looks…or draw you back in.
*there’s a third lesson too-that I need to iron my clothes! Apologies for the wrinkles this week!
Outfit 1: Swagger
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