With my anxiety being so cripplingly bad lately, I’ve had little time to really put effort into clothes and my Personal Style. Actually, I’ve kind of completely lost myself in terms of personal style. The majority of my wardrobe currently consists of comfortable shorts, t-shirts, a few crop tops I bought when I was 16 (exactly 5 years ago now, yikes) and one single pair of cropped, raw hem jeans. Basically, my clothes leave me feeling lazy, uninspired, and less ‘myself’, and though clothes shouldn’t be something you rely on to be a cure all to your insecurities, or primary way of expression, I have to admit the days where I’ve decided to even chuck on a belt, I’ve felt a lot more ‘me’, and more likely to want to leave my little comfort bubble (aka my house).
A lot has changed since my anxiety came crashing down around me in terms of trends, style, and honestly, I myself have changed a lot too. I’m no longer into the button up skirts, crop tops and turtlenecks I loved so dearly two years ago. I’m no longer repulsed by colour and prints (I mean, my biggest style inspiration has been Megan Ellaby, and she is the queen of clashing and colour):
So, where do I start? If I have to start all over again, I guess the first step is inspiration. I’ve already been writing about looks from shows I love, and keeping tabs on some of my ‘style inspirations‘, but lately I’ve been a little more than obsessed with the Instagram save feature. I’m kind of saddened to admit that my saved feed is far prettier than my personal feed has ever been, but for good reason. It makes it so easy to notice particular trends, colours, themes that I’m drawn to just by giving that page a quick glance. Plus, a lot of bloggers tag what they’re wearing, so I can easily find the exact pieces.
Tumblr has also been somewhere I’ve always made my ‘mood board’ for not only style, but makeup, art and interiors, which, when you think about it, all intersect in some way. You can draw style inspiration from anywhere, including paintings, architecture, shapes and textures. The collage-like layout of my page is also really pleasing to me, for whatever reason.
The last main thing I like doing is some online window shopping (notice I didn’t say ‘love’, no one ‘loves’ window shopping when they’re broke, let’s be real). Basically, I add everything that catches my eye to my cart, or favourites, and notice what colours, silhouettes, textures and pieces I’m drawn to. ASOS is a great place to do this, as there’s thousands of clothing and accessories options. Plus I can simply just ‘like’ pieces, rather than adding them to my cart and having a little breakdown when I look at the total of all the pieces I adore (which is usually well past the $1000 mark). Here’s a sneak peak at some of my favourites.
From all that I can pinpoint my key pieces and ‘basics’. Now all that’s left is to write a proper wishlist. For me, that doesn’t mean choosing specific pieces from a store, because chances are it’ll either sell out (like some of the pieces in my ASOS wishlist have), or be discontinued by the time I can afford it. I like to keep a notebook dedicated to lists, and write down the kind of items to be on the lookout for, but for the purpose of this post I’ll list them here!
Colour Mood:
NEUTRALS PINK NAVY RED MUTED GREEN LILAC YELLOW
Pieces:
- Button up shirts with a twist (coloured/patterned/frills/wide cuffs/etc)
- Basic t-shirts/graphic tees
- Oversized, structured blazers
- Check/gingham pieces like coats, dresses, pants
- Denim denim denim in fresh, interesting silhouettes (wide leg jeans, structured dresses, etc)
- Polka dot jumpsuit
- Block-coloured wide leg pants
- Statement block-coloured sandals, pumps, boots
All that’s left is to get my shit together, and pray that by some miracle I find my dream pieces on sale.
