*In Mariah Carey voice* It’s tiiiiiiiiiiime!
No not that time. Quite the opposite, actually!
It’s officially SPRING time! (At least here in the northern hemisphere).
The season has changed and I can feel it. The sun is peeking through the blinds in the morning when I wake up even on a work day, brighter colours have arrived to store racks and the sales emails in my inbox, and my wool coat weighs just a liiiiittle too heavily on my shoulders in the warmer temps. (This last one is heartbreaking; the weather in Vancouver barely dipped low enough for me to enjoy my coats this winter!)
It’s time to put away the chunky cardigans and wool blazers, and start reaching for dresses, trench coats, and cotton button-downs. (For me, that is. Insert your spring clothing swaps here!)
BUT, if I’m not careful, this can also be Shopping Season, the time of year when aforementioned store racks and sales emails work their way into my psyche and convince me I need a whole new wardrobe.
Don’t get me wrong, I love to thrift for new spring pieces, experiment with emerging trends and fun colours, and replace worn out items, but I don’t want to get too caught up in it all, ya know? I truly do not need a whole new wardrobe. None of us do.
And not to throw shade, but lately some of the bigger fashion trend blogs and websites have me a little disillusioned with the way they push seasonal trends and style.
One subject line I read recently went something like 24 Trending Outfits for Spring ‘24 and then went on to show 24 photos of just, like… normal clothes. Jeans and t-shirts (shocking!), trench coats and wide leg trousers (whoa, groundbreaking!), column skirts with knits… You get the point.
I’ve seen a few posts, too, that have me questioning the relationship between influencer/LTK/‘shop my link’ culture and personal style. I love spotting a cute item on a creator and being able to click through their profile to find the exact piece. But are TikTok viral products and constant requests for links and exact details of someone else’s outfits running the risk of making us all a little… cookie cutter?
This is not to say content creators and influencers are doing anything wrong. What I mean to say is that we, as consumers of content and clothing, could express our individuality better if we didn’t try to copy and paste the looks we see online.
What are your thoughts?
So this is all to say, with these thoughts on my mind, I’m trying to stop the scroll and be more intentional about where I get my clothing inspiration.
Three Places I’m Seeking Style Inspiration
Here are three places I’ve been looking for inspo lately, aside from my email subscriptions and social media algorithms.
1. Vintage books
You know what they say, nothing is original. All the trends we see today have already been done in some form or another. But it can be fun to see the OG trendsetters and the earlier iterations of the trends.
Take this vintage book titled Princess about the one and only Diana.
Photographed in a time before social media (a time I’m sure many of the royals are longing for right now), Diana’s style is not just 90s, but timeless and quintessentially her. I’m eyeing the quilted details and minimal layers on the pages I flip through above.
In other words, don’t ever forget to hit the books and magazines sections in your local thrift!
2. Men’s Fashion
I learned early on that another thrift section to never avoid at the thrift is the men’s, and then in unpacking my personal style, realized that most of my blazers, button-downs, and t-shirts are already men’s. For me, boxier and oversized menswear pieces add a fun juxtaposition to my ‘girlier’ style and personality. I explained in this in my post about my three style words, where I determined that one of my words is boyish/menswear.
A fun style challenge I’ve given myself lately is to look at my favourite men’s fashion creators and brands and try to emulate their ‘fits with a feminine twist. Here are a few faves:
Ethan T Glenn @ethantglenn
Paul Binam @paulbinam
Aimé Leon Dore @aimeleondore
3. Outside-the-echo-chamber street style and fashion
We all know echo chambers tend to form online. Personal style and fashion spaces are no different than any other. And while I love connecting with and following other likeminded humans, it’s nice to broaden the scope of the algorithm too. It’s fun to explore beyond the boundaries of age, city, country, and context. This means actively seeking out terms like Hong Kong street style or Denmark 2024 spring fashion.
A few posts/accounts I’ve stumbled upon:
Where do you get your inspiration? Are you an in-person people watcher, a print magazine reader, do you subscribe to any fun Substacks or have a secretly amazing Pinterest board of your own?
Let me know! And, as always, thanks for reading.
Such great points about not copying every style we see online! I’ve almost fallen victim to it a few times, but I stopped myself and asked whether I need the item, whether I actually like it, and whether it would suit me. If I really love it, I try to find it second-hand, even if it means waiting a few weeks, because then I’ll know I truly do want to purchase it!