About a year ago, I wrote about a new approach I was taking in conceptualizing my personal style: using 4 style avatars, each representing a certain aesthetic, to guide and inspire my outfit choices. My avatars were: the Prince, the Artist, the Adventurer, and the Bohemian. While there was a fair bit of overlap between these avatars in terms of elements of style (silhouettes, design details, etc.), it was helpful to me to visualize them as separate and distinct “characters”, rather than try to amalgamate them under one arbitrary handle or general description. After all, even something like “preppy” or “Scandi minimalist” can mean so many different things.

The idea of a dynamic character, each with its own range of aesthetic expression, was and remains infinitely more appealing – and practical – to me than a static description that can often feel, simultaneously, very vague and too prescriptive. In my own mind, I know what the Prince wears even if I might sometime struggle to put it into exact words. That is not to say that every outfit I wear falls precisely within the boundaries of one of these avatars; sometimes, necessity or practical realities (my closet is great, but it’s not quite my dream one, say, if money was no concern) dictate that an outfit will be a very loose interpretation of my avatar-based ideal. Which is okay. I feel like I’m hitting my marks, so to speak, more often than not and I’ve never been happier with what I wear.

A reader recently asked me if I might revisit the avatar discussion and, given the intervening time since my original posts, I thought it was a great idea. Updating and reflecting on the avatars is a useful exercise for me; I’ve had time to work with and refine this approach for almost a year, but haven’t really organized my thoughts in any formal way. Enter this post.

Because I am quite terrible at talking about style in a descriptive way (ironic for a personal style blogger, I know), I am going to try to summarize my avatars in a roundabout way, using photos and brand reference points that I feel best encapsulate each aesthetic. A word on the photos: I am very good at finding stock photos of specific items online, but I have the hardest time finding style inspiration pics. Hats off to all those people with beautifully curated Pinterest boards, I have no idea how they do it. I think a big part of the problem is that, as I wrote above, I struggle to articulate my aesthetic goals in (searchable) concrete terms. Regardless, the photos I am using below represent the best of what I’ve been able to find (usually by searching for runway photos from my fave brands).

The Prince

Designer Brands: Rick Owens, AllSaints, Theory, MaxMara, Vince

Mass Market Brands: Aritzia, Club Monaco  

This is the avatar I use the most for office-wear. While black is the core neutral of my professional wardrobe, I do like to incorporate other colours – even bold ones. Even prints! However, overall, this is a fairly minimalist aesthetic, so if I am doing a bold colour/print, I am going to balance it with very simple, clean lines and minimal “clutter”.

Here is an example of some personal outfits that fall within the Prince aesthetic:

The Artist

Designer Brands: Iris van Herpen, Sarah Pacini, Dries van Noten, Maria Cornejo

Mass Market Brands: Zara, COS

This is a dreamier, less austere version of the Prince – the lines are more fluid, softer. But it would not be true to say that it is less structured or tailored; it’s just a different kind of tailoring. While leaning towards neutrals-based and monochromatic outfits, it can still incorporate colour. At its most colourful, the Artist shades into the Bohemian.

Here is an example of some personal outfits that fall within the Artist aesthetic:

The Adventurer

Designer Brands: Haider Ackermann, AllSaints, Vince, The Row

Mass Market Brands: J. Crew, COS, Madewell

The Adventurer is the least cohesive of my avatars, in the sense that it has a few different “modes” – but the spirit is the same! My usual weekend mode is the “classic” version of the avatar, but if I’m feeling a bit sassy, I’ll go into the “futuristic” mode. I don’t know if that’s the best way to describe that particular vibe, but it’s definitely edgier.

Here is an example of some personal outfits that fall within the Adventurer aesthetic:

The Bohemian

Designer Brands: Dries van Noten, Marni

Mass Market Brands: Anthropologie, Zara, ASOS

The Bohemian shares some of the Artist’s DNA, being its more eccentric cousin. Colours, volumes, and textures are more exuberant, but the overall vibe is playful quirkiness, not twee. “Nothing too cute” is my mantra, and as a recovering twee-aholic, it’s not always an easy one to live up to.

Here is an example of some personal outfits that fall within the Bohemian aesthetic:

If you have questions about my style avatar approach, and how I incorporate it into my shopping and outfit-planning, let me know in the comments.

I took a little break from embroidery over the last couple of weeks, which freed up some time for reading – hurray! And I read some fantastic books, which is always the best kind of refuge and solace when I’m starting to feel burned out.

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. So, so, so good! Of course, I am late to the party so I cannot add more superlatives than have already been (rightfully) bestowed on the novel and its author. The story of Ifemelu and Obinze is engrossing in its own right, before even delving into the other layers of the book. I have a lot of thoughts on all of it, but I feel like I need to sit with them for a while before I try to write them down. Also, honestly? I don’t know if I have really anything more useful or interesting to say than to recommend that you read Americanah if you haven’t.
• Hangman’s Holiday and Lord Peter Views The Body, Dorothy L. Sayers. More short stories from the Golden Age of mystery. These made me appreciate Sayers’ writing more than her novels; they’re well-written and clever, and no longer than they need to be. Sometimes, mystery novels are too padded for their own good.
• The Blood of an Englishman, MC Beaton. I’ve been reading Beaton on and off for years and year, and I’m still not sure if I truly enjoy her writing. It’s very … abrupt and unemotional, may be the best way I can describe it. The Agatha Raisin stories in particular (of which this is the 25^th) always leave me questioning whether the author likes her creation, or women in general; though, to be honest, she’s usually pretty brutal on her male protagonists as well. Anyway, for all that, I keep reading her novels, and I always pick them up when I find them at the thrift store. I think it’s because I’ve been reading them for so long, that there is something oddly comforting about them. Kinda like reading the Murder, She Wrote novelizations.
• Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh. I came across this book by chance on Amazon, was intrigued by the description, and bought it. Although it could not be more different from Americanah, I found it equally compelling. The plot itself is kinda meh, to be honest. But as a character study, it’s phenomenal. It’s rare to find a book which allows its heroine – and Eileen is the book’s almost sole focus, since every other character is almost irrelevant (and that includes Rebecca) — to be so hard to like. Unreliable female narrators are popular nowadays; unlikable ones, not so much. What I may have loved the most is that the older Eileen, narrating her younger self’s actions, does not try to excuse them or to make herself more palatable to the reader. If anything, the opposite; she goes out of her way to point out things that others might leave unsaid. In a way, the character reminded me of something that Samantha Irby wrote in her book, We Are Never Meeting In Real Life: we are all gross, and we make a lot of effort to hide that grossness from others (especially those whose love or admiration we desire). Eileen is the opposite of that; I wouldn’t say that she celebrates the kind of grossness that women are not usually permitted (by social conventions) to acknowledge, but she puts it forward as a matter of fact, and defies the reader to look away. Anyway, this is probably not a book for everyone, but if you want to meet a character you won’t soon forget, give Eileen a try.

The Happy Dress

There hasn’t been much cheer to go around lately, and the snap of brutally cold weather last week did not help matters. I’ve been working from home and generally avoiding being out of the house as much as possible, so my outfits are nothing to write about. Literally. That being said, on the increasingly rare occasions when I do go anywhere (like the office), I like to make an extra effort, weather be damned. Which is how I ended up wearing this beautiful Tory Burch dress on a -30 Celsius day. There is something about this print, and the cut of the dress, that puts a smile on my face. It’s such as happy-go-lucky kind of dress. Not twee, though; I think the black grounds it all, somehow.

Not pictured: the other 20 pounds of clothing I had to layer on top to be able to leave the house. I was still cold, but I managed the brief exposure to the elements without losing a finger or toe in the process. So consider this my F-U to winter, which can hurry up and leave any day now. Seriously.

Out of Doors

This, on the other hand, is what I wore out of actual doors one day last weekend – before the temperature took a nose dive. It was still really cold, though, so I layered a bunch of warm woolen things including my new-to-me alpaca wool Vince sweater — a steal at $8.50. I still haven’t been able to find a heavy-duty winter parka (ahem, Canada Goose, please and thank you) but the thrift gods have been generous in other ways so I can’t complain. Meanwhile, my MaxMara camel coat is still hanging on, 5 years later; bless its heart. Here are some other ways I’ve worn it with jeans:

Return Of An Old Favourite

Some of you may remember this Maeve skirt; I used to wear it a lot. I’ve kept it in my archive closet over the past year, and during a recent overhaul of said closet I decided to pull it out again. Can I make it work with my current aesthetic? It has two strikes against it: it’s a bold, colourful print (which, in and of itself, is not a dealbreaker even if my current wardrobe is more neutrals-heavy); and it’s a pencil skirt. It’s the latter that poses the greater challenge, since I’m still figuring out how to integrate that silhouette into my current outfits. Updating it with a new, non-traditionally cut blazer was my first attempt. I think it’s a perfectly nice outfit, but it’s not very much in line with what I like to wear these days. I will have to look for other ideas … For now, here are some other ways I’ve worn the same skirt: