Style Avatars Update

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed that in the last six months, I’ve slightly modified my approach to personal style. I started using the avatar approach back in 2018, and it really helped me develop and refine my ideas about personal style. There is no particular magic to it; it works for me because it connects with the way I see and use fashion – as a way to tell stories. Conceptualizing a particular aesthetic as a character in a story helped me to figure out not only the stories I wanted to tell but also how – the elements and building blocks that would create the story.

In the past, I settled on four avatars or personas, each with its story or aesthetic. The specifics evolved over time, as personal style does. At the time, I felt I needed the 4 separate avatars to fully express myself. Since the pandemic, I have noticed that my needs have been streamlined and at least one of my avatars faded into the background. This past spring, heading into summer, I suddenly found myself heavily leaning towards a single seasonal aesthetic. For spring (and now, fall) it was the Historian, an avatar heavily inspired, in the literary sense, by Diana Bishop of A Discovery of Witches and, in the aesthetic sense, by Ralph Lauren’s English prep collections. For summer, it was something I called Jo-March-on-the-Prairie: romantic cottagecore with a southwestern flair (also inspired by Ralph Lauren, tbh). These have served me well as inspiration, and the seasonal approach felt like a really good fit.

Which got me thinking: what about winter?

For winter, there are a couple of different (visual) stories that are drawing me in. One is more clearly taking shape in my mind, the other remains somewhat inchoate. The first I have decided to call Madame de Merteuil-meets-Lestat – Baroque Vampire, if you will. My inspiration for this comes from some of the late 80s fashion magazines I have been reading and images like this one:

I love everything happening here: the patterns and textures, the use of waistcoats, the maximalist exuberance. There is frilliness, but it’s not overtly femme. Decadent with a dark underbelly.

I think I have clothes in my closet that will work for this aesthetic, but I still need to develop these ideas more firmly in my own mind. I know the mood I am going for, now I need to figure out the how.

The second story/aesthetic remains vague at this time. There are several ideas floating around, but they haven’t quite coalesced into a definable thing. I think it will be monochromatic, as I am drawn again to graphic black and white patterns, but I also want to lean into a witchy vibe – and not Diana Bishop-witchy, but Baba Yaga-witchy, if you know what I mean. And, yet, I also want it to be gothic romantic … so, maybe, Baba Yaga-meets-Lizzie-Siddal? Long, wild hair and swishing black (and white) garments. Hmmm …

How are you feeling, sartorially, this winter?