It hasn’t been that long since I’ve talked about my avatars, but I think my system is up for an overhaul. None of it should be a surprise to those who have been following along lately, but it’s quite different from where it started back in 2018. Quick recap: avatars are characters that represent some facet of my personality that I want to express through my clothing (at different times, and in different situations). You know how some people pick 3 words to describe their style? I use avatars to embody my style. I find it easier to visualize everything through this process – and by “everything” I mean everything from shopping, to finding style inspo, to putting outfits together. This post from 2021 does a good job of summarizing my original avatars and their early evolution. So what’s in store for 2024 and beyond?

As long-time followers know, the Prince and Artist have been retired, first one then the other. This makes sense when you consider that they were both avatars geared towards my professional life, which has changed a LOT since 2018. The Adventurer avatar morphed into the Historian. While the Bohemian is the last remaining original avatar, its character has changed a fair bit in the interim. For 2024, I am sticking with the Historian and the Bohemian – in new incarnations – and adding a brand new avatar, the Trailblazer. I struggled a lot with the name of that one, because I always just think of it as Jo-March-on-the-Prairie, but needed a one-word name in the same vein as the others. Ahem. I’m sort of giving it away, but here goes:

The Historian

The character is still Diana Bishop – history professor by day, super powerful witch by night, who loves classic tweeds all the time. While I am not a powerful witch (to the best of my knowledge), I sometimes like to think that, all evidence to the contrary, I’m a bit of a badass despite being a middle-aged suburban mom with a nerdy desk job.

This is some of the inspo I have saved for this avatar.

And here are some of my own outfits which I feel best capture this avatar.

The Bohemian

The character is now Tilda Swinton as a Scottish aristocrat who lives in a crumbling country pile (à la We Capture the Castle) set in a wild, atmospheric landscape.

I feel like the Bohemian needs a bit more explanation so here’s a mood board to go with it:

She wears whatever bits and bobs she feels like; traipsing up and down big staircases with a moth-eathen cape fluttering behind her, but also traipsing up and down the countryside in huge sweaters and sensible shoes, but also hiding in an old nook to read her books in peace. This version of the Bohemian is my best attempt at reconciling my Leo Sun and Taurus Rising signs: I love nice expensive things, but prefer them to be a bit shabby; I like drama but mostly other people’s; and I like a bit of fresh air, but not as much as the smell of books.

Here is some of the inspo for the Bohemian:

And some of my own Bohemian-themed outfits:

The Trailblazer

The character is, well, exactly as I described it above: Jo March (2019 adaptation version) meets the prairies.

The Trailblazer is a lot of the things I love and appreciate combined in one: writing, arts & crafts, Ralph Lauren’s Americana, wide open spaces. Mind you, I prefer to enjoy the latter from an air-conditioned car but that’s just a footnote. I also appreciate Jo’s sense of independence and her love of waistcoats.

Some Trailblazer inspo:

And some previous Trailblazer-themed outfits:

Like I said: I don’t think much of this will come as a surprise. But it’s been very helpful for me to synthesize and summarize all these ideas in one place, particularly as I work on my goal of being more intentional and strategic with my purchases.

September is a melancholy time of year in many ways … but it’s also the most exciting time of year and I can sum that up for you in 2 words: Fall Fashion. Fall is my favourite sartorial season – that all-too-brief period of time when I can wear all my favourite clothes. Sweaters! Wool jackets and skirts! Coats! All the coats! I love planning my fall fashion “strategy”. As it’s been a while since I’ve done one, I thought it was also a good time to do an avatar review/update. Let’s dig in!

As a quick back-of-the-napkin summary, my avatars are characters that embody the different vibes/ flavours/moods of my personal style. They are the High Priestess/Crone (previously the Prince), the Artist, the Historian (previously the Adventurer), and the Bohemian. You can read my thoughts on the last iteration of my avatars here. Over the years, the influence of each avatar on my actual outfits has waxed and waned. For example, 2018 had big Prince energy: edgy, architectural, dark clothing was my comfort zone. 2020, in contrast, was very Bohemian: colourful, zany, unconventional. In the last few years, I’ve been alternating mostly between the Historian and the Bohemian, with subtle shifts and changes in the flavour of each avatar from season to season.

Taking stock of my sartorial landscape this fall, I think it’s safe to say that the Historian and the Bohemian will remain my primary avatars. I also feel like there is another player coming into the mix. Initially, I wondered whether it was a wholly new avatar, but I’ve decided that it’s simply an evolution of the Artist in a slightly new direction. In the past, the Artist was a character very much under the sign of the moon; a dramatic but soft feminine energy, fluid and elegant. Now, I feel like it has acquired an edge – call it grunge elegance. If it was Mucha before, it’s Basquiat now.

Now let’s put all this into visual terms of reference.

The Historian avatar remains a Luxe Academia crossed with English Manor Chic vibe. I still very much identify this avatar with Diana Bishop from A Discovery of Witches who is a university professor, a witch, AND the wife of a super-rich Anglo-French vampire who looks like Matthew Goode. In other words, my dream life, hahahaha! For fall 2023, here is my Historian style inspo:

The Bohemian avatar has lately had a distinctive Jo-March-meets-Ralph Lauren-on-a-prairie. I’m taking that into fall mode with darker, rich colours and an Edwardian flair:

As for the Artist, I am feeling very inspired by 90s grunge – plaid is a fall staple for me anyway. But this is a dramatic, glam sort of grunge and not too masculine.

I haven’t talked a lot about the High Priestess/Crone avatar, and that’s because this one remains a little bit in the wings, so to speak. It’s not an energy I feel strongly at the moment, so I am content to keep it in reserve for the time being. It might be something that will resurface again in the winter, which is very much a time of regeneration and rebirth when the wise mother aspect of the High Priestess/Crone makes itself felt.

Having taken stock of my inspiration, the next step in my fall fashion planning is to think about what pieces I already have and what pieces I would like to add to my closet, and compile a “thrift hit list” for the season. Stay tuned next week for that!

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?