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?

Funnily enough, after writing my last State of the Wardrobe post, a few people on IG asked me to talk about style curation. It seemed like a sign to finally sit down and organize my thoughts on a topic I haven’t thought much about since 2019. And once I did that, well, it only made sense to write about it here as well.

First, for the benefit of any new readers, let’s rehash some history. Yes, you can search through my archives for this, but if you’re like me, you won’t. It’s so much easier when it’s all on one page, amirite? Never fear, I got you.

Back in 2018, I was really feeling the need to “figure out” my personal style. I had cycled through some predictable styles in the previous decade (J. Crew preppy, Anthro whimsy, etc) that were driven by brands accessible to me at the time rather than a self-determined concept. I needed to find some kind of unifying idea or framework. 

And I found it (thanks to a r/FemaleFashionAdvice post) in the “style avatar” concept. 

What I wanted to find was a way to express the various sides of my personality through my clothes. But rather than trying to come up with some jumbo descriptor like “witchy boho ballerina disco princess”, I started to break it down by characteristics or traits or moods. 

I wrote down all the things I wanted to feel or to project by or through wearing my clothes. I wrote them all down (don’t overthink this part), and then looked at the list with an analytical eye. Those words coalesced into personalities, and eventually avatars. Each “character” representing some facet of my personality, or who I wanted to present as (at different times, and in different situations). 

I ended up with 4 avatars. For me, it felt like the right number. Enough to capture some of the contradictions and different parts of myself, but not too many that they would begin to blur. I had a very clear idea of who each avatar was. And, in turn, I knew what each one would wear. I could see each one so very clearly in my head. 

My 4 original avatars were:

I developed a “style board” for each one. 

This exercise helped me to easily visualize my style in all its variety. Any time I would see a piece of clothing that appealed to me, I would ask myself: who would wear this? If I couldn’t see one of my avatars wearing it, I wouldn’t buy it. Or at least, I would try to talk myself out of buying it … which, as a thrifter, is a hard enough task. It worked really well, actually. My wardrobe began to feel much more cohesive, and my own satisfaction with outfits increased. 

One thing to note: I’ve never “worn” the avatars in equal measure. For example, 2018/2019 were years when I wore a lot of Prince and Artist outfits. Starting in 2020, I began to shift more towards the Bohemian. The Adventurer has always been more of a fringe character. Because I see these avatars as extensions of different parts of my personality, it makes sense that their influence over my style choices would fluctuate over time. People are not static entities. We are ever evolving. 

Every 6 months or so, I would refresh my style boards for each avatar by looking at the most recent runway collections. The goal of this exercise wasn’t to try to copy exact outfits, nor to change the “who” of my avatars, nor to rebuild my entire wardrobe from scratch. Rather, it was to get new inspiration or ideas for how to express the essence of each avatar. The language of fashion is evolving, and it’s helpful to learn new tricks from time to time. So, I would be looking for ideas on new proportions, new colour combinations, and perhaps a few new pieces to add to and update my existing wardrobe. 

Sidebar: I not the best person to speak to this because I like to experiment A LOT with different pieces so there is quite a bit of turnover in my closet at all times. (Circular economy for the win!) But! I will say that the “core” of my closet hasn’t changed that much since 2018. Like, at least 2/3 of it is the same. Even as the way my avatars express themselves has evolved, the building blocks are very much the same. 

Again, it helps my analogy to think of clothing items as words, and outfits as stories. My avatars are genres, if you like. Sometimes, I write a ghost story. Sometimes, I write a love story. I will often use the same words, just combined in different ways. And sometimes, I will learn new words, or give up old ones that I don’t like anymore. 

Makes sense? 

Here was the most recent style board update for each of my avatars (from late 2019):

2020 was a sh*tshow so I didn’t spend much time thinking about my style. In fact, the last 18 months or so have been a period of intense stress and also growth/evolution for me. I am not entirely moved on from it, but with the benefit of a small measure of perspective, I can truly say that I am not the same person today that I was in the fall of 2019. My life, coincidentally or not, also looks very different. 

Which means that it’s probably time to revisit my style avatars. So, finally, that’s what I did. I sat down and thought about my avatars systematically. Which ones still “spoke” to me? Which ones didn’t? And why? 

And I came to some interesting conclusions. 

First and most obviously, the Bohemian is still a big influence in my life. I am all about colour, boldness, following one’s artistic instincts and making life one’s canvas – naysayers be damned. 

Second, I am still in tune with the Artist. The name may be a little misleading because there is little overlap with the Bohemian. They are both creative/artistic characters, but the Bohemian is exuberant and loud, where the Artist is cool and maybe a little aloof. The Bohemian is Impressionist painting (maximalist all the way), the Artist is neo-classical architecture. 

The other two avatars felt like they needed some reworking. 

The masculine, cerebral vibe of the Prince didn’t feel right anymore. I’m feeling much more drawn toward a feminine, intuitive energy. I have not fully explored this yet, but my gut is pulling me towards a High Priestess/The Crone type of avatar. The Prince was the avatar that I used when I wanted to feel confident and powerful, and the way I experience that now has changed. I have to sit with this avatar a bit longer, but this is the direction I think I’m going with it. 

The Adventurer also doesn’t feel quite right anymore. There was a bit of an Indiana Jones flavour to this avatar, which doesn’t fit as well now that I have fully embraced my homebodiness. The adventures I go on these days are all literary in nature. And strangely enough, the character that sprang to mind as soon as I started thinking about it was another fictional professor with an exciting secret life: Diana Bishop, from A Discovery of Witches. Historian extraordinaire, and powerful witch (and, okay, lover of sexy vampire Matthew Clairmont).

Now, I know what you’re thinking and Dark Academia is NOT where this is going. 

To me, Diana’s vibe is Ralph Lauren with a dash of Phoebe Philo-era Celine. 

Luxe Academia, if you will 🤣

By the way, here is what Diana wears on the show. It’s not the direction I would pick if I were in charge of wardrobe decisions on the set, but it does have a bit of that vibe. 

As I have done in the past, I looked through the S/S 2021 runways collections to find inspiration for my new avatar style boards. 

Here are some ideas:

The High Priestess/Crone gave me such trouble (still haven’t landed on a name, for one) because I didn’t see anything on the 2021 runways that spoke to this. I had to dig back a bit but here’s a tentative idea for it:

Kinda similar story for the Diana avatar (name TBD), although I’m still digging the 2019 Adventurer inspo from above. Here are a couple of other ideas:

I also thought it might be helpful to show you how some of this stuff translates to my real life outfits because, of course, I don’t have access to haute couture on a regular basis (I wish!).

The High Priestess/Crone:

The Artist:

The Diana (?!)

The Bohemian:

That’s it! Whew. What a long post! If you managed to stick it out to the end, and are using the avatar approach as well, I would love to hear about whether and how the pandemic has impacted your avatars or the way you approach your style in general. And if you have another style curation approach, please share!

I know I’ve talked about this a lot already, but French Vogue (runway collections) is the gift that keeps on giving. Me inspiration, and you blog posts. Hope you’re not sick of hearing about the F/W 2019-2020 collections yet, because I’ve got another one coming your way.

I touched on some of the fall trends that piqued my interest a while ago, so today I want to take a slightly different approach. When it comes to the way that I approach my personal style, the style avatar system remains my frame of reference. [One more hat tip to Redditor “lumenphosphor”, whose comments on r/FemaleFashionAdvice sparked my personal style revolution last year.] It may not be an approach that works for everyone, but if you consider clothing a form of self-expression – and find that you have a lot of different aspects to express – you may find it helpful. I love clothes (duh!) and in the past I used to struggle to distinguish between clothes I admired and those I actually wanted to wear. Understanding my avatars eliminates that struggle. I can look at an outfit now and immediately know if it’s something that suits my personal style, or not.

[Sidenote: when it comes to shopping, it’s a little more complicated because, while I can easily tell if a piece of clothing works for one of my avatars in principle, other factors impact whether that piece is a long-term keeper or not. Wearability and versatility are sometimes hard to predict in the store; the downside of thrifting is that it’s not conducive to planned purchases – you have to make quick decisions, on the spot. Not all of them are winners.]

The interesting thing is that, since I chose my avatars last year, I’ve been finding inspiration for them everywhere. They are not static concepts but ever-evolving, well, characters. In fact, to keep them relevant, they have to evolve. With that in mind, I thought it would be a good exercise to look at the F/W 2019-2020 collections and see what new inspiration they might yield for my avatars.

The Prince

There were a few options that looked promising for this avatar, but in the end I kept coming back to this outfit from the Tom Ford collection.

Black is the “power colour” for the Prince, but I am starting to think about trying other monochromatic looks. Dark green, in particular, has been on my mind lately. It evokes similar feelings for me as black, but has a slightly more mysterious edge to it. The red of this outfit would be too overpowering for me, but I would love a deep plum or smoky purple as an alternative. What I also love about this runway look is the mix of textures. Matte, shiny, velvety. Texture adds so much depth to an outfit, especially a monochrome one. It also looks luxe AF, which suits the Prince nicely.

As with the rest of my discussion here, it’s not my intent to go out and buy a bunch of new clothes at the mall. I will wait and see what I can find in thrift stores, with a special focus on velvet and satin pieces, and coloured leather – especially in dark green and plum tones.

Key notes: silhouette remains unchanged; update colour palette; focus on texture.

The Artist

I’ve posted this Brendan Maxwell runway look before, but it bears repeating:

This is a perfect look for the Artist: architectural lines, minimalist, subtle romanticism. There is a slight gothic undercurrent that also feels very “of the moment” for the Artist. Other things I love: the pairing of a light colour with stark black; waist-defining belt over volume; long layers on top; long, swirly skirt. Long skirts, in particular, are a current obsession of mine. I’ve been looking for vintage pieces more and more, because the last time maxi skirts were a Big Thing was some years ago. Vintage Ralph Lauren is one of my current Holy Grails; I’m even eyeing some pieces on eBay, although prices are a bit higher than I’d like.

Key notes: cinched in long layers; long, flowy skirts.

The Adventurer

This avatar has fallen a bit out of favour, so to speak, lately and it has a lot to do with my preference for skirts over pants, especially jeans – those used to be a cornerstone of this avatar. But, wait! Because the Celine runway has sparked a whole new love affair:

Those are actually culottes, not a skirt, but it works for me either way. Why did I not think to pair all my Adventurer tweeds with skirts? Well, I guess sometimes you just need someone else to show you the way. I just love, love, love everything about this look, including the slight retro vibe. Luckily, I thrifted a pair of tall slouchy boots last year, which will be in heavy rotation this year. I will also be looking for some cropped culottes – or regular ones that could handle some DIY cropping.

Key notes: update silhouette with skirts (and culottes); tall boots rather than ankle boots; more femme than boyish.

The Bohemian

Funnily enough, this was the avatar I saw the least on the fall runways. Nothing really jumped out at me, except for this Etro look:

Also, a runner-up spot for this Ralph Lauren ensemble, mostly because I am obsessed with the pants:

I’m very into my plaid skirts at the moment (plaid for fall, groundbreaking) so I will be playing around with the first inspo. I am actively hunting for a gold pleated skirt to bring some extra shine to my closet; in the meantime, I think it’s time to pull out the metallic Opening Ceremony pants I thrifted this past summer and give them a whirl. Otherwise, I will continue to do what I’ve been doing – using the Bohemian avatar as a bit of a wildcard. I think the vibe will be more “luxe boho” than “hippie boho” heading into the winter – richer fabrics and darker colours, that slight gothic vibe.

Key notes: plaid & metallics as “accent” pieces.

As always, I would love to hear from you: Have you tried the style avatar approach? Do you take inspiration from runway collections and, if so, what is your process?