Today my friend Paulien from Polienne made a post about her 2015 style goals, which made me itch to dust off the old blog and formalize my own. New year, clean slate. I have been thinking about what I want to do for my style in 2015 and I hope writing them down will make me think them through and stick to them. First off, I feel I have made tremendous progress in developing my own style over the last two years, and that's thanks to both Pinterest and Instagram. I started Pinterest two or three years ago, and under the motto "if you do something, do it well," I put in a lot of effort to make boards that were as coherent and esthetically pleasing as possible. Looking back now, my boards were an absolute mess. I did not, at all, made them coherent, I just pinned whatever the hell I thought looked cute: Blair Eadie in ostrich feather skirts, Giovanna Battaglia in graphic neon prints, violet Proenza Schouler bags... After a while though, I unconsciously started gravitating towards something a little more specific, and I started noticing a pattern in the things I was pinning onto my Fall/Winter board: lots of grays and blacks and minimalistic looks, Scandinavian bloggers, Dutch bloggers. The bright looks and preppy girls suddenly looked off to me.
From the moment I consciously started looking for the minimal Scandi look, everything fell into place. It felt right to me, right for me. I knew where I wanted to go with my style. The problem, however, was that in spite of my sudden clear vision, my closet still reflected those early stages of not knowing what the hell was up. The accumulation of everything I had bought between the ages of 14 and 20 did not amount to much, I tell ya, as I had gone through multiple phases like so many girls do at that age (the Blair Waldorf phase being the most memorable, oh god). It was a slow process transforming my closet into what I wanted it to be (a limited student budget will do that), and that process was again shaken up when I started my instagram account about one year ago. It was at times frustrating, disappointing, and discouraging, but instagramming my outfits has definitely made me a more conscious shopper. Not only did I realize how much I always shopped in the same places (Zara and H&M), I was forced to look for things that would both work for me and a picky audience.
So, what I wish to work on for 2015...
1. Buy less.
This is a big one for me, and kind of an umbrella for several changes I want to make in my life. The cry for quality over quantity has been around in the fashion world since the recession, but this year I want to go radical. I have a growing passion for the environment and sustainable development, and I want to actually start implementing this in my life without making any more excuses. Especially the arrival of Primark in Belgium has spurred a great deal of journalistic investigation into the socio-economical impact of too cheaply produced clothing, and frankly, I find it sickening. Durability and fashion are kind of paradoxical, as fashion is inherently transient, but I want to belief a new kind of shopping that goes against over-consuming is attainable. The problem is also the lack of trustworthy information, especially since buying more upscale goods does not always equal buying more responsibly produced goods (Patrizia Pepe, I'm looking at you). Right now, for me the only sensible and informed way to go about conscious shopping is buying less. It kind of comes down to the 5 Piece Wardrobe thing that Sabrina from afterDRK promotes, but I don't feel like I have to give it a name. I just want to be brutally honest with myself about what I actually need, and only buy one or two well-considered pieces a month.
2. Expand the shopping pool.
This one might seem to go against no. 1, but what I mean is to shop my one or two bits a month somewhere other than Zara and H&M. I hope shopping less will expand my budget to spend on individual items, and sometimes my mind is blown by how many great designers are out there and how many amazing little stores there are to be discovered in Antwerp alone. I want to start uncovering those hidden gems this year.
3. Develop my Spring/Summer style.
It is safe to say that my Fall/Winter vision is pretty set in stone, but that is not the case for my Spring/Summer wardrobe. In the summer I allow a little more room for a bohemian influence but I haven't found the right balance yet, and my summer wardrobe will definitely need some new key pieces.
Let me know what you think & have a look on my instagram @astrid_vw and Pinterest.
