Let's talk "inspo"

It can be really difficult to get inspired in our world of constant scrolling and consumption, so here is a little reminder that your best inspo actually can come from within! Enjoy :)

Hi everyone! It’s been a minute since we talked personal style. I have so enjoyed putting more of my personal style thoughts into writing this year and have felt so honored and humbled to see so many of you resonate with them. I feel so inspired by my digital community every day! When I started posting on here/making those personal style videos, I was definitely hoping I could be more consistent with it. But as a chaotic, creative brained person, life gets busy, thoughts get cluttered, you know the deal. Also, as my platform continues to grow, I always want to be super intentional about what I am putting out and making sure ESPECIALLY when talking personal style, that I am providing valuable insight and advice for you all. This is a topic that is really important to me but is also so subjective and personal to each person, so sometimes it takes me a minute to get my thoughts together perfectly to share them. This year has really been all about experimenting and trying new things and ventures and I finally feel myself getting into more of a routine and figuring out what I want to really focus my energy on. And Substack is one of them, and just talking about these deeper sides of style in general!!! So I’m excited to find myself typing here today, RE-INSPIRED - which leads us to what this article is all about, how I find my inspo.

I also want to preface this by saying that this is my personal experience that I feel like could be valuable to some of you, but I don’t want this to feel like a “how to find inspo” type of tone because once again, this is SO subjective and personal and you should find inspiration in any way that makes you feel best :)

But alas, I often get asked where I get my inspo from when it comes to style and getting dressed. I am always honestly honored when I get this question, I’m honored that anyone is interested in my creative process! In our digital world today, I actually think we are almost served with too much inspiration. There is a constant stream of scrolling and seeing outfits or items we feel like we absolutely have to have because they are all over our for you page. I think that with all this outside inspiration, it can be really easy to forget that sometimes the best inspiration actually comes from within. From yourself! From what you love! From your day to day life and your surroundings! From your journey! From your experiences!! From your people! Life is actually where the magic happens.

I don’t love to scroll on Pinterest, I’d rather take a walk through New York City and see what I’m drawn to. I absolutely love to people watch. I am incredibly inspired by the way people pair things in REAL LIFE. I love seeing what bag the woman at the coffee shop is wearing, love walking down the streets and seeing so many outfit combos I never thought of before, or a really cool piece I’ve never seen before. I love seeing what people are wearing and putting together to live their everyday lives! I love seeing the little personal touches that complete each person’s outfit that show a little bit of their personality. When I first moved to New York and started getting into the influencer/content space and meeting people within it, I learned that a lot of content creators put on an outfit just to “shoot it”, take pictures in it, etc and then take it right off after that. Of course, as an influencer, I am totally guilty of doing this at times. (but I will say, I really for the most part, try and keep my social media incredibly authentic to what I am wearing and styling for my everyday life, not just for a picture) And honestly, if you want a fire picture in a fire outfit, go get it girl. Absolutely NO shame! But, what I’m trying to say here is sometimes we get so wrapped up in what everyone is doing and wearing on social media, that we forget that at the end of the day, it is totally fake, and to take everything you see on there with a grain of salt. I heard this saying, be where you’re feet are, not where your phone is. And I really love that. It can really be that simple, look up. Look around. Let the people walking down the street be your favorite influencers. There is so much inspo right in front of you.

I think about what my inner child would have loved to wear, what I reached for before I had anyone else’s opinions. Sometimes I think I dress like an adult 5 year old and I absolutely love that about myself. My closet is filled with so many of the elements I have loved since the first day I can remember. I have always been a girly girl, a lover of pink, a lover of a pattern, an animal print, a sparkle, a costume like outfit. Those are the same things I wear and love as a 26 year old. And the more I fully lean into MYSELF and what I love, the more inspired I get from myself. It definitely took me a while to get to this point. Especially as women, we are constantly put in environments where we are made to feel like we should look or dress a certain way to fit the aesthetic of the moment. Clean girl, barbie girl, brat girl, quiet luxury girl, mob wife girl, ballerina girl. But GIRLLLLLL what do you yourself like? I ask myself this all the time, and the more I do, the easier it is for me to just 100% wholeheartedly dive into the things I love without caring what anyone else thinks about them. And those are always the ideas, the outfits, the pieces, etc that end up being the most unique and the most authentic. I know this sounds cheesy, but I want you all to listen to me when I say that your uniqueness is what makes you so incredibly special. You are YOU and absolutely no one else in the world has that. No one is exactly like you, how awesome and inspiring is that?! You have so much inspo within you, it might take some digging, but I promise you, you got it ALLLL going on. Come back to yourself, come back to your inner child and all the past versions of yourself, and look for inspo from YOU.

I also am constantly leaning into random things that inspire me in the moment. A color combo, an old piece in my closet that I discover, a person or a place that makes me feel excited. I literally got to the nail salon today and saw the pink and orange OPIs next to each other and was like OK I need to do two colors on my nails (pink, orange, pink orange, etc.) Sometimes I’ll be falling asleep at night and have a That’s So Raven vision of an outfit that I absolutely need to wear. I’m a very visual person and certain things I see just scratch an itch in my brain. There is always a synergy to the outfits I wear, a mix of color, textures, accessories, etc that just come together in a perfect way in my brain. (I am trying to talk more on these processes on my socials, so let me know if you want more of this content) I absolutely love to travel. I am one of those people that goes somewhere for a weekend and makes it my entire personality trait. I like to lean into my surroundings and am constantly inspired seeing what people are doing, wearing, etc in new places. Getting outside your comfort zone and bubble is such an incredible way to get re-inspired. Even if this means going to a new neighborhood in the city you live in, or taking a different morning walk route than you usually do, or trying a new place or activity that you always wanted to. Meeting new people inspires me so much too. I’m a collector of characters and truly love connecting with all different types of people. Being open to new individuals can open you up to new mindsets, conversations, and of course inspiration.

This all goes way beyond just style too, I think this all applies to the bigger concept of life itself. (daunting, I know…) When you immerse yourself in your life and what is has to offer, you get it back ten fold. Like I said earlier, life is where the magic happens. The present moment. And the more energy you put into living in that present moment, I truly feel the more inspired you will become. I recently was on a two week trip to Europe (we get it, we only saw about 1347839478 posts, but whatever), and it was truly the most present I have been all year long. I really just surrendered to life on that trip and had the absolute time of my life. And in turn, going back to the style piece, I found myself putting together and wearing some of my favorite outfits of all time. The inspiration was just FLOWING through me because I was truly leaning into every single thing I just talked about above. And even though I was definitely posting a lot on social media (it is my job after all), I wasn’t really scrolling at all. I was not paying attention to what anyone else was doing online. Since I’ve been back to reality in NYC, I have found myself getting back into those toxic scrolling patterns. And I’ve realized that the more I scroll, the less inspired I become, the less confident I become in myself, and the more I get taken away from my own ideas.

So, I’ll leave you with this. I know these aren’t the most concrete steps to making the perfect outfit, and I also know that as an influencer, I definitely contribute to this toxic cycle, but I promise you if you put down your phone, and instead look within and around you, the more and more you will get inspired and lean into your true personal style. 

XOXO

Soco