Now don’t get me wrong, I love a trend as much as the next elder millennial fashion girly mum in my 40’s, but I had an experience recently that made me really stop and think.
For the past year or so, I’ve been struggling a little with my own sense of personal style, which, as a stylist, feels like I’m letting the team down a little, if I’m honest. I’ve been steering away from colours and prints that would usually excite me; they have somehow felt stale, ot not me anymore, but I’ve struggled to find what replaces them when I’m getting dressed every day.
I’ve found myself defaulting to tracksuits, comfy pants and not really much else (maybe a trench thrown over the tracksuit for school pickup) BUT that is a story for another blog post (coming soon….)
The context around this though, is that when I was recently in Australia, I was excited to try and find one of those “viral” pieces, you know, the one all the cool kids on tiktok and Instagram are styling up – they are usaully from a chain, or high street store, but the fashion girlies on the internet make them look cool, and seem unobtainable, so everyone tries to go and by said piece, and they sell out, becoming almost like a myth because they are so hard to find.
The piece in question? A red bomber jacket / windbreaker kinda style, with a funnel neck….
My instagram feed was full of gorgeous people styling this jacket for weeks before I went to Aussie. Articles telling me it was the “one jacket” all the cool girls are wearing this winter. So of course, I had to see if I could find it!
We hit Target on day 1 of the trip, and low and behold! There was a random rack with the jackets! I don’t even think they were supposed to be on the floor – in fact, pretty quickly after I got my hands on one to try, the rack moved and we couldn’t find it again haha!
It was meant to be!
But then, I started to think about WHY I wanted it so badly?
I kept putting it on, and taking it off.
Did I really love it? Or did I love the idea of the stature that owning this jacket would bring me (for about 3 seconds when I posted a reel, and then never again).
I realised at that moment that the buzz of having ” the next cool thing” had actually taken over my own sense of style, something that, as a stylist, I always prided myself on being so sure of!
Years and years of scrolling, constantly being told “this is the new must-have” had started to erode my own sense of judgement (that, combined with the brain-altering changes of perimenopause… but again, different blog). I wasn’t sure what I liked anymore, I was just being told by my Instagram algorithm that this jacket was what I was supposed to like at the time.
I put the jacket back.
A few days later….
I put my clients back on the plane and stuck around to spend a few days with my family. Not surprisingly, Mum and I ended up in Target.
I saw the jacket again.
I showed my mum.
The first thing she said was “that colour looks incredible on you!”
She was right! My instinct was actually there at the start. Red IS my colour, the jacket was fun and playful and bold….
I bought the jacket.
Not just because everyone else did, but because I LOVE it! It matches my sense of style, (and it’s perfect for the random Auckland weather conditions we have on the daily!)
That’s the bit I keep coming back to. It wasn’t the jacket that mattered, it was remembering what it feels like to choose something because it’s me, not because it’s trending. Somewhere in the scrolling, I’d lost that. Turns out my mum (and my own gut, if I’d listened to it sooner) knew my style better than my Instagram algorithm ever will.
If you’ve caught yourself buying the “it” piece and wondering why it’s still sitting in your wardrobe with the tags on, you’re not alone. Trends will always be loud. Your own style just needs a little more space to be heard.
If you’re ready to reconnect with what actually feels like you, that’s exactly what we work through inside The Style Circle. First month’s free, come see for yourself: chasingcait.com/the-style-circle/
