excellence is mundane

unpacking a digital styling session no. 2

Hello! I’ve had a long summer doing summer things, and trying to revel in one season where I don’t feel as much pressure to be omnipresent, while listening to my friends tell me it seems like I’ve been doing a bit too much. What is the truth!

I humbly return to you with the second installment of [insert pithy series name - I hate devising names for series], in which outfits are tethered to a real person with a real wardrobe and all the real wardrobe problems that come with it. The process of styling today’s client reminded me of growing up and watching my mother tend to her garden.

In 2024, many of the single outfit inspiration photos I see function like cut roses in bud vases. These vignettes are alluring, but severed from the system in which they grew, in which they can regenerate, they’re most beautiful the first day, and wilt every day thereafter.

I’ve learned building a satisfying wardrobe is actually quite mundane, and much more like tending to a garden than arranging a bouquet. I’m not exactly enchanted by a watering can, packs of seeds, and dirt caked fingernails, but I understand that the rote watering, weeding, and tilling is what produces not just the cut rose, but the enduring landscape that regenerates season after season. Once the systems are in order, ideally you’ll look forward to the turning of the seasons when the same strappy dresses bloom again, instead of being stuck in a draining cycle of planting and weeding for eternity.

That being said, today’s session was all about resetting the landscape. Pulling some weeds, plucking dead petals, and laying the groundwork for better blooms.

The client: a mid twenties journalist living in Barcelona

The ask: Outfits for mostly summer and a touch of early fall. A combination of working from home, a few days per week in a casual office, vacation, and weekend plans consisting of beach-going, dinner dates with friends, and evenings out. Travels often to Cuba, Marrakech, and Italy and likes to weave these inspirations into her daily dressing, too. Aspires to elegant, sexy, edgy style. Loves animal print, pointy shoes, showing skin, fun bags, band tees, and chunky rings.

A slice of other notes: Communicated past struggles going overboard buying basics that didn’t get worn, and feeling stuck between paralysis around buying, then getting fed up and making an impulse purchase. To extent the garden metaphor, she’s trapped in a bit of a cycle of planting/weeding but seeing no growth.

The wardrobe: