here for a good time
and casual trousers
The lore of *effortless* style. What a head scratcher. We don’t approach cooking or running or painting or tennis this way. Or careers. Or my kids learning to swim. All those things we accept get better with effort, practice, experience. But the same principals don’t apply to personal style. I see it in myself. The desire to look like I didn’t try. Like I stumbled into my outfit because I’m innately that cool and interesting. The plot twist being, of course, that effortless style only comes with ample effort.
The closest metaphor I can think of is sitting in the audience during a great speech or presentation. The qualities that make it compelling are usually the same: thoughtful ideas that are considered and shaped by a passion; a topic contextualized with a depth of knowledge; a speaker who is prepared and rehearsed, but not stiff, not reading from a script. It looks instinctive, it may even come more instinctively for some than others. But if it’s good, like really good, none of it happened without significant work and preparation.
Which is to say, getting dressed (I maintain it doesn’t have to be every day but it does have to be a lot of days). I love clothes as much as the next clothes lover, and I love to talk about them even more. I love sharing inspiration because I believe inspiration to be essential in the process. Of course it is!! It’s a place to start.
And finding people you trust to bring clarity to your own thoughts and wants is also valuable. When inspiration, links, and tried-and-tested ideas are used to unlock your own creativity, they are powerful tools. No different from a painter or writer who makes a good thing with specific techniques and inspiration in mind.
Still, I think that’s about as far as someone else’s mood board, recommendation or style aesthetic can take you.
Because when those tools aren’t applied to push your own creativity deeper, creativity gets reduced to a plug and play approach. One where the rewarding parts of getting dressed get skipped. I usually recognize this as a feeling of being annoyed that I’ve scrolled myself into a land of sameness. It’s disorienting because I know I have my own distinct POV, so why am I stuck on this loop of three and only three ways to wear something????? In those moments, I have to step back (which is a polite way of saying get off the damn Internet) and remind myself what’s good, for me and on me.
My thought today is that effort AKA the creative process of getting dressed (if clothes are the thing you enjoy creating with) is it. There’s no wrong way to outfit. There’s no right way to outfit. Knowingly or not, getting dressed is an exercise in figuring out who you are and then putting an honest expression of that on your body. This includes working through feelings of insecurities, disappointment when something doesn’t work with your body or lifestyle (RIP choker necklaces for me), stepping out of the house and being like, LOLtothisoutfitIactuallyhate. It also includes finding stuff that makes you feel like a million bucks. Repeating things that work, and gaining clarity on where to make clothing investments. It includes time, patience, trial and error - narrowing in on foundations and combinations that feel like your own. Finding your rhythm.
WELL, this whole preamble was meant to be a simple declaration of my love for a niche clothing category of trousers I’ve dubbed, trousers-that-have-the-qualities-of-casual-lounge-pant. ha.
It came to be with many days getting dressed in too fancy trousers post-legal career that I hated every time I wore. From that feeling, I was able to narrow in, precisely, on a trouser that was structured enough to be intentional, casual enough to live outside an office setting.
It’s a VIP category that works for me. Maybe it’s a category you also love, you’ve been missing, you didn’t have the words for, or yours is something different altogether.
Thanks, as always, for being here and here’s a handful of visuals to keep the creative juices flowing!!!!! xx Jordyn
The entire introduction was so… perfect. The analogy of a great speech is such a good one for a great outfit because I never sit through a good speech (my favorite is Federer’s commencement speech to Dartmouth) and think that it was so effortless. Rather, like you said, it is so well executed that it didn’t feel forced? What a funny thing because the sentence I just wrote is exactly how I would want my outfits to feel 😂
By the by—- the great dizzy cardigan?! Details!
Wow wow wow, love getting a peak into your thoughts on “effortless” because it really helps me not feel so bad that I’m SO analytical and meticulous in my own closet. You healed me with this haha!