A melting pot of outfit, book, and philosophical inspo
Goodbye September, hello October 🎃
Okay can we take a deep breath together? Whewwww...last month was A LOT y’all. The journey of grief has been nonlinear. My two year old is now acting like his full toddler self. Also, we’re potty training and I don’t wish this upon my worst enemy (please send tips!!!).
And somehow I still managed to pull off two pop-ups, design and launch two hats, and start designing TGL’s winter collection (🤭).
There’s been a lot of beauty with the ugly, but today my mental is screaming for some ease. So let’s keep today easy. Here’s some shit I’ve been into this past month and what I’m excited for moving forward:
Playing with my design process
This is more of a philosophy than a “thing.” But walk with me. Y’all know when you have a big project or idea you want to execute and it just sorta sits there. Maybe for weeks or months? This was happening to me with some of my design work. I realized my hats took so long because I was building up the execution in my head into this huge perfectly designed artifact. I felt incapable. Finally I had to put my foot down and just be like, listen girl, you have 2 days. I wrote down my design blocks in my new planner (more on that) and I actually just sat down and designed. The process wasn’t perfect. The design is not exactly what I intended. But it was fun y’all. And I really loved the outcome. The reduction in time (i.e. constraint) repurposed my perfectionism into play. From there, the design sorta just came to me and when my time was up I hit export and shut my laptop. The hardest part is getting started, so maybe take this as your nudge to give yourself just 15 minutes to play with that project sitting in the back of your mind. Wonder what’ll happen…
Leopard as a neutral
I’ve been living in this thrifted mesh leopard dress all month and I’m excited to keep the party going this fall. While I’ve been layering her over dresses or under vintage tees, I’m thinking about the cozy knits I’ll wear it with as the temps drop. I’m not sure what happened to all my leopard print pants but I think I might need to design a pair. But really, I think leopard is just one of those perfect prints that if you love it you should go big. Give me a purse, give me shoes, give me a hoodie. It’s fun when your core pieces come back “in style".”
Reading again
I always feel the best when I read but why is it so hard to get into the flow? I think after a long day of mommying, working, and just life, books can either offer an easy escape or they can be difficult to lock into. Fortunately, two novels captivated me this past month--James by Percival Everett and The Love Songs of WEB DuBois by Honorre Fanonne Jeffers. Highly recommend both. James is much lighter and a quick read. Love Songs stunned me with the elegance of its writing. Right now I just started The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, but send me more recs!
A niche tiktok filled with 2010 heels
There’s this woman on tiktok who is basically collecting hot heels from the 2010s (think Karrueche street style era). I’m not sure if it’s the nostalgia (college me had many of these in knock off form), or the weirdness of her taste, but I’m obsessed. There is nothing about these shoes that is trendy but because she loves them, they look SO good on her. And it’s fun! She almost convinced me to start wearing high heels again. But it did inspire me to really dig deep on the clothing I’ve always loved, no matter the trend cycle. And for me, that’s always been prints, oversized tailoring, streetwear, and hot girl items made less sexy.
A physical planner
I’ve been a digital planner girly since I graduated high school. But lately it has not been doing it for me. Specifically with my business, I feel the need to literally “see” the months ahead. Digital planning is still my go-to for locking in meetings and syncing up with my husband. But I purchased this simple planner at the top of the month and have been using it for weekly and monthly planning. It’s been especially helpful for my content planning, product development, and pop-ups.
A shaggy haircut
There’s something about fall that just begs for a hair switch up. I remember vividly my white friends would take their platinum strands back brunette. My Black friends would take down their braids in exchange for silk presses and chestnut dye. I grew up in a midwestern town basically only around white and Black people so I’m very curious what my asian, middle eastern, and latina sistren would do come fall. Anyway, so here I am with this weirdly grown out pixie that’s dyed turquoise. And I’m SO bored. My fro is cute or whatever but I’m not feeling fully myself. I want a change. And my ends are begging to be cared for. I came across some shaggy cuts and I’m wondering if this is what’s next for me...
See through pieces
There’s something so appealing to me about see through clothing. I think the use of skin as a layer adds a ton of dimension to outfits. Of course the challenge is turning these potentially overly revealing pieces into wearable everyday garments. I’ve talked y’alls ears off about my mesh Uniqlo cardigan (read about it here) but wow that has been THAT girl for me. On dates I only wear a bra under it. During the workday I treat it like a third layer and throw it over a tank, tee, or dress. Separately, The Lace Pant (which are obviously hot girl items) have really come to life for me when I de-sexify them.
For example. I layered this slip dress over them for a girlfriend’s brunch and threw a cashmere sweater over my shoulders. More on this subject soon because now that I think about it I have a lot of ideas for corporate girlies who want to dabble...
Until next time 🖤
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