How to stay excited about fashion during isolation
In my experience, people tend fall into two personal style categories: They get dressed to live or live to get dressed — and I’ve always been the latter. Now more than ever, I’ve realized how much my clothing is a part of my identity. Getting dressed is a part of my day I truly look forward to. I love planning out my outfits the night before and deciding how I’m going to wear my hair and makeup; I love adding a new piece to my wardrobe and figuring out how I’m going to style it. Most importantly, I love heading out the door in the morning feeling my absolute best.
When fashion is something that excites you and you get hit with a curveball like, say, a monthslong stay-at-home order, it’s easy to fall into a hole of not feeling like yourself. Figuring out ways to keep style in your day-to-day life can bring a little more light to a monotonous routine.
Let Instagram be your
inspiration. One of my favorite ways to get out of a style rut (even in normal times) is to go through my saved photos on Instagram. Many bloggers and influencers are still posting photos that they took preisolation, so every time I see one that I love, I save it to my inspiration folder. This is a great exercise you can do to make note of what you like about the looks and how you can re-create them to fit your style either now or in the future.
Make a mood board. I’m not usually the mood board type, but desperate times call for desperate measures. You can choose to go either the physical or Pinterest route — both will scratch the itch and will give you the high that putting on a bomb outfit normally does. Pull out the old magazines you have stacked up and start snipping out things you want to emulate once isolation has come to an end — be it certain hues, things you know you already own or pieces you think you might want to invest in. Paste them (or pin them) together and put your finished mood board somewhere in your home or bedroom that you visit frequently — mine is in my closet.
Spring clean your closet.
Take some time to go through your closet, hang and refold everything, then set the things you no longer want aside in a bag to donate. Going through your closet will refuel your excitement about the pieces you’re looking forward to wearing in the future. Also, once isolation comes to an end, you can make the most of the pieces you decided to keep in your newly organized closet.
Dress up for a fun night
in. You would be surprised to find how good doing your hair, putting makeup on and throwing on one of your favorite outfits will make you feel at a time like this. Set up a video call with friends and enjoy your night in. Sure you aren’t going anywhere, but reminding yourself that you have more in your closet than sweats can bring you back to life. You may be staying inside, but there’s never a wrong time to let your fashion sense out to play.