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When Aspiration and Reality Diverge: what to do when you realise your style inspirations are unattainable (for your personality)


As I write this I am filled with disappointment in both myself (in general) and with my choice of style inspiration du jour. I have just watched a wonderfully interesting video by Liv Purvis concerning the wardrobe of a certain Brittany Bathgate, and now I find myself deep in a pit of despair, not due to the fault of either of the aforementioned people, but due to the fact that I could not, even if I tried super hard, be like them (or in particular, Brittany Bathgate).

It’s quite common, it seems, to aspire to be like people we could never be like, or are so far from being like now, that it seems impossible. It’s a difficult thing to come to terms with - that our aspirations are so far from our reality. Perhaps it’s an opportunity to rethink why we aspire to these people, and ask ourselves what part of us we see in them. What in them do we identify with?


Brittany Bathgate is a prime example of someone whose style is so, so far from mine. I enjoy colour, odd pairings, exuberance. Brittany enjoys simple shapes and luxurious fabrics. But the secret is that I would love to dress simply and in luxurious fabrics, but my personality stops me at every available opportunity. I want to dress elegantly, but I also want to be seen. I think the two can work together, but for me, I walk a perpetual tightrope between super-alternative and simply-elegant, always falling somewhere between the two.

So, I have a couple of thoughts on what to do when your aspirations and reality diverge, the first of which being: (to)

Embrace YOU

Within every human being, there exists a multi-faceted sense of identity. We see all our parts and inner workings and sometimes this confuses us: who are we? What do we want? Maybe we don’t always know, and that’s why it’s so important to embrace the part of ourselves that we do know. Love colour? Adopt that part (I certainly do). We all know small facets of what makes us ‘us’, whatever that might be.

No one really knows themselves entirely, so don’t be afraid to:


Experiment and Amalgamate

We don’t have to aspire to look exactly like anyone else, but instead we can do what all great artists do: steal the bits we like. It’s okay to dress simply and elegantly one day and crazily colourful the next. The fashion police, to my knowledge, is not yet an actual thing! Ultimately it’s fun to play around with clothes. Dressing up isn’t just for kids, it’s for everyone! So enjoy your clothes and have fun.

In short, use what you know about yourself to decide what parts of the style of others you want to steal for yourself, if only for a short while.

Sorry for the shortness of this post (I’m dissociated) and for the lack of posts recently (mental illness sucks), But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post! See you later, over and out!

@jumper.dweller

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