The Pivot: Making a drastic change in your aesthetic - Topic of the day 5/26/24
Have you ever pivoted in your personal style from one aesthetic to another - similar or otherwise? How did you pull that off? What was the catalyst? Were there any staple items that made this possible?
18 Replies
buys guidis or tabis
I haven't, I always have felt a gradual shift is better, both for peoples perception of you and from an environmental/economic pov. Obviously moving away for something like university is the natural time to do so
Yeah. I think so too
What @zeometer said to me and what made a lot of sense was, that I tend to have certain style motifs, like liking oversized jackets. And I think a good way to do a style pivot is to think about certain motifs that you like and how to integrate them into your desired aesthetic.
Basically try to stick to the things you like and use them as the fulcrum around which you change your style
I think that is a very good idea, because that might help to organically transition away from something without overcomitting on a whim
if that makes sense
I suspect another way to change style in a reasonable way is to DIY some stuff.
Drastic shifts in style are great! My most favorite stylistic transitions are results of me committing to a new/different style on a whim tbh. It's a great way to see if you like the things you like because you like them or because you're just comfortable in them.
i’m pivoting harder into the punk/rocker/skater look, but since i’m not completely leaving everything else behind, just still reorganizing my closet, it’s a bit subtle, i guess?
So how do you lean into that? What specific changes have you made?
Also love that. I really like that aesthetic in the "I like this but it is not me" kinda way, if you know what I mean
currently in the process of getting away from a wardrobe that feels a bit to formal by dialing up the yehaw a bit
but at the same time I have developed a low key obsession with sailor bellbottoms. They are just fun
i’ve been narrowing down the kinds of graphic tees i keep, and planning on getting some vans/converse to fill the sneaker game. i’ve also been planning on getting more jeans in a wider variety of leg (both to combat dysphoria and to give more visual variety in my outfits) and possibly also a pair of tripp jeans at some point
i will admit at least part of the pivot also includes like… werewolf undertones just because i think it would be interesting to see how to incorporate that kind of vibe into the look. so far the only progress i have in that department is a hat and a keychain though if we discount the larp accessory necklace
i’ve been eyeing another pair of hats (dad cap and beanie respectively) to help with that niche in particular
and strongly considering a jean jacket
with patches, of course
2023 (top, halfhearted mod) to 2024 (bottom, 'unserious ivy' but that's rather vague)
around the time i joined MFA i was attempting a variation of mod, which is code for i wore a bunch of t-shirts and cropped pants with cropped jackets and leather shoes but poorly paired. seeing that that was not well received in #waywt led me to wonder why, which led to asking for outfit help and actively bring inspired by other people (it led to this fit https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1116800072093532191/1202667609011523604 which has some ties to how i dress presently), and from there just being open to explore or challenge what i liked in aesthetic, what i liked in materials/items, how i put fits together and ultimately what i wanted to convey
like a lot of people, i think buying my first pair of PRL andrews helped address the original misgivings i had about wide-fit pants and fit in general. the brown blazer is another big one for me, as it was the first decently fitted piece of tailoring i owned and led to a whole different genre of dressing, both casually and formally
😤
Once again, big pants are the answer! :mfad:
i was radicalised by guidi into the yohji yamamoto pipeline
the overton window of how much is an acceptable amount to pay on a shirt changes
this topic makes me think of a pretty radical pivot i went through two years ago, where my color schemes went from super loud, contrasting/coordinated colors to strictly army green, grayscale and bright red accents almost overnight. i threw together an outfit with the latter color scheme on a whim before i took off for school, started getting more looks than usual, and when i went to a clothing store later that day i looked in the mirror and i was just like "oh no wonder"
i would recreate the outfit in question if i didn't get rid of the raincoat i wore, i have everything else still
I subscribed to the rhetoric of sticking with "one aesthetic" when I got into "fashion" over a decade ago - in recent years I said fuck it and started mixing "aesthetics" - I'm much happier with this looser philosophy and my style changes depending on the day/week/season
yap session:
I think items within a given archetype tend to become a force multiple both bc you have more outfit combinations but also because you build a idea of what actually, physically world on you. There's certainly key items to different styles but I feel like it's one thing to know it but another thing to implement it. Like it feels like my individual garments lack context in middle of a pivot until I find that one item/fit that pulls everything together. I was acquiring a lot of camp collars/shorts for the summer but nothing was hitting until I gave up and picked up tanktops (which I irrationally avoid) and it made everything flow together
I also don't think I would had made the changes I did if I wasn't open to changing myself as a person, at least for me, I think fashion and identity is essentially the same thing and I would say that I wasn't really in a mindset to grow back in college and having a aspirational self that I want to essentially become/manifest makes all the difference because it makes putting in clothes so much more engaging and interesting
the shift of no longer wearing what my siblings wear and start wearing colors and pieces that suit me