On wearing the same outfit more than once

Now, despite my fashion journo background, I don’t see myself as a bona fide fashion blogger. Not really.

Certainly not when my outfit ‘shoots’ pretty much consist of me coercing a confused colleague into taking a couple of quick snaps of me on my iPhone during our lunch break. I generally have about 5 attempts to nail it – and 4 of those shots are usually of me pulling up my trousers while gurning furiously at the camera.

So when I heard the words: “Oh hang on  – let me take off my jacket as I’ve been wearing it in all my outfit photos lately” coming out of MY OWN mouth I thought WHO THE BOBBINS D’YA THINK YOU ARE LUV – BLOODY BRYAN BOY?

It’s true though. I only tend to post my outfit pics to Instagram, although you’ll have seen them popping up on here more recently, and some distinct sartorial patterns have started to form.

Natalie Wall vintage fashion blogger

Basically, it appears I have come surgically attached to my vintage faux fur coat and baker boy hat combo. There are two main reasons for this:

One: IT’S BLOODY FREEZING. They are the items I genuinely wear outside for warmth and I’m sorry; I’ll never be dedicated to #OOTDs enough that I’ll risk pneumonia to peel off these sweet toasty layers while out in da cold. Soz about it. Nuh-uh. Not happening.

Two: I become a bit obsessed with things – especially newly acquired things. I was always the kid that would put my new school shoes by my bed at night so they’d be the first thing I’d see when I woke up (because mum wouldn’t let me wear them to bed – hmph). I like welcoming new things into my life and taking real good care of ’em.

I tend to go through mini phases of finding a theme I love and then styling it to death. And when you find something that works, it makes it much easier to get dressed of a morning. Behold last week’s monochrome + ‘colour pop’ of camel combos (and main image, above):

Natalie Wall fashion blogger

Natalie Wall fashion blogger

Same outfit, different background. And DEFO same snakeskin boots from Toppers #sorryboutit. Also, note to self: Get a new pose aside from the arms-spread-like-Jesus one. Although that’s the best one for showing off a statement sleeve, so…

I’m the same with food and music, tbh. Like, I’ll eat smashed avocado on toast solidly for two weeks until one day it randomly repels me. OK, that was a bad example, because actually, I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU AVO. But you know what I mean.
Or I’ll discover a new song and play it non-stop for 94735834678 days, after which I will probably never listen to it EVER again.

Anyway, back to garms.

So on this aforementioned ‘shoot’ (lunch break), I had to sense-check myself. Yes, my fur coat/baker boy hat combo HAD featured approx eleventy trillion times on the ol’ grid. But so flipping’ what?!

It’s called keeping it real.

Which is a big theme for me, lately.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about fashion blogs, generally speaking, reaching #PEAKGLOSSINESS. Because outfit posts on blogs were originally created as a counter movement to the fashion shoots in magazines which were not only unobtainable but bloody unrealistic.

That’s why it was so fucking great to see a real person, in the clothes they’d ACTUALLY worn that day, bought with their own hard-earned cash.

Nowadays, bloggers are very rarely photographed in the same thing twice, and that makes me sad.

Not least for the environmental impact (which is why I now buy the majority of my clothes second-hand – more of that in another post), but because blogs are almost becoming the very thing they set out to oppose.

Bloggers, not unlike their magazine nemeses, now have to worry about pleasing brands and featuring paid-for placements. Which means you lose the realness, the authenticity. It’s all about styling sorcery.

The more polished the photos, the more editorialised they look, the more money you’ll get from brands. AMIRITE?

See, don’t get me wrong, I of course wear a different outfit every day. I take great pleasure in dressing myself and creating a look. I’m not like Mark Zuckerberg with a selection of 500 marl grey T-shirts in the wardrobe and nothing else.

But the reality is, my outfits go through rotations, riffing off a theme. And while the underpinning outfit components might switch up (and DEFO the undergarments, LOL), the accessories will often remain constant – I’m looking at YOU,  shoes, coat and bag. But especially bag because OMG am I shit at The Great Bag Switch. I ALWAYS fuck it up and leave behind something essential like my Oyster card/purse/iPhone/ALL OF THESE THINGS.

Oh! Btw, I’ve just remembered that Jessica from whatiwore.com had a similar rant, put more succinctly here, which made me feel like I’m not just being a pre-menstrual old cow.

So, what to make of all this? As always, I’ve been thinking about what this means for me. I’m sure that #PEAKGLOSSINESS will happen, and soon, but blogging is a profession for many these days, and bills gotta get paid and all that jazz.

But here, on my little corner of the Internet (insert irony there ‘cos I actually can’t STAND that phrase), where I’ve taken ads off my site and only do the occasional brand collaboration where I really, truly would have bought the item regardless, I can be a little more honest. I can keep shit a little more real.

So yes, I WILL be blogging more outfit posts, but I won’t be bustin’ a ball if it features something you’ve already seen. Even if you saw it the day before. And the day before that.

And I won’t shy away from showing off my second-hand finds. I used to think it was pointless featuring an outfit where the majority of items came via a charity shop because I wouldn’t be able to link to stuff but… so flipping’ what?

I’m starting to realise it’s often outfit INSPIRATION that people want, not necessarily to be spoon-fed a head-to-toe look, cos where’s the fun in that, eh? Someone should invent a virtual pinboard for this stuff… oh hi Pinterest.

Which leads me nicely (fucking hell, a well-constructed blog post from me – makes a change!) to my final point: I WILL have fun with my fashion. Not put together something I think will garner loads of Insta likes. I will wear fashion with feeling! And by this I mean that *I* will feel it, and not give two flying fucks if nobody else does.

I’ve been struggling with how best to document my daily life on here, and I think I’ll use my outfits as a starting point, focusing on WHY I put it together, HOW it makes me feel, WHAT mood I’m in, WHERE the vintage stuff came from and all that.

Right, I’ve still managed to ramble on, even though I got excited about having some sort of structure to this post just now. I think it all sort of made sense, though. And if it did, I’d love to know if you know what I mean, y’know?

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