At a time where being a woman is so often treated as a legitimate punishable crime, Olivia at only 23 years old has recognised that violence and made her focus on doing something about it.

As a 21 year old woman, I am in absolute awe of Olivia Rodrigo. Aside from being a long-term fan (HSMTMTS stans we rise) and an avid enjoyer of her music, watching her live so loudly for things that she is passionate about is the absolute most inspiring thing to me.

Seeing someone have such passion and ferocity about protecting something meaningful to them is, I think, the coolest thing ever. I want to be loud about the the things that I love and care about and strive to do everything I possible can to take care of them.

Olivia is making it known that the state of how women and girls are being treated worldwide is so dire and violent and scary, but doing so with such grace and devotion that people are really paying attention to it, some maybe for the first time.

She released a song titled ‘serena joy’ this week, titled after the character from The Handsmaids Tale, calling ‘if they do it to them, they’re gonna do it to you’. Forcing people to understand this harsh truth is something I find so admirable about Olivia. She’s not only fighting for women and girls who are currently experiencing massive amounts of violence and injustice, but also conveying the harrowing truth to those who are able to detach themselves from this injustice because they believe it won’t happen to them.

Womanhood is something that needs protected. and has had for millennia. I’ve been thinking a lot recently, after reading The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, how transcendent the female experience is. You could pick any woman from any singular year in history and I’d almost guarantee that you’d have something in common.

Woman and girls have been treated unfairly and inferiorly to men for centuries, and to have woman like Olivia who are standing against this oppression is exactly what we need to force others to band together and support each other.

Daisy Chain Fields’ all female line up, all female workers, all female photographers etc is exactly the right kind of support and volume we need to be giving to women everywhere. Girls have dream which are quite frankly bigger and more important than most men’s and they are so frequently disadvantaged for the sake of a man.

Olivia obviously is not the first female pop star to stand up for women and girls. in fact it’s been happening for decades. Joan Baez always reminds me of Olivia in her wildness for justice and basic human rights and understanding.

So many women have paved the way before Olivia and so many will continue to do afterwards. But I think what’s so special and outstanding about Olivia right now is her sheer audacity. She’s one of the biggest artists in the world right now and has used her platform and her voice for something which is meaningful to her and which she truly cares about in the age of social media where everything and everything is shared to anyone who owns a phone. She isn’t afraid that it will reflect negatively on her career or that she’ll loose her fan base, all she wants to do is fight for her cause.

In my eyes, Olivia Rodrigo is the coolest girl ever right now. I’m feeling so inspired by her passion and drive and intellect. All I can hope to do is to make as much of a positive impact one day as she has, but for now I’ll continue to celebrate and support woman and girls in every way humanly possible. I’m going to have the audacity, no matter what or who is in my way, I’m going to have the audacity to believe that I am meant for great things, that I’m meant to make positive change, and that I will succeed, just like Olivia.

when my dad died i was 13 and had only been retaining childhood memories for a couple of years at this point, unable to properly recall anything younger than 10.

because of this, the ages of 11-13 were when i created the majority of memories with him. ones that i would still remember now at 21 at least.

the majority of those short couple of years were spent fangirling over spider-man. i was childishly obsessive and possessed by tom holland’s spider-man from the moment i saw spider-man: homecoming at the cinema in the isle of wight with my dad and cousin. that very pivotal moment led to a nearly decade long devotion now to spider-man. and in that year and a half or so that i unknowing had left with my dad, it was the strongest.

i bothered him constantly by talking about tom holland, spider-man, and my marvel theories (alongside little mix and ariana grande because i was a 13-year-old girl after all). so many of our text exchanges during that time were about spider-man and we spent our designated weekends together going through all the marvel movies.

i remember him alone watching the more ‘mature’ ones as i called them, like jessica jones and the punisher, turning them off as soon as i entered the room. now that i’m old enough to have watched and throughly enjoy those shows, that curious little girl inside of me is finally satisfied.

i don’t think i can really put into words how much i was enamoured by spider-man at 12 years old. if you knew me at that time however, it was extremely evident by my girlish laughter at cast interviews or incessant need to bring up peter parker to anyone and everyone i encountered.

i think subconsciously i connected with peters story. even as a 12 year old girl with absolutely zero superpowers or heightened abilities, i recognised him as someone with the same soul as i.

someone who wants to be great and fight for those around him. who wants to extend his hand for those in need. who wants to be kind through and through.

so, today after my third viewing of spider-man: brand new day which was totally spontaneous and unplanned (something which now i’m feeling like was meant to occur at this exact moment in my life), i grieved.

i grieved the fact i was sitting alone in the theatre and not with my dad. i grieved the fact that i had previously been to see the movie a month ago with my closest loved ones and that he wasn’t one of them. i grieved the fact that he, as a marvel fanatic, would never get to see this movie. that he would never get to finally see a punisher and spider-man crossover, something which would’ve amused him i’m sure.

i grieved the fact that because he died when i was so young, i’ll never to get to know him as much as i know peter parker. i won’t be able to replay our memories like i can replay any one of the spider-man movies.

sure, all of these are upsetting revelations. but i’d rather like to think about it as if he was by my side the entire time. like the act of me going to see spider-man alone was really a case of me leaving an empty seat next to me for him to watch alongside.

will i grieve again in a few months time when i watch avengers doomsday? most definately!

but i rather like to think about the fact that every time a new marvel movie comes out, my dad is probably sitting somewhere right next to me, laughing, crying, gasping along with me.

so, as an attempt to shift my priorities and put myself first, i’m writing! im taking a deep breath and i’m letting whatever wants to come out in a physical manifestation as a substack post do so.

i spent the past week visiting family in a little costal english island, somewhere i was very fortunate to spend a lot of my childhood. it’s maybe the only place where i’m able to full connect with my inner child and spend time with her. i walk the same streets i did every year from the ages of 5-13, spend time with the same people, smell the same smells, plus, i spent time in nature and discovered a very powerful and passionate love for baby cows that i didn’t have before. for those few days where i’m in the calm and quiet of the island, i’m at the most peace with my inner child as possible.

after a pretty menatlly demanding and conflicting 6 months, a few days with her provided quite the drastic shift in my ability to regulate myself. i found that i was moving a lot slower, taking more time with things, not holding myself back as much. all of which felt like an absolute breath of relief.

after my short trip came to an end, i moved on to london for a few days in what felt like the biggest heatwave ever. i spent my time seeing west end shows (i am a theatre kid to my core) and visiting all of my london hotspots i make a point to go to every time i’m down there. i finally got to see oh, mary after seeing nothing but praise about it online and i had an absolute blast. i did all of this by myself which, admittedly, at times left me feeling lonely. but i realised that i’d rather feel lonely doing something that i love than not doing it at all.

while i was in london, i started my first ever fashion internship. what was meant to be met with excitement and determination was initially met with an overwhelming sense of failure, before i’d even started. the sense of finally doing something that i have wanted to do for literally years left me feeling overwhelmed and evaluating everything, which was probably exacerbated by the heat.

i submitted my first synopsis idea for an article and was given back some constructive feedback which my brain automatically took as a ‘letting me down slowly’ rather than a ‘trying to build me up’. i’m a terrible feedback reciver, i’m working on it.

but, now i’ve written the first draft for my article and i can feel the writing bug creeping back to me again, hence this. i’m trying to not put pressure on my first piece to be the absolute best piece of writing of all time, and to rather just let it be what it is.

i feel the same way with substack, which is why its taken me a month or so to ‘pick up the pen’ again. i was posting weekly and had made such a point to myself to make every piece better than the last, rather than just doing what felt right. i started to feel unauthentic in my writing, which is why i took a break. writing on here started to become a weekly chore for me rather than the creative outlet which i felt so much passion for.

i’m getting back to that feeling of desire and hunger to write, which i’m very glad about. but at the same time, i don’t want to take that and run with it. i’m more so trying to hold my hand through a slow walk back into writing.

so, as for now, my priority is being kinder to myself. slowing down and letting things happen rather than trying to force them or change the outcomes. i am a very strong believer of what is meant to be will be, and right now, i’m trying to sit in these feelings of uncomfort and uncertainty instead of pushing myself through a hole which is not shaped for me.

When I get dressed in the morning, it feels like I’m just putting clothes on my body rather than my usual careful selection of an outfit. Things I typically value get put on the back burner to compensate a full dissacotiation of life.

It usually takes me a couple weeks to realise that I’m even doing this again, and it tends to come after a period of busyness and excitement. I wrapped up my penultimate year of university last month and since then have been floating through my days with what feels like absolutley zero intention.

As you may have noticed, I haven’t been posting on Substack as much. I haven’t felt like I’ve been doing much of anything worthwhile. Only plowing my way through romance novels and shopping like my life depends on it as a means to make myself feel like I even somewhat have my life together.

Most people would probably describe this phenomenon as a funk. Which, in my opinion, is the perfcet word. Once I find myself within this funk, I have to put so much concsious effort to getting back into my groove (suddenly notcing a lot of 70s disco-related description word here!).

However, I always find that in these funks, my brain can be turned back on fairly quickly. It usually just takes dedication to a couple seemingly simple things which rather feel like they would take up every single ounce of my energy.

So, yesterday I spent the day cleaning out my 5 (a ridiculous number) sock drawers! I took myself into a very sweaty and busy town and treated myself to a very long overdue refersh of all of my underwear and socks. Which made me feel totally adult. I cleared out 3 bags of old socks and pondered why and how I had gathered such a large number in the first place.

The sole dedication of my day to something I would never have thought to do or had spent months putting off began to tease my brain back into fully working and comprehensive mode.

I’ve been negelecting my Substack this past couple weeks because for some reason coming on here and writing has felt like a huge looming task rather than it’s usual sense of enjoyment. Also the sun has been out a lot this week so maybe that has something to do with it. But last night right before I fell asleep, I had the urge to write.

I wrote this piece in my head last night and hoped I’d wake up this morning and remeber it (which thankfully I did!) and felt myself easing more and more into my groove just through the act of ‘writing’ and creating something which came totally from myself.

Doing this, I understood that the only thing which helps me out of these funks and back into my groove is creation. Whether thats creating a whole new underwear drawer or writing a Substack piece, I’ve noticed that I feel my absolute best when creating or curating something.

So, that being said, every time I go blank from Substack I need someone to shout at me and tell me to post literally anything because I’m certain that I will always feel better after sharing a small piece of myself into the world.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about female writers’ expressions of style and how they reflect in their literary work. When you see old, grainy black-and-white photos of Joan Didion, she looks exactly as her words on paper do. Simple and minimal, yet so extremely effective in conveying exactly what needs to be said. Her silhouette is precise, clean and severe, much like her writing.

Vogue recently uploaded a video prior to this year’s Met Gala as a look inside the exhibition surrounding costume art. The video was hugely centred around the definition of fashion as an art form, and they discussed the level of human vulnerability which goes into not only creating clothes but also wearing them.

Our clothes speak so loudly, often without saying anything at all. They can reflect centuries of historical tradition, religious significance, or political stance without any real language being in use.

One thing in the video which profoundly stood out to me was the idea of fashion as a form of vocabulary and armour. Which, in terms of female authors, holds incredibly true.

Women are criticised no matter what they wear. Too feminine isn’t taken seriously enough, but too masculine is punished. And in the case of iconic female authors such as Toni Morrison, Anaïs Nin, Virginia Woolf, and Zadie Smith, they are dominating a typically ‘masculine’ field, meaning their expression of personal style or femininity is focused on with wide eyes.

In the case of Anaïs Nin, her writing always felt like the purest expression of her selfhood and femininity. Famously, she revolutionised 1920s literature by claiming absolute ownership over feminine desire. In Delta of Venus, she writes about sexuality and sexual experiences explicitly from a woman’s perspective and explores so many shamed taboos without judgment.

She viewed fashion as a form of ‘poetic armour’, treating her style as an extension of her writing, and dressed to excite her imagination. In this sense, her clothing was never superficial, but rather a form of both expressive vocabulary and protective armour, much like her writing.

Fashion communicates a language constantly. As Miranda Priestly suggests, it’s impossible to pick out an outfit without any meaning. There is always a history and a dictionary behind every clothing choice.

The language of fashion is so transient to certain moments or feelings, yet it reveals everything about who we are underneath all of the layers.

All of these female authors exclaimed their sense of self in their clothing, which naturally then reflected in their writing. They all dress how they write. Whether that’s sharp and clean or light and colourful, their words are reflected in the same way as their clothes.

Fashion has never just been about the clothes. It’s about all of the histories, families, movies, people, traditions, foods, songs, and books which led to the spark of inspiration for each garment.

As I’ve written before, fashion and literature are far more intertwined than meets the eye, but in this sense, they reflect one another as a perfect mirror.

Just as writing was the ultimate form of self-expression for these women, so was the perfectly hidden vocabulary they picked out each morning in the form of a plain black t-shirt or an eccentric 1920s headdress.

Joan Didion, Virginia Woolf, Anaïs Nin; all of these women (and many more) used fashion, alongside their literature, as an outward expression of their emotional state. It was used to convey specific thoughts and feelings against the backdrop of their self. Which, in the end, could be understood as almost as important as their literacy legacies.

Everything I read in April:

Famesick (by Lena Dunham)

If you’ve been within an inch of my Substack this past month, I can guarantee that you’ve seen me posting about this book. I spoke about it a little bit in my post ‘everything i’m obsessing over going into spring’, but this book has instantly become one of my absolute favourites ever. I adore Lena Dunham so much, and this book was the ultimate testament to her genius and talent for understanding and making sense of the human condition. Such a great read for anyone interested in the ugly parts of the entertainment industry and life in general.

Yesteryear (by Caro Claire Burke)

You guessed it! Like almost every other contemporary literature reader this month, I followed my Famesick read with Yesteryear! I must admit I haven’t finished this yet (so no spoilers please!), but I am absolutely entranced by the concept and Burke’s writing. She has such a fresh and exploratory voice, and this was exactly the palate cleanser I needed for the spring. 2026 really is the year of cool girl contemporary fiction.

Everything I watched in April:

Smallville (2001)

I feel like I’m very late to the Smallville hype, but as a lover of 2000s American television and the occasional superhero movie, it was a no-brainer that I should give it a go. Ploughed my way through 3 seasons in 2 weeks, watching it in the background while working on my final university project, and it was such a fun, easy watch! Despite it being a ‘superhero show’, I loved the characterisation of everyone so much. And Lana’s perfectly 00s outfits were an added bonus.

The Drama (2026)

I absolutely ran to the cinema as soon as The Drama came out. I’ll watch literally anything Zendaya is in, and I’m a recently reformed Robert Pattinson lover after not watching Twilight in my teens (sorry!). The script was absolutely genius and worked so perfectly alongside the flawless set design, which I cannot stop thinking about. Also, Hailey Benton Gates absolutely steals every scene for me; she’s become one of my favourites recently. An utter masterpiece which I am recommending to everyone around me.

California Schemin’ (2026)

We need more Scottish stories! I absolutely loved this film so so much. A story about asporational Scottish people, created by Scottish people, what more could you ask for! As a Scottish girlie, I must say there is a serious lack of genuine Scottish representation in the media. Shows like Outlander depict what Scotland was like hundreds of years ago, but there is a huge lack of popular media depicting the incredible place which Scotland is today and the wonderful people who make it so special. If you have a chance to go see this film, please, please do.

Everything I Listened to in April:

Sydney Ross Mitchell

I started listening to Sydney last July when I was spending the month in Paris, but I rediscovered her again this month, and I’m all the better for it. Her songwriting is so poetic and powerful, and she has the most angelic voice ever. She describes her music as ‘dreamy folk pop’, which it absolutely is. I just know she is going to be so huge in the next few years. My favourites are The Winner, Sting, Forward to the Kill, Pale Blue Eyes, and Superblue. For fans of Gracie Abrams, Noah Kahan, and Lizzy McAlpine.

The Crux (Djo)

Now. This album is serious to me. The release of this perfect album last April has soundtracked the last 12 months. I spent my summer going to several Djo shows in Europe with my best friend after waiting very (un)patiently since 2019 for him to come to the UK, and it was absolutely worth it. Those nights have become some of my favourites ever. This album is total magic and such a perfect vibe for summer. And, if you haven’t already, listen to his album Decide for the most major 80s summery synth-pop vibes. My favourites are Egg, Link, Lonesome is a state of mine, Gap Tooth Smile, and Back on You.

ABBA

In my world, summer means ABBA. I have always loved Mamma Mia since I was a child. Over the past couple of summers, rather than listening to the cast albums, I’ve made my way through ABBA’s original discography and have not been disappointed. 70s/80s disco is one of my favourite genres of music, and ABBA do it best. My favourites are Summer Nights City, If It Wasn’t For The Nights, Don’t Shut Me Down, The Name of the Game, and Voulez-Vous.

The Last Five Years (Live at the London Palladium)

Bravely exposing myself as a theatre kid…

Okay, but seriously, this is (in my opinion) one of the best contemporary musical soundtracks of all time. I saw this production with Rachel Zegler and Ben Platt on its second night at the London Palladium, and I sobbed, I laughed, and I left a changed person. So thank god to whoever decided to record the production live at the Palladium so I can forever experience it all over again. If you’re not familiar, the musical follows two timelines, one linear and one revering, of a couple from their first meeting to their divorce.

I truly believe Rachel Zegler to be one of the most talented people on the planet, and hearing her voice live has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life (I saw her in Evita in July and am literally still not over it). Even if you’re not a season theatre kid like me, I’m certain you will adore this album for the sheer profoundness of the vocal performances.

Everything I wore in April:

Big sunglasses

I was never a huge sunglasses person growing up. I mostly wore them to keep my hair out of my face in the endless Scottish wind. But recently, I’ve discovered that nothing quite makes an outfit like a great pair of sunglasses. My favourites right now are a pair I picked up from Mango in October (which are not currently on their site) and these, which I picked up from Weekday on my last trip to London. I also got a great 70s bug eye pair from Tk Maxx the other day for £9.99, which I was very excited about. My aim for summer 2026 is to have a pair for every outfit.

Ballet flats

I am an absolute season ballet flat wearer at this point. I think I’ve worn them in every climate, every terrain, and every possible situation. I recently purchased a pair of Clark’s (stay with me) ballet flats because they were the closest and most comfortable dupe I could find of my dream Repettos. I cannot wait to accessorise every outfit with my ballet flats again; they just add the most gorgeous Parisian chicness, which I am obsessed with right now.

That’s all for now! April has been a lovely little month, and I cannot wait to see all of the blessings and joys that May has in store for me.

Now, naturally, the story within those pages has become one of the biggest and most recognisable fashion franchises in popular media, and this weekend, it returned with its second instalment, right in time for fashion’s biggest night of the year. With the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2 and this year’s Met Gala theme hailing ‘Fashion is Art’, the industry is once again proving its importance to our culture, society, and art.

My screening of The Devil Wears Prada 2 was full to the brim. It was seriously like a midnight screening of the latest Avengers movie. My friend and I were so taken aback by the sheer number of people at our local cinema at 8 pm on a Sunday, ‘surely not all of these people are here to see The Devil Wears Prada 2?’.

Fashion is so important to me. Arguably, the thing I am most passionate about in my life, so I was shocked when I saw the staggering number of people at the cinema. Granted, maybe not all of them were there because of a love for fashion, but still, I began to realise just how many people are touched by the fashion industry.

Whether they follow the shows every season, are veteran publication readers, or just enjoy the glamour of it all, I finally understood just how many people are affected, in some way or another, by fashion. Just like Andy famously realised in the first film.

We see this every year when the Met Gala approaches. People take to social media in masses to celebrate or berate celebrity outfits. The Met Gala always has a huge reach, and you’d struggle to come across someone who isn’t familiar with fashion’s biggest night of the year.

Thus, this year’s theme, ‘Fashion is Art’, feels like the exact thing the masses need to see right now in the age of AI, social media slop, and generated content.

We need real, human artistry in order to feel connected to one another and our experiences. With the main focus of The Devil Wears Prada 2 being preserving the long-standing, traditional, influential publication of Runway and keeping it out of the hands of those who want to remove the artistry and make way for monetisation and clicks, and the Met Gala celebrating handmade garments, which are works of art in their own right, human artistry has never been more important in the fashion industry.

The industry is aware that people are growing frustrated with the concerning level of AI-generated content covering our feeds, including posts which are purely generated by brands to gain traction and clicks rather than coming from a genuine investigation of fashion culture.

So instead, we’re slowly starting to see more and more big-name companies turning to handmade, human creation.

For example, in The Devil Wears Prada 2, artist Alexis Franklin was commissioned to hand-draw an AI-generated-looking meme-like post of Miranda Priestly after she gets ‘cancelled’.

Recently, Vogue Italy collaborated with Sylvannian Families to create a stop-motion animation feature and commissioned stop-motion artist Simon Leclercq for the project, which gained huge attraction across their social media.

The fashion industry would not exist without human creation, which is why it’s so important for us to celebrate it so fiercely and passionately so the men in suits can’t replace it with lifeless AI slop.

With The Devil Wears Prada 2 celebrating the talent and importance of fashion journalism, long-standing traditional publications, and everyone who works behind the scenes to put clothes on our backs, and the Met Gala honouring the genius minds behind the garments, fashion’s importance to our society and culture is being brought to the forefront of the zeitgeist.

Fashion is one of our most impenetrable industries when it comes to AI and generated content, and people are, hopefully, beginning to understand how wonderful that is in today’s society. People want to celebrate human artistry, and right now, the people working tirelessly within the fashion industry, generating genuine ideas, creating couture garments, and writing influential pieces, are doing exactly that. And for that, they need to be celebrated.

I’ve always been an aspirational person. A big dreamer. A fashion teacher in high school once told me that I had big dreams but couldn’t follow through. Granted, she meant it in the context of embellishing a tote bag, but when I heard those words, they struck me so deeply and have sat within my heart ever since.

Every day, my dreams get bigger and bigger. I’m constantly dreaming and aspiring for more for myself and my life. And I don’t think she was right when she said I couldn't' follow through. I think she mistook my aspiration for unrealism.

I’ve never been unrealistic. Everything I’ve ever wanted, I’ve truly believed I can and will get it.

To me, aspiration and manifestation go hand in hand. Aspiration is the desire, the longing for growth, and the yearning to achieve. Followed swiftly by manifestation as the process of turning those goals into physical reality through spiritual connection, intention, and alignment.

I’ve been manifesting since I was a teenager, when I truly began to understand the power of my mind and my conscious and unconscious thoughts. The life that I’ve dreamed of for myself, I genuinely believe I will achieve. My aspiration has driven my reality.

When I was younger, I was obsessed with women like Elle Woods and Blair Waldorf. Women who were headstrong and ambitious, who knew what they wanted and were confident they were going to achieve it. Everything always seemed so easy for these women. I pondered how they could feel so confident and secure in their desires when there were so many potential issues and road blocks which could pop up along the way and halt their progress. But, as I got older and realised the power of my subconscious brain, I understood that these women just carried a genuine and strong belief that they could achieve anything they wanted. They could be in any room they wanted, pass any exam they wanted, be in any relationship they wanted, because they held their beliefs so tightly to their hearts.

I’ve noticed such a major rise in spirituality online recently. Whether it’s girls sharing their scripting journals or talking about connecting with their divine femininity, spirituality seems like it’s having a huge moment. This post I read on here recently really captured this fascination with spirituality right now and the grounded practices with surround spirtiualism.

I wasn’t necessarily ever a spiritual person as such when I was younger. However, this changed once I began to do my own research into the universe and its connection to us. And suddenly, once I realised this, I felt as though this higher plane of the universe was guiding me through absolutely everything. My aspirations became facts. I had a genuine belief and understanding that good, positive things would come to me, that I would be successful in everything I did, and that my heart would be open to love.

I’ve seen aspirations I’d had since I was a teenager become true right in front of me, simply by having the undeniable belief that they would happen.

As I’ve been rewatching Girls this past week, Hannah’s constant dedication to herself and her beliefs, though not entirely obvious at times, has really struck me. Reading Famesick alongside this and hearing about Lena’s own genuine ambition, knowing how much success she has, is so moving. From writing episodes of Girls, which would become known as some of the greatest television this decade, in her parents’ bedroom, to making Tiny Furniture in her childhood home with zero budget and zero experience, her drive and ambition have truly motivated me.

Aspiration isn’t something that everyone has the power to act on, so, when it comes to me, I make sure to give it absolutely everything, because I know I will only receive goodness in return.

Spring, thus far, has felt very like transformation. Much like the flowers and the baby lambs, I’m coming into a brighter and rebirthed version of myself. The starkness of the winter launches me forcefully into this period of freedom, transformation, and inspiration.

So, in the spirit of Spring and rebirth, here are some of the things which have helped and inspired me to blossom these past few weeks.

If you’re following me on Substack (which, please do if you’re not!) you’ll be acutley aware of how much I’ve posted about Lena Dunham this past week. I first watched Girls at the beginning of 2024, and to put it lightly, it changed my life. I had never seen a piece of art of real and raw and releatable to me and my life. Despite Hannah and the girls being in a totally different situation than I am, all of their emotions, choices, and expectations felt like they’d been stolen from my brain and made into a HBO show.

So, when I found out that writer and creator Lena Dunham was releasing a memoir, I was literally counting down the days until it was in my hands. I picked the book up on Wednesday, a signed copy from my local bookstore, and haven’t been able to put it down since. Though, I’ve actually been making an effort to read at a slower pace than usual because I want to ensure that every single coveted piece of wisdom and advice is going directly into my prefrontal cortex.

Despite being an avid gymgoer for most of my teen years, I must admit that I’ve majorly fallen out of the routine in the past year. However, my local gym, which I usually force myself to go to twice a month, recently refurbished and opened a women’s only workout section, so naturally, I crawled my way back. Having a space to workout without the fear of perception and judgement from sleezy men has been my motivator to head back to the gym. I’ve been going about three-four times a weel recently and I feel amazing for it. After a pretty encompassing bout of health anxiety since the new year, being able to go and run 5k and lift heavy weights is an absolute blessing in being able to feel like I can trust my body again.

Having a third-space to go to which has no expectations and where I leave feeling significantly better than when I arrived is endlessly beneficial to me, plus, I just love wearing cute active wear.

COLOUR! I don’t usually lean towards colour when I’m getting dressed in the morning, but right now there is nothing I want to do more. I can’t stop buying anything in pink, turquoise blue, or butter yellow specifically. Those colours just scream spring to me and I want to embody them as much as I can. If I dress like spring, I’m hoping it’ll push away the final of the grey days and manifest the sunny, 16 degrees weather which I know and love. I’ve curated loads of pieces the past few months that I just cannot wait to wear spring into summer. The goal is to look like a walking talking manifestation of spring and joy and luck.

As per my posts which have gone semi-viral this weekend, I cannot stop listening to and thinking about Olivia Rodrigo. I saw her in Copenhagen a couple years ago and I genuinley sobbed throughout the whole performance. I felt encompassed in pride for this complete stranger. Something about watching a girl only a year older than me achiveing her dreams and doing so with such grace and poise was so moving and inspirational to me.

She dropped her new single, Drop Dead, on Friday and I genuinely haven’t listened to anything else since. She said on Zane Lowe that she wanted the song to feel like running and that feeling when you close your door behing you after a first kiss, and she’s captured that exactly. Every time I hear it I feel like genuinely running a mile. It makes me feel so light and excited.

The music video, directed by Petra Collins, features her running about Versailles in a Chloé dress with a walkman on, so basically my dream, and it hasn’t left my mind. Olivia encaspulates girlhood so perfectly for me and I literally cannot wait for the album. Olivia Rodrigo summer is coming.

Since I gained the motor ability to operate a mobile phone, I’ve probably spent around 75% of my screen time infinitely making to-do lists, moodboards, and playlists. Nothing is more satisfying to me than being able to see every aspect of my life in its most perfect form.

One look at my Pinterest account will reveal my absolute anal need to have every single season, event, and period of my life curated down to a moodboard, often with a matching playlist.

To keep some semblance of my dignity, all of these boards are only visible to me, but the sheer number I’m faced with every time I open the app is striking. I’ve made a Pinterest board on my birthday every year for the past 4 years, in an attempt to perfectly capture what I want the year ahead to look like. I even went through about 6 months of last year, making a weekly board of what I wanted the vibe of that week to be. Safe to say it’s pretty excessive.

Since I was a young, impressionable girl, I have been making a moodboard for anything and everything, and I think it’s actually helped me figure out who I am and what I want. By having a space to create the best version of absolutely everything I could ever think of, I’ve manifested and curated myself down to a tee.

The other night, I was at the pub with a few friends, and we were playing the association game. As we moved through the rounds of the most random things, I realised that everything someone associated me with was exactly what I would pick for myself. At that moment, I felt like I had reached the peak of curation. I had perfected how I was perceived through the art of Pinterest.

I attach myself so deeply to whichever personality I feel connected to that week, and refer back to my moodboard for guidance.

Whether that be ‘studious’ or ‘early 20s london’ or ‘trophy wife’, I have all of the inspiration I need right at my fingertips to become that version of myself. Spending so much time over the past 7 or so years, masterfully creating boards with thousands of saves, I’ve made it exceedingly easy to tap into whichever version of myself I need to be.

It’s definitely a form of escape that I’m very hyper-aware of. And it has made me sometimes feel detached from my genuine self, but I actually think that it’s allowed me to find myself in a meaningful way. By spending so much time with my likes and dislikes and getting to know them intimately, I now have a really strong sense of myself (as told by my mother and my therapist). However, I’m still trying to decide whether knowing myself so deeply and intimately is helpful to me or not.

As a now 21-year-old, sometimes I feel as though, through curation, I’ve weeded out any potential embarrassing and failed teenage eras. I didn’t have a goth era, or a tomboy era (this could be debated) or really any period of time where I was trying on a different version of myself.

I’ve always known exactly who I am. And while it sounds liberating, I’d argue it’s almost the exact opposite. Due to a lack of trying, there are so many things I haven’t experienced because they didn’t feel authentic to my personality. And though it’s not a bad thing to not do things you don’t want to do, I still feel like I missed the feeling of being so desperate to try.

That being said, I did have a brief Karate period and a life-long Marvel obsession, two things which don’t necessarily fit into my curated version of myself. So maybe it’s not all bad.

Chipping myself out of a block of stone into the girl I am today took years of searching, choosing, and filtering, and I feel good in saying I’m happy with the result. Though sometimes the longing of not being locked down to one type of person creeps through me.

What if one day I wake up and decide I don’t care about fashion anymore, or that Seth Cohen isn’t my dream man? If I lost sense of everything I know and love, I don’t know that I’d have much to fall back on.

What if one day I wake up and decide to try something so far from what I’ve boxed myself into? Would I do it? I hope that I would.

We spend so much of our time trying to find ourselves and where we fit, but I think the point is to actually do the opposite. Find things that make you feel like you can do anything without fear of perception. Make choices that liberate you and fill you up from the inside. Life is way too short to put ourselves so delicately into boxes in order to figure out who we are. The point of everything is to be messy and true to ourselves and create things which spark joy and passion. We are too good to limit ourselves to only one small thing.

Also in that piece, I wrote about the idea of a ‘cultural authority’, someone who is perceived to have some sort of looming importance when it comes to what is meant by good taste.

These ‘cultural authorities’ are so often people we look up to, like influencers or celebrities, for our outfit inspiration, or pieces of media like Vogue or even Substack. People want to be validated that what they’re doing and wearing is in ‘good taste’. A sense of approval can give us confidence.

However, after writing that piece, it prompted a lot of thinking about why we can’t be our own authority. Why do we feel the need to seek approval from whoever is the it girl right now, or whatever is in Vogue? I think having truly unique, good taste comes from becoming authoritative and protective over the things which we truly love.

In the digital era we’re living in, it’s increasingly difficult to find something that is totally and completely unique. Whether that be a hairstyle or a favourite movie, there is always something that it can be compared to and grouped with.

For example, liking a Sofia Coppola movie and immediately being labelled ‘coquette’, and it’s like, no, I just enjoy the movie! Let me enjoy something without labelling me with an aesthetic!

The people online who are constantly grouping us into these aesthetics have somehow become our cultural authority. And I hate it. Why is some random girl on the internet telling me I’m’so y2k coded’ for wearing a denim mini skirt? This is not how it should be!

Thus, I argue my case that we need to become our own authority. We need to be the only ones who can decide whether or not something is ‘chic’ on us or if it’s giving CBK. If we constantly let others put us into a box and decide how we present ourselves, we’ll lose what truly matters to us along the way.

As I mentioned in my previous piece, taste is curated in the tiny, insignificant moments across our lives. Reading a magazine at 12 years old, shopping in your mum’s closet for the first time, or the inaugural watch of Gossip Girl, in which we all decided we needed to dress like Blair Waldorf.

These small moments throughout our lives all add up to create a genuine truth of what we like and dislike. How we interact with the things around us is the most meaningful way we curate a personal taste.

This is why I argued that we need to protect our taste, because it is ours and ours alone and is a manifestation of thousands of little, significant moments.

In this case, if we let someone else decide what ‘good taste’ is and influence things which we find tasteful, we’re almost doing ourselves an injustice. By letting someone else so easily impact something which is so personal, it is no longer ours, but a shared experience with the hundreds or thousands of others who also saw that post.

Then, these small impacts shape everything around us. We start buying clothes that we don’t absolutely love but we saw our favourite influencer wear, or reading whichever romance book is popular on TikTok because everyone is talking about it, even though you prefer non-fiction.

This being said, I am in no way saying we shouldn’t try new things, because then we would limit our taste even more. I think more so it’s about being secure in the things that you know you genuinely like and find enjoyment in, and not letting yourself be affected by the so-called authority simply because everyone else is doing it. When we lose our taste to the algorithm, we end up almost playing a role; it’s not genuine to us, but we’re trying because everyone else thinks it’s cool!

By becoming our own authority, we regain our sense of freedom. We don’t feel the need to immediately rush to Zara as soon as a top goes viral. Rather, we slowly and meaningfully curate a wardrobe in which every piece sparks genuine enjoyment and maybe was even purchased at a special time.

We would no longer feel the need for everything we do to be ‘cool’. It becomes cool simply because we do it with confidence and excitement (see my previous post on Devon Lee Carlson!).

The authenticity that comes with becoming our own authority is what makes us have ‘good taste’. You can’t have good taste simply by following what someone else is doing. That’s a copy, not authenticity.

The people whom we deem as having good taste or as ‘tastemakers’ have founded their own path. Anna Wintour, Anthony Bourdain, André Leon Talley; we love and want to be guided by all of these people because they did something that no one else was doing.

They made their work their own and blazed a path which would be followed for years to come by thousands of people seeking good taste.

Their authenticity is what made them authoritative. We have to be authentic in order to become our own authority and be confident in the things we do, because following someone else’s footsteps is following footsteps which have already been placed.

Paving your own path is crucial. It’s the only way we can be led back to ourselves.

When I was younger, this was the crop of Victoria’s Secret models from 2016-2018; Gigi, Bella, Romee, and Taylor were just a few of the girls who I thought about and modelled myself by. If anyone knew me in that period of my life, they were most definitely subjected to watching the 2017 Victoria’s Secret fashion show on repeat, because that was cultural excellence, duh!

Then, when lockdown hit, and I was stuck in the house watching YouTube and taking online fashion courses all day, my best friend introduced me to Devon Lee Carlson. If you’re not familiar with Devon, which honestly I’d be surprised by, she is (to me) the pinnacle of the it girls. Her vlogs during the pandemic of her every morning in her Versace robe, making her morning matcha, and just existing in general, reignited that dimmed it-girl obsessed flame within me.

Devon is singular, and her ‘it-girlness’ is kinda impossible to dilute down to one thing; it’s in every single thing she does, and it’s the most effortless thing about her. Besides the obvious things which give her this status, like her family-owned phone case company, Wildflower, or her wardrobe of vintage designer clothes, which is to die for. Devon is the perfect example of what I think really constitutes a true it-girl: having a pure, unbridled joy for life.

A TikTok came across my FYP recently by a creator hailing how we need to study the ‘Devon Lee Carlson smile in the same vein that we studied the Mona Lisa smile’. He went on to talk about the ‘pure uniqueness and beauty that shines’ through her smile.

The sheer sincerity of this TikTok and the people in the comments claiming that her smile is what makes her so unique really solidified this idea I’d been swirling around for a while that ‘it-girlness’ doesn’t solely rely on having the best wardrobe or the most niche celebrity friend group.

I think we are so enamoured by those we call it girls because of their air of ease and enjoyment with everything they do in life, whether it’s front row at Gucci or grabbing a matcha in L.A.

The comments on the TikTok made claims which I wholeheartedly agree with. ‘It’s about authenticity’, ‘It’s cause shes genuine and genuinely happy’, ‘She fr taught me how to carry myself with confidence and happiness’, ‘I’ve been trying to put a finger on how she looks so cool all the time regardless of what she’s wearing and I think it’s the smile’. I mean, Wildflower even made a phone case with her smile on it (which I own), and it was one of their best sellers.

People are so enamoured with Devon because she leads with her smile, and thus, a sense of light and confidence.

If you’ve ever watched a DLC vlog, you’ll find that it’s super hard, if even possible, to find a moment of negativity or sadness. This isn’t me trying to claim that she doesn't have those moments in her private life, but because she leads with such effortless confidence and positivity online, she’s inspiring the thousands of others who watch her to do so as well, which is what gives her her true it-girl status.

Someone who has the ability to lead their life with everything that Devon does is absolutely someone who should be given the high honour of being an it girl. We want someone to look up to who is being 100% authentically themselves and doing it with confidence, and Devon is absolutely that.

The other day, I was lucky enough to see Audrey Hobert in concert (another girl who has been praised for her authenticity and self-confidence), and I left with a sense of liberation and inspiration that I’d never truly felt before. To me, watching someone be so authentically and naturally themselves, doing exactly what they wanted to do, and singing about things which were so universal, left me speechless and bewildered.

Her song ‘Pheobe’ in particular has always really struck me, but being in a room full of girls (many of them actually a LOT younger than me!) and screaming about not sweating ‘the acne, it’s a bitch but it goes away’ and jumping up and down to ‘had to dig deep inside me, till I found what I was looking for, it was right there inside me, it was beautiful’. Frankly, if you don’t feel absolutely fabulous after that, something’s wrong with you.

I left saying to my friend (who was seemingly super confused by my sudden mood change), ‘I cannot wait to be that age and feel so free and liberated in myself’, and then I thought, wait, why can’t I start now? She’s only a couple of years older than me, and if I wanna be doing these things, I have no reason to be putting them off other than fear.

Authenticity has always been something that scared me. I think the thought of doing something I felt passionate about, or just doing anything with confidence and conviction, made me feel uncertain about whether what I was doing was actually what I wanted to do or what I just felt like I should be doing. But recently, I’ve been making a real effort to invest my time and energy into the things which bring me genuine happiness and enjoyment, and I’ve noticed all the difference for it.

Everything is about energy.

I’ve always loved the saying ‘your energy enters the room before you do’, and I think for these girls, nothing could be truer.

That’s why people like Devon succeed. Because they carry themselves with that effortless confidence and clarity, and everything else around them falls into place because of it. Her it-girl status doesn’t come from her dining in Milan with Alex Consani and Gabriette, nor does it come from being best friends with Bella Hadid and Camille Rowe (my dream), or her endless closet with the most stunning vintage 60s dresses (her recent TikTok haul of pieces she’d won at auction genuinely left me wide-eyed and drooling). All of these things are a mirror of her attitude and uncomplicated outlook on life. She leads with her smile, and it’s opened so many doors for her, as it should!

Her sheer existence makes so many people want to live their lives in the same way.

It girls shouldn’t be figures of social climbing, exclusivity, or vigorous trend cycles. They should be real-life girls whose authenticity and confidence inspire us to follow in their footsteps. Girls who actually find enjoyment in their lives. Girls who effortlessly lead and don’t follow - not as a protest, but as an act of authenticity. And to me, Devon Lee Carlson is the perfect girl for the job.

By cycling through different identities, I was able to weed my way down to what actually mattered to me, authentically. What styles I felt fit my genuine expression of self, what books actually resonated with me, and what I’d come to develop as my own ‘taste’.

You often hear people say that ‘taste cannot be learned’, which is true, but I think that it can rather be found. Personal taste cannot be discovered by spending the afternoon on Pinterest; it must belong to the teen magazines you read as a child, the pieces in your mum’s wardrobe that you obsessed over every time you watched her getting dressed, and the music which has soundtracked your most intimate experiences. Everyone has personal taste, but not everyone has the special ability to peel back the delicate layers of their existence and find where their taste actually lives.

Nowadays, it’s becoming increasingly harder to decipher between someone’s authentic personal taste and style compared to what their algorithm has delivered to them that week. We know that in the past few years, online trends have become ridiculously cyclical; with the rise of micro-trends and everything needing to fit into an aesthetic, personal taste is so easily lost to the algorithm. With clothing being increasingly commodified, personal style has never been harder to come by. Instead of reflecting individuality, taste has become widespread and shifted from a cultural bias to a capitalistic one.

Taste has always had cultural significance. People have forever been obsessed with the idea of having good taste, but good taste only exists if someone with cultural authority tells you that it’s good.

For decades, cultural authority belonged to the magazine editors, critics, and cultural gatekeepers; today, it’s social media influencers. Within this shift, the definition of what taste once was has become diluted.

We always want someone to tell us where to look, how to dress, or what to care about in order to feel like we’re achieving something. Today, this manifests in influencers endlessly churning out fashion and lifestyle content, shaping trends in the culture which are seen and embraced by all of those who happen to get the post on their algorithm.

In the age of magazines, taste was curated slowly and meaningfully; now, it’s produced endlessly and shifting every time we open our feeds. People are spending less time ruminating on their identity because they feel pressure to keep up with an endlessly moving and expanding definition of personal taste. We don’t have time to act deliberately anymore when we can’t stop scrolling. Things we associate with taste are moving at the speed of light, and we are no longer granted the time we need to develop them.

In the decades before social media, defining taste belonged to the magazines. Publications like Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Harper’s Bazaar were seen as the cultural authority which people turned to for insight into the current moment. The people behind these magazines were the real tastemakers. Their job was to carefully sift through the current fashions, art, and media, and decide which deserved to have an influence on the culture that month. Whole movements and trends could be elevated by being published in Vogue, while others were silently discarded. By only having a handful of pages each month, these magazines had to be deliberate and meaningful with their choices.

These figures of cultural authority defined what was meant by ‘good taste’. What appeared in their magazines had passed through layers of careful consideration; nothing which lacked meaning would slip through the cracks. Taste didn’t come across naturally to audiences; it was fed to them slowly and delicately in the form of a monthly publication.

Today, all of that dedication and precision is thrown out of the window by the infinite scroll. The role of the tastemaker hasn’t disappeared; it’s simply become a much wider and easily accessible net. Today, anyone can start posting online, gain a few thousand followers, and have an impact on what people put in their shopping carts. The idea of a cultural authority has lost its meaning. There is no longer a single person or place we can turn to to guide us in what we should be dressing in or caring about; it’s now an oversaturated market, making it much more difficult to find authenticity in. Taste is no longer dealt with the same delicacy and meaningfulness as it was 20 years ago; it’s now constantly accelerated and produced by the masses.

So, how do we define what good taste is in the age of social media?

Currently, there is a huge cultural moment happening around Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and JFK Jr, and with it, a lot of online discourse around CBK and personal style (must also acknowledge the fact that I added to the hundreds of think pieces on CBK a few posts back!). TikTok is rife right now with women copying her iconic outfits, and their comments are flooded with complaints about their lack of personal style.

I don’t think the issue here is an absence of personal style; I think it’s rather a response to a certified figure of cultural authority in a time of aesthetic oversaturation. We’re all so enamoured by CBK right now because she represents something which doesn’t really exist anymore: a true tastemaker. As I wrote in my piece, a lot of her appeal comes from the fact that she dressed biographically in a way that suited her lifestyle rather than the trends circulating her.

Figures like CBK didn’t exist in a vacuum. Their influence was amplified by the cultural landscape at the time; magazine editors, critics, and stylists who curated taste in a much more limited space. In the age of endless trends and aesthetics, a single coherent point of view feels radical.

Taste cannot be found through constant TikTok ads and whatever’s trending in Zara; it can only be achieved through genuine authenticity, and ‘good taste’ can only be defined by those who have cultural authority.

Maybe the challenge today isn’t developing taste, but instead protecting it. We want to cultivate our own sense of authentic personal style rather than having it pushed out to us constantly on our algorithm. Taste was never meant to be ever-changing; it’s supposed to emerge slowly, through the accumulation of intimate experiences, memories, and influences that are unique to us. The problem doesn’t lie in people lacking taste; it’s that we’ve become so used to taking it from the internet, we’ve forgotten how to recognise what is meant to be our own.

the most fashionable thing you can do right now is pick up a book

Recently, Coach announced a buzzy partnership with Penguin Random House in an ‘Explore Your Story’ campaign starring Elle Fanning. These are buzzwords for all of the fashion girls who also dabble in literature and cinema, like myself.

A couple of weeks before their Fall 2026 show, the brand flooded their Instagram feed with reels of celebrities like McKenna Grace and Emily Bader for the ‘Front Row Book Club’ and being asked about book-related things like their favourite books, opinions on paperback vs audiobook, and recent reads. The collection also features bag charms of miniature popular books such as Sense and Sensibility and Little Fires Everywhere, among translated fiction. The collection of book charms will be made available to customers to purchase alongside one of their bags.

Coach have drastically employed books and reading into their brand in the last few weeks, making it a huge part of their online coverage right now. A candid video of Elle Fanning dressed in full Coach on her way to the Fall ‘26 show, reading her tiny book charm of Sense and Sensibility, went viral on TikTok, with others immediately following suit and reading their tiny Coach books on the subway for clicks. This candid campaign follows a huge online discourse of ‘performative reading’ which has bloomed all over social media recently.

‘Performative reading’ is a branch of the ‘performative male’ phenomena which has encapsulated social media in the last year. A performative reader is known online as someone who is reading performatively, as in, just for attention or performance. It might be someone who only reads at coffee shops in hopes that a potential romantic partner will approach them and ask them what they’re reading, to which they may struggle to respond. Performative reading is all about style over substance, which is why it works perfectly in the Coach campaign.

Sometimes, surprisingly, performative reading actually works! Take Kaia Gerber’s online book club Library Science (of which I unashamedly own merch from) or Dua Lipa’s Service 95, both of which have proven very popular among readers and fashion enjoyers alike. These celebrity book clubs were the start of the recent merger between these two worlds, helping to reach a sea of avid readers through the world of fashion and pop culture.

In summer 2024, Miu Miu launched a campaign titled ‘Miu Miu’s Summer Reads’ where they took over newsstands in major cities and created pop-ups where they gifted visitors three ‘seminal texts’: Alba de Céspedes Forbidden Notebook, Sibilla Aleramo’s A Woman and Jane Austen’s Persuasion. They selected these pieces specifically for their cultural significance and strong ideologies, which remain true today, plus they were all female authors. In 2025, they did the same thing, but this time in parks and public spaces, transforming them ‘into places for reading and reflection’. This time, visitors were given The Insperables by Simone de Beauvoir and The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi, as well as Miu Miu dust covers, bookmarks, reading clips, and stamps.

Miu Miu was able to turn something which is mostly free and available to anyone across the world into a smart and widely popular advertisement for their brand. If people see a book they enjoyed being promoted by a brand, they’re probably more likely to form a connection with it. Reading is a personal experience, and a single book can be interpreted differently by everyone who opens its pages; that’s why it’s so appealing to see this experience being curated into other aspects of our enjoyment, such as fashion.

The infatuation with literature in the fashion industry right now feels like a response to ‘brain rot’ and the endless scroll. Brands are encouraging and promoting reading to an audience who has become way too comfortable with doomscrolling. They want you to slow down, pay attention to the art around you. They want you to pick up a book! It’s what all the cool girls are doing.

Celebrity culture is also a huge part of this partnership; like Elle Fanning at Coach, Bottega Veneta included author Zadie Smith in their ‘Craft is our language’ campaign last year, and Miu Miu included Ottessa Moshfegh in their Summer Reads campaign because of the alignment within her writing and Miu Miu’s brand aesthetics.

The debut on everyone’s lips, Jonathan Anderson for Dior SS 26, had major ties with literature. The collection featured tote bags with book titles printed on them, and everyone immediately drooled over them. Being able to carry a piece of fashion history and it be your favourite book, what a treat! Under the ‘book cover collection’, the totes are decorated with titles such as Dracula and Bonjour Tristesse, and also look absolutely gorgeous.

If you think about it, fashion and literature have always gone hand in hand. They’re one and the same; it’s just now becoming more apparent to the untrained eye. If you think about seminal figures in fashion, like Anna Wintour, Vivienne Westwood, or Christy Turlington, they all present as intelligent women who read. The modern fashion woman is clued up on everything and anything. Look at the 90s Condé Nast cultural literacy test, for example, these are things which you were expected to be familiar with in order to work within the industry, and a lot of them are authors. You had to know of Joan Didion, Marguerite Duras, Brett Easton Ellis, and Virginian Woolf (amoung many others) to even be considered for a job at Condé Nast. Literature has always been relevant within the fashion culture.

Stories give us a wider sense of the world; whether it’s a memoir or a fantasy book, there will always be something for us to take away. As Didion says, ‘we tell ourselves stories in order to live’.

Literature has often provided a rich source of inspiration for designers, like Alexander McQueen referencing H.G Wells, or Kim Jones drawing on Jack Kerouac; literature is embedded in the thread of fashion. And it goes the opposite way, too. Books use clothing as a major descriptor, whether it be for a character or a whole moment. The Great Gatsby defined a whole era of flapper-style clothing.

Both of these creative mediums reflect historical, societal, and political moments, which is why they are able to reference each other so easily. They provide commentary on current issues through storytelling, whether it be through words or clothing, and will always find a way to stay relevant. Fashion is expanding intellecutally and the cultural authority wants you to keep up.

The cool fashion girls are telling you to read, and you should absolutely listen. You’ll likely be much better off for it. As certified cool girl and avid reader, Kaia Gerber says, ‘if you’re not reading, what are you doing?’.

A clip is surfacing online of Timotheé stating that he doesn’t want to be working in ballet or opera, or ‘things where it’s like ‘keep this thing alive”, no one cares about it anymore’. He, unfortunately, continued by saying that he ‘just lost 14 cents in viewership’ for disrespecting these communities.

To preface, I adore Timotheé Chalamet (at least I did up until I heard these comments). I’ve been captured in his orbit since I saw Little Women in cinemas in 2019, which has since become one of my favourite movies ever. I championed him through Dune (parts one and two), was at opening night for both Wonka and A Complete Unknown, and have been gifted many a piece of Timotheé-related merch by my loved ones over the years (cardboard cutouts and wooden spoons included). He has always felt like such a deep part of my soul. I related to him, and I had always been very, very struck by him as an intelligent, soulful, and generous person.

When he gave his viral speech at the SAG awards last year, I was so enamoured by his profoundness of speech and vulnerability in speaking aloud to a room full of a-list celebs and industry giants, just how deeply he cared to find success and make a name for himself as ‘one of the greats’.

I think that’s why his comments during the interview have struck so deeply with so many people. For someone who so obviously regarded performance as one of the great art forms, to so flippantly disrespect a huge community of talent within the ballet and opera is so disheartening. For him to reduce two mediums which have lasted respectively for around 400 years, through wars and revolutions, and still hold as much artistic value today, immediately narrows peoples previously understanding of him as someone who respects and values art.

Ballet and opera companies such as The Royal Ballet and Opera have taken to social media, sharing light-hearted responses to Timotheé's comments, with the Vienna Opera House even stating that ‘we will definitely remember Carmen in 200 years, not sure about Marty Supreme though’.

A huge part of his marketing campaign for Marty Supreme involved him posting pictures of athletes on his Instagram story with the caption ‘dream big’. He even posted Misty Copeland, a renowned American ballerina, as a part of this. Now, it seems like his genuine values may have differed from what he was pushing in order to promote his movie.

People on TikTok have even taken to making videos saying how much they miss a ‘pre-Kylie’ Timotheé. While I think it’s unfair and lacking merit to blame Kylie Jenner for his behaviour, the shift in his manner has been drastic in the last couple of years. And I’m not ashamed to say that I miss the era of Lily-Rose Depp, Little Women, and curly-haired Timotheé, and I long for him to come back. But more likely, he’s always been like this.

Timotheé let a lot of us down with his seemingly thoughtless comments, and it’s not a good look with just 8 days until the Oscars. As someone who has stayed up until 3 am every time he’s been nominated on the off chance that he wins, this year, I won’t be watching.

From Versailles in 1774 to the set of Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film, Marie Antoinette’s image has been captured and aestheticised for centuries. Whether it be pictures on the set of the Coppola movie of Kirsten Dunst with headphones in on her MacBook in a full Rococo style dress, or one of her infamous portraits by Élisabeth Vigeé Le Brun, she has been frozen in time as a figure of elegance, glamour, and economic unrest.

As someone who adores the Sofia Coppola film and has been enamoured by the idea and image of Marie Antoinette for years now, I see reflections of her everywhere nowadays. Whether it’s the recent Manolo Blahnik collection inspired by the shoes made for the movie, or the completely sold-out exhibition at the V&A museum in London showcasing items both belonging to and inspired by her, traces of the former queen have become increasingly popular in our modern climate.

The image of Marie Antoinette, while a major catalyst in the French Revolution, also serves as a reflection of today’s economic challenges. In her time at Versailles, she was famously decorated in ribbons, jewels, and lace, while citizens of France struggled to afford even bread crumbs. In today’s climate, this contradictory aesthetic image still reigns true within celebrity and influencer culture. For example, Millie Bobby Brown just had her birthday party dressed up as Marie Antoinette, which feels very on-the-nose as a celebrity economy recreating its most cautionary tale.

With the rise of job insecurity, inflation, and debt among the working class, online trends such as ‘quiet luxury’, ‘coquette core’, and hyper-feminism have become a quiet resistance to the pressures of finances in today’s climate. In the context of fashion as a resistance to crisis, Marie Antoinette’s legacy has trickled down into our culture through people’s admiration of her extravagance and ornament.

As depicted in Sofia Coppola’s movie, which is particularly popular on TikTok as a reflection of ‘girlhood’ and beauty, Marie Antoinette is a polarising figure in terms of French history. She was a central figure during the revolution, mostly as a result of her extravagant spending and lavish lifestyle and embodied the separation between the rich and the poor; she became a symbol of French economic destruction and consequently, is becoming a similar character within today’s economic insecurity.

Marie Anotoinetet’s iconic ‘Rococo’ style emerged in response to a period of recession and insecurity. Characterised by abundance, glamour, and luxury, the fashion of the Rococo period is reflected in trends today. The viral ‘coquette core’ on TikTok is a reflection of the classic ‘Rococo’ style; pastel colours, romantic motifs, and fabrics like silk and velvet are categorised in both of these phenomena. Here, fashion becomes light and free while the political and economic climate feels heavy; the Rococo fashion reflects a sense of softness in a time of hardship. As she famously said, ‘let them eat cake!’, as if it were simply as easy as that.

The style and aesthetics which are popular in these moments of insecurity serve as a reflection of the desire to be free and light. Through her fashion, Marie Antoinette became a symbol of excess during a time of economic hardships in France. Today, we see celebrity figures like Sofia Richie or Hailey Bieber who represent this rise of hyper-abundance and feminine glamour in a time where the cost of living has increased dramatically, and millions are struggling to afford food across the world.

These figures become an image of excess, which is endlessly desirable for those with less in a time of economic instability. We look up to women like Sofia and Hailey because we desire to have as much disposable income as they do; similarly, the French saw Marie Antoinette as a symbol of opulence and excess in a time of dire need.

Online, these characteristics can be reflected in things like the fantasy of the Met Gala, particularly last year’s event, when posts went viral detailing how coverage of the gala overshadowed bombings in Palestine on the news, or the rise of the sentiment ‘eat the rich’ as a response to billionaires and the exploitation of the working class. Marie Antoinette was not necessarily a villain (all she was doing was buying around 300 dresses a year at Versailles!), but she was a representation of how public unrest often reflects on the upper class in times of crisis and inequality. Even GRWMs on TikTok are an example of aesthetics being used as a denial of material instability.

Whether or not Marie Antoinette is solely responsible as a representation of excess in times of need, it’s no secret that the fascination with opulence and luxury crops up when political and economic upset is at its highest; take the roaring 20s and WW2, for example.

Many influencers and celebrities today are now targets of the same hostility she faced while on the throne; their images are used as representations of fantasy and aesthetic mobility, and thus are faced with resistance by those struggling in the genuine economic climate. If we can’t feel secure, we can at least feel beautiful.

Ornament returns in times of crisis as an outlet for our financial and economic fantasies. We crave a sense of security and control, which we often gain through maximalism and opulence. If aesthetics are used as a reflection of our economic climate, are we simply decorating something which is bound to collapse?

Our fascination with Marie Antoinette’s image and fashion presents in today’s climate as an outlet for resistance against financial insecurity. If it’s supposedly as simple as ‘letting them all eat cake’, surely we can all soon achieve the same opulence and extravagance as Marie Antoinette did while her country was facing financial collapse!

Chicness, as far as I’ve learnt from like-minded girls on the internet, is many, many things. It’s not just doing a singular ‘chic’ thing like learning a language or wearing gold jewellery. Anybody can do those things.

To be chic is rather to have curated a very particular self-image and presentation. It’s one which tells people of our intelligence without us having to open our mouths. Whether that be through our good posture or sense of style, chicness is a language which can only be spoken through careful curation. Chic is defined as ‘elegantly and stylishly fashionable, of a specified kind’; the ‘specified kind’ part is the most important here. A lot of things can be elegantly and stylishly fashionable, but it’s the specificity of those things which procure the chicness.

A quick search on Pinterest shows chic as minimalistic, neutral clothing, messy natural hair and little makeup, and a very subtle sense of femininity. Chicness offers a kind of fantasy of simplicity, intelligence, and effortlessness, which, in the zeitgeist right now, all are starting to feel increasingly hard to come by. Chicness defines how we move through the world, gracefully and with confidence and elegance seems to be the main descriptor here. According to these posts, it’s curated through how we speak to people, our level of vocabulary, our kindness, and how we enter a room. As the saying goes, your energy enters the room before you do.

Chicness acts as a biography for our lives. It defines how we perceive and are perceived. It reflects our lifestyle and authenticity. Chicness is curated, not achieved.

It’s hard to escape the notion of chic on the internet right now. It’s become a major descriptor for people who meet all of these requirements, and is used as a compliment for many men and women who share their style and life online. Chic has become desirable, and that’s exactly where the problem lies.

Though one can easily make changes in their personal style and self-presentation in the aim of achieving chicness, I don’t think it’s that easy. Alongside the minimal, stylish clothing and naturally tousled hair a lá Serena van der Woodsen, to be understood as chic, one must have a natural air of confidence and self-assurance. Without this, chic doesn’t really work.

I think that our current online obsession with being chic and those who are chic (I refer to my previous post about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy) reflects our cultural zeitgeist. Chicness reflects confidence in a time of insecurity, whether that be politically or personally. It emphasises a connection to ourselves and our self-image in an age where it is increasingly difficult under the surveillance state to express ourselves without dissection online.

If I think about what I considered chic when I was a young girl who spent her time reading fashion magazines and watching The Rachel Zoe Project and Gossip Girl, I think of aspiration. I think of older women who radiated an air of class and simplistic elegance. It was curated without being obvious; it came naturally to them. It almost felt unachievable to me as a 12-year-old. I dreamed of having a collection of perfectly curated vintage pieces, which were all purchased with significance rather than having to buy all of my clothes from Zara and H&M. In this regard, I think the rise of chicness in the cultural zeitgeist reflects a fatigue from constant consumerism and insecurity.

Now, people are aspiring to have pieces in their wardrobe which are timeless, elegant, and cannot just be bought in the local mall. People desire a sense of exclusivity because they are tired of everything being so accessible. People want to appear effortlessly confident when they walk into a room because they are sick of the constant anxiety around how they are being perceived by others. People desire to appear more intelligent in the age of AI and the rise of anti-intellectualism.

Being ‘chic’ allows all of these things to happen without feeling forced; it gives the confidence, intelligence, and effortlessness a place to live without judgment from others.

It gives women a space to perform their femininity without necessarily following stereotypical archetypes like wearing pink and floral dresses. It also allows people time to slow down and focus on themselves and how they want to present themself to the world.

Many of these ‘Things I Find Chic’ posts include things like underconsumption, taking ballet classes, and writing handwritten letters. People are communicating that they are tired of the current capitalistic era, that they crave community, and that they create a focus on being offline. All of these things which people find ‘chic’ are a direct response to the things which we are dissatisfied with in life.

We are using an expression of chicness as a rebellion to capitalism, technology, and anti–intellectualism; and are instead finding solace in slowing down, appreciating the little things in life, and connecting with our desire for communication and simplistic living in an age where these things feel increasingly harder to come by.

Carolyn’s style is one of, if not the most, recognisable personal styles of the last 30 years. There are items which were such staples in her wardrobe that whenever people see them, her image is what immediately comes to mind. For example, her C.O Bigelow headband may be one of the most iconic and easily recognisable accessories in fashion, second to her Selima Optique sunglasses.

Because of the popularity of the show, Carolyn’s image has been everywhere online these last 10 or so days. From TikToks of people aiming to revive her outfits to publications like Vogue detailing how to recreate her wardrobe, the discussion of her personal style has inundated the algorithm.

Carolyn didn’t dress like anyone, and now everyone is dressing like her. The allure of her minimalistic, chic, effortless outfits wasn’t that she was following whatever trend was showing up in the fashion houses in the 90s, but that she had mystique and originality. Originality once required privacy, which is why it’s much harder to come out in the digital age, where everyone and everything is surveilled. The mystique of Carolyn lies in the fact that she died before the era of self-branding, which is why everything she wore and did felt so potently natural and authentic to herself.

CBK’s style serves as an emblem of unintentional chicness and elegance. She wasn’t running to Zara to buy something she saw on TikTok a few hours before; she was curating a look which served as a representation of her lifestyle and passion for her work. Famously, Carolyn worked at Calvin Klein in the early 90s before her marriage to John F. Kennedy Jr. Firstly, in a sales position, then serving in a public relations role at the New York showroom assisting celebrities, where she most likely met John, and finally as director of publicity. A dreamy career trajectory for a girl like me.

Calvin Klein is everything we love about 90s minimalism, which is why Carolyn and her image worked so perfectly within the brand. 90s Calvin is all clean lines, neutrals, and flattering silhouettes. The brand played a huge part in curating the image we now have of 90s minimalistic chic, which everyone online is aspiring to achieve. Carolyn played a huge role in the brand’s image by curating campaigns, such as the Obsession campaign featuring a young Kate Moss, which is detailed in the show, and pushed Calvin’s designs into the mainstream.

In the 90s, style trickled down from the fashion houses, to the magazines, to the consumer. And Carolyn’s paparazzi images created huge leverage for her 90s minimalism look to be dissected and recreated by the public. But Carolyn herself didn’t dress for the constant documentation and surveillance; she wasn’t performing for an audience, and images of her were scarce, accidental, and almost resistant due to her issue with the paparazzi. Today, however, her look is infinitely reproducible, creating a tension between genuine personal style and that which has developed from copying what we see others doing online.

We are almost certainly all victims of taking inspiration from clothing we see online, whether that be going out to buy the same pieces or finding a way to recreate them that works for us. It is increasingly harder in the modern digital age to say that not one piece of your outfit or self-presentation has been influenced by someone else, who has been influenced by someone else, who was originally influenced by someone else, maybe Carolyn herself. And thus the circle continues. This circulation of style is not an easy one to break out of in the digital age. Our scale of online access has given us infinite places and people to take inspiration from, and it’s especially difficult to track the root of the trend once it’s in the circle.

A huge part of the allure of Carolyn Bessette is that she is the beginning of the circle of 90s minimalism. Obviously, Carolyn did not stick every piece of clothing herself, but her image became a huge marker for the style of the time. We no longer arrive at personal style like Carolyn did, we pick it out from one of our endless social media feeds. It its even more potent now, in the age of AI and content fatigue, to recognise that people are attracted to Carolyn’s style because it was natural. She wasn’t promoting a brand, in fact she rarely ever wore logos and often asked for them to be removed off of her clothing, neither was she trying to get ‘clicks’ or attention from the algorithm. Carolyn was unknowingly creating something with her personal style which was completely 100% individual. People crave that individualism today in the age of constant recreation and AI generated content, and are drawn to something as trivial as personal style because it comes from a place of genuine human expression and creation.

Carolyn’s wardrobe was a testament to her life; it was biographical. Nowadays, we all dress the same, so it’s hard to feel a real personal connection with our clothes if thousands of other people are wearing the same thing. Obviously, not every single person on the planet can have a completely different personal style, but it’s something to say that we are so quick to buy the latest trending piece on the algorithm for some sense of validation rather than purchasing items that feel meaningful to us, biographically. Does having personal style now just mean that you’re early to the algorithmic circle? Can personal style even exist in the age of digital surveillance and constant consumerism? I opened my TikTok feed this morning to a group of boys in New York, all wearing JFK JR.’s signature newsboy hat. A perfect example of style acting as a recreation rather than something genuine. Now, everything is referential, searchable, and selected from a list of specific aesthetics. Before, style came from private moments; whether that be something a friend wore that you liked and never would’ve come across if you didn’t meet for coffee that day, or what the cashier was wearing behind the desk at the bookstore that day. Style came from private moments, something which rang true for Carolyn. She was never dressing to be looked at; she was dressing for herself and her lifestyle. Without this sense of privacy, everything becomes immediately derivative.

27 years after her passing, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy is still having as much of an impact on the fashion industry as she did when she was alive; it just looks slightly different now. What stemmed from her work at Calvin Klein has blossomed into a referential image for women all over the world. Carolyn’s personal image will never go out of style, and that’s likely why it works so well. In the age of the algorithmic circle, we always come back to CBK. She cracked the code of dressing 30 years ago, and we’re still reaping the benefits of that today. In fact, I would guarantee that everyone has at least one piece of clothing which reflects Carolyn’s personal style in their wardrobe, even if we don’t all necessarily wear it as she would have. Whether we wear a staple black tee and blue jeans with ballet flats or wedge trainers, or whichever shoe is currently floating around the algorithmic circle, we still see the enduring legacy of Carolyn Bessette’s style every single day.

Oliver Bonas

Currently trudging through a severe Oliver Bonas obsession. Every single time I walk inside I immediately see 15 things I want and have to immediately come up with an excuse for someone I can buy them for, or I have to unfortunately, and slowly, saunter away empty handed.

Though I’m not a plant person, at all, I have not been able to stop thinking about this gorgeous collection. I mean come on the blossom!!

The detail on this mister is just screaming my name.

And this watering jug, have you ever seen a cuter watering jug!

Suddenly, I must buy some house plants, solely so I can use these gorgeous accessories.

Also found while gazing longingly at the Oliver Bonas shelves, this gorgeous bathroom collection. Pink and green are evidently appealing to me recently.

I have no where to put this but I fear I must have it in my space.

I think I have to buy myself this, as a nod to my amature levels of French.

I meannnnnn, the pink and green is to die for!

The Valérie

Just slightly out of budget, but I have not been able to stop thinking about this gorgeous bag since it dropped. The elegant lines, the gold hardware, and the perfect strap are what I need in a bag for 2026. A bag which you can dump all of your stuff in but mask it in elegance is exactly what my life needs, and Jacquemus gave me the perfect answer.

The must-have bag of the season.

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Orabella

Something that is actually on my Christmas list this year: Bella Hadid’s perfume brand, Orabella. I’ve been so drawn to this since she announced it last year, and have been genuinely dying to get my hands on one of them, literally any one of them. I opted for the scent Window2Soul, honestly just because it was pink and I love anything and everything with rose in it, so here’s hoping it smells good (Bella, I have no doubt that it will).

Hopefully, this will be my scent for 2026, after 2025's long run with Cosmic by Kylie Jenner.

Wrapping up, there are so many more things I could include in this, but honestly, I can’t subject myself to looking at them any longer, or I will give in to the temptation and press ‘purchase’. I’m hoping that in the midst of essays and exams, I’ve done well at selecting gifts for my family this year, and I cannot wait to watch them tear off the wrapping paper on Christmas morning, followed by a delicious lunch of course!

So far, January has been a month of culture, art, history, and literature for me. I started the year off with a solo trip to Paris, strolling around the museums and discovering artists and indulging in statues of my favourite historical figures, and spending plenty of time with my thoughts and connecting to myself. I visited the Muse d’Orsay in Paris, somewhere that I had no previous desire to go to but my thirst for culture and art led my feet across the Siene and into its halls. Though I do not know much about art, nor did I have much interest in it, I left feeling absolutely liberated and felt I had fallen in love with these paintings. Le Tepidarium by Theodore Chasseriau, Dante and Vigil by William Bougereau, and Madame F… by Edouard Dubufe were some of my absolute favourites that made me for the first time in my life, truly appreciate art and paintings.

Paris gave me profound amounts of insight into my life and myself. I came home feeling devoted to myself, liberated, and peaceful with my existence. Perhaps it was all of the walking and alone time, but it has done me very good.

I had been very much so back in my cinephile ways this month. I recently watched ‘Cleo from 5 to 7’ by Agnes Varda, and fell in love with it. Everything from the cinematography to the writing to the costume made the film feel like such a comfort and I immediately connected with it. A goal for this month is to watch more of Vardas films. I absolutely love film and I want to dedicate more of my time to expanding my taste and allowing myself to enter the millions of worlds which exist through cinema. Movies provide me with thoughts and emotions I may not have tapped into otherwise. I saw ‘A Real Pain’ last night and I absolutely adored it. The films message was stunning and really forced me to think about many difficult topics I may not have explored or been exposed to otherwise. By transporting myself into these characters and these worlds, films allow me to feel so much and so intimately and I want to spend more time this year allowing myself to explore them.

On the topic of exploring art, this year I want to read 40 books. Last year I read 28, however I only really started reading heavily in the summer, so this year I’m aiming to read as much as I can. Literature is so powerful and transportive and such a wonderful thing that I am lucky enough to have access to and I want to use that to my full advantage this year. This month, I have read Agua Viva by Clarice Lispector, finished Kudos by Rachel Cusk which I started at the end of the year, and am slowly but surely making my way through I, Claudius by Robert Graves. In line with my current obsession to know everything possible about Ancient Rome, (thank you Gladiator II), reading I, Claudius has been a very fun experience. Though it can often be a very heavy and confusing read (they literally all have the same names), the comical tone and the fact that I am learning about the Roman Empire with every sentence is exactly what I want in a book. I have my next 5 or so reads already and I cannot wait to sink my teeth into them all. I’d like to read more Joan Didion this year, as well as Rachel Cusk and Toni Morrison, and also some more translated fiction. Reading opens up my heart and mind in ways that nothing else does. It has transformed the way I live and expanded my mind in the most incredible ways, and it is a practice I hope to keep up.

This substack is also something I’m very excited about. I love journaling and am the most sentimental girl ever so I love having somewhere to keep all of my favourite things and thoughts and here feels like the perfect place! I will most definitely be ranting, brain-dumping, and putting pretty much everything in here, which will be exciting to look back on.

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