I grew up following harajuku style on the internet through the late 2000s and 2010 and many japanese fashion magazines were a big inspiration such as Fruits, Kera and the Gothic & Lolita Bible. Fruits was especially relevant and they used to host their full archive online, though the website is not up anymore, some editions -not only fruits but many other magazines- can still be found on archive.org and even on instagram pages.
On a more personal notes, a lot of my clothing pieces are hand me downs from my mom, aunts and cousins, and it got me into the habit of looking through their old photos and questioning if they still have a piece that I liked, and a lot of the times they do and give them to me. You can get some pretty unique pieces like this and also induces your brain to obsereve fashion in unexpected places and be creative with limited pieces.
Jan 17, 2025
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Typically when I‘m shopping I usually have a specific piece in mind before I go out like if I want a specific coat or skirt, though usually I find lots of cute unrelated things so I spend more than I mean to. For the types of things I shop for or make I don’t particularly stick to one aesthetic I like what I like but I do have a bunch of style icons and references like; Japanese magazines like Fruits or Larme, Hong Kong New Wave films, 60s babydoll fashion, icons like Edwige Fenech, Anna May Wong, Anna Karina, Clara Bow, Josephine Baker, etc. I try to buy secondhand for clothes and fabric as much as possible too since they usually last longer
Sep 13, 2024
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This might be a strange solution but it may help: when you see something thats not a garment that you consider beautiful for whatever reason, photograph it and then use your wardrobe to try and capture that energy.
For example, I go on a lot of nature walks and something that happens a lot on my walks is that I'll see a lot of beautiful colours that I often don't see worn together, blends of textures like where the leaves of a tree meet the sky etc and so I try to capture that. Like that's how I realised that I love the colour combination of orange and grey.
To help I may then look through old magazines and cut out images to make scrapbook pages of inspiration, or if I have the influence of a particular era in mind to express the look I may look at stills of films from that decade (that's another way you can use pinterest that's not so algo heavy).
Then you just try stuff on and see how you feel, what you like about your attempts what you don't like etc. Ultimately imo the easiest way to avoid relying on algorithms for fashion inspiration is to take inspiration from things other than clothes and to practice translating the aesthetic principles into garments.
Do you like that one brutalist style building with hedges of wild flowers near the place you work? How do you express it in an outfit. Do you keep looking at the sheen of an apple before you bite into it? What fabrics might have a similar effect?
And then use the clothes that you have to try things and edit/style your looks until you get to things you like wearing.
Nov 2, 2024
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go places & try things on !
i came up in the fashion blog wave & will [somewhat embarrassingly] always be kinda menswear pilled due to heavy exposure to putthison & four pins at an impressionable age . so i definitely love developing taste by just consuming a million images of things you’ll never wear or even likely see in person in combination with articles about clothes that are equally removed from your life ... but truly nothing beats just going to stores & trying things on . there’s no better way to see what actually works for you & feels good on your body than the tactile experience of wearing different clothes , often trying something on can put you on to a shape/style/fabric/brand you might not have otherwise considered .
i love shopping designer consignment for this because you can try a really wide range of brands/eras/styles all in one place & they usually have some sort of curation so you don’t have to dig forever to find beautiful things . but also the experience of going to try on things you couldn’t necessarily afford at fancy possibly overpriced shops [‘boutiques’] is also great because honestly part of dressing up & shopping is the fantasy of a person you might be if you had the right clothes .
obligatory shoutout to jon moy , arabelle sicardi , derek guy & tumblr fashion blogs/archives for influencing the way i shop & look at clothes forever
Sep 13, 2024
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One of the things I like the most about Pi.fyi and the current scale of users is that it's still noticeable when a rec was inspired by another.
Sometimes the rec directly mentions the other, but other times you can kinda assume that reading an especific thing here triggered a memory or an ideia.
It's very cute and interesting to notice the small influences interacting with other humans online can have.
Feb 11, 2025
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Hold up, I gotta check my inventory for advill.
Feb 5, 2025
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UbuWeb - archive for video, text and sound, all avant gard art
Marxists.org - archive for marxist texts
CrimethInc - archive for anarchist publications and news
Aeon - magazine on philosophy and science
Eye on Design - magazine on design news
Failed Architecture - magazine on critical architecture and urbanism
LitHub - literary magazine
Anna's Archive - love of my life ♥️
A terra é redonda - magazine of art and politics
Passa palavra - news and articles on Brazillian politics
Digilabour - news and articles about gig economy and surveillance capitalism
Jan 3, 2025