u/Shannee0

I’ve been on vacation this week in Sweden and it’s been really fun. I was a little nervous about how to dress and it’s even more conservative and homogeneous here than I expected. To say I stick out like sore thumb is a massive understatement 😂😂

Still I am focusing on embracing the wise words from the Leo post

THINGS TO FOCUS ON THIS LEO SEASON
While the Sun travels through jovial and artistic Leo, we turn our attention to the themes of Courage and Creativity. Being courageous means being able to show up authentically as ourselves,with no apologies or regrets. We welcome the burning wildfire in our hearts, as we set flame toour souls and ignite the passionate natures within.

I met my band The Hives on Friday and was completely open-hearted and silly. Niklas, the guitarist, was very kind about my gushing over him lmao.
A few pics of what I’ve been wearing

1: Today in Gothenburg, looking like I’m from another planet in bright pink lol.
2: what I wore to the band meet and greet, except my hair was down.
3: Me telling Niklas he’s my favorite guitar player on earth and asking him for a hug 🫣.
4: Pelle amused by me lol.
5: At the park. It’s been much cooler than I expected so I’ve been having to layer in the AM.
6: outside the museum that was closed 😞 a pic of a bracelet a Reddit friend gave me before the festival.
7: a pic of what everyone else in Sweden is wearing lol.
8: my suspenders outfit from the festivals insta. Not my fav pic but it’s ok.
9: At the festival.

Tomorrow we’re off to Portugal

The Hives were fantastic as always but the festival crowd felt to me like Swedish Coachella. Primarily pop music fans who don’t actually care about bands. I didn’t think it was a good match for The Hives.

I was surprised and found it strange. I figured it’s their home, everyone will be so into it. But idk I think they were under-appreciated

Maybe I was in a weird spot for their show, on the rail but far to the right. I got pissed off when I could hear myself singing the Bogus operandi chorus, like hello where are you people??

Maybe I’m just a grumpy old alt girl though lol.

Consoling myself with this lovely Niklas picture.
I have high hopes for Portugal because the line up is much better!

Hahaha they were very nice though and Nik let me give him a hug. Got my aka idiot signed 😊

We made the decision at the very last minute to go to Europe for 3 music festivals. I only had a week to pack so I’ve been scrambling 😵‍💫 lol. I usually like to fiddle around with outfits for months.

I thought I’d share what helped me pack fast.
1: having experimented over the summer and taken pics, so I had an idea of what to start with.
2: having multiple tops in different colors so I could make basically one outfit but satisfy my need for novelty
3: having a uniform that covered my needs but allowed for variety.
4: knowing that I am interested in a very specific visual interest atm.
5: keeping Rita’s video on intuition in mind and paying attn when an outfit feels really me.

My needs for summer comfort and fun are:
Legs covered because I get cold in the morning and evening. And I am self-conscious about my legs being bare.
Socks to cut down on blisters.
Heeled maryjane’s for height and sturdiness and a back-up pair of sneakers.
3 shorts, from short to very short depending on how I feel.
Sleeveless camisoles so I won’t be sweaty.
Bras in matching colors because they are part of the outfit, adding a pop of color and not to be bothered hiding straps and all that nonsense.
Ribbons to add color to my hair, match the outfit, add variety.
Only very fine lightweight jewelry because I get hot with necklaces or anything significant on.
A cheap throw away purse. Usually in tatters by the end of the trip because I throw it down on the ground during the show.

It looks like a lot of clothes but since it’s all camisoles and little shorts that mix and match, it’s not actually that much.

Pic 1: the main festival outfits.
Pic 2: daily outfits. I might wear any of these to a festival day too depending on how I feel.
Pic 3: going out in the evening. Not sure on these. My fav is the peach off the shoulder outfits
Pic 4: travel outfits but im not sure if I’ll bring a pair of jeans. Idk that I need them. Leg warmers might be more useful 🤔.

The other pics:
Some outfit details, alternate combos, and pics of the tights and socks I’m loving. I bought some socks that are sheer on top but have regular sock cloth on bottom for comfort. Also fishnets tights that are super comfy and more breathable than my regular sheer stockings, some with rhinestones.
The last pics are my accessories bag.

Thank you for looking. 48 hrs before we leave so I’m low-key an outfit maniac right now, trying to get it right 🤣

I’m gonna be brave and claim the Siren flair for this post because why not. I’m keeping in mind that wonderful Leo challenge post and going to try and be my most authentic self. ☀️☀️

So it turns out I get to go see my fav band The Hives again next week. After being sad all summer about not being able to go, I’m now feeling like god’s favorite 🤣🤣

I’m having to do the quickest packing job ever which I’ll probably post about later.
But while I was going through my packing pics I was thinking, mmmm not sure if these white suspenders work or look a little stupid but I have to wear them because it’s The Hives! And it made me laugh thinking about how this is what context, environment, and external inspo means to me on the Left.

I thought it might make you laugh too so here is me and my context. What makes it more funny to me is these pics, the buttons and white suspenders band era, was like 20 years ago. It’s the same guitarist in the pics but like 5 years apart so different hair color. The lore is deep for this outfit haha.

If you’re not familiar with The Hives, they always wear cute little matching outfits (they just like me fr lmao) and they have different eras, outfits to match each album but always black and white. So white suspenders, top hats and tails, mariachi suits, now they’re on light-up suits. Makes it extra fun for me to go to their shows because I feel like if they’re gonna dress up I gotta dress up. Which of course is just the excuse I’m looking for lol.

I do think it super interesting the difference between context, environment, and inspo on the left vs right. Idk if the inspiration is really that different? What do you think? This is external but I guess filtered through me but we all do that I think?

Husband and I are going to all three but we’ve never been to Sweden, Belgium, or Portugal. Kinda flying by the seat of our pants here 😂 especially since we just decided to go a couple days ago.

Anyone else? I wanna see some Hives friends on the rail!

Any tips for the festivals? I fear I’m gonna be burnt to a crisp as a pale af ginger 😭

This Pelle pic is gonna be my husband when he sees a pint is 3 euro instead of $30 like at US events lol.

All week I’ve been trying to figure out persona. I definitely think I use it but I don’t know if how I think of it is what Rita meant or how others use it.

It starts with me wanting to highlight a specific collection of ideas, memories, interests, maybe emotions. That’s what the persona is made of. I don’t think of it as a character disconnected from myself nor is it all of me. Just a collection of fragments I chose to string together and present.

Rita says that persona gives you permission and/or makes it feel safer to be visually bold. I think that’s true but also it makes my style feel like a specific project that I am working on. A puzzle I am putting together. Working on my personal puzzle gives me motivation and courage to wear noticeable outfits. It’s like yes people are going to look at me and think I’m strange but I’m doing A Thing here lmao and that’s what mainly occupying my mind.

Like today, I wore tights with a hole and big run in them because I’m wanting to move Haunted Doll into a more Messy doll and a lady was giving me the up-down look lol. I just have to laugh because I’m doing a thing and she doesn’t get it but that’s okay. It’s cute though, my husband got it and said, yeah you’re wearing them because it’s more punk. 🥰

Maybe persona to me feels like if I was writing the character of me to be in a play, this is who she would be. I can’t describe every single thing about her but I give you peeks into her interests, personality, and what’s important to her, so you can elaborate the rest in your mind. I might write her a little differently depending on the play. She’s a recurring character but she never shows up exactly the same.
And she’s only on the stage for a short while, so you will have to pay attn if you want to find out anything about her. You may end up with more questions than answers. But you may also see things later on, in daily life that remind you of her, and then you might start to understand a little more that there is meaning behind the choices and what’s presented. It’s not just an empty pretty picture trying to get applause.

Thinking about switchbrilliants tightrope walker helped me clarify using persona. I too am really just having a vague idea in my mind and making connnections to clothing that may not make any sense outside my head. I don’t know if it’s readable at all, any of my personas. I feel like the main difference and perhaps what tips it from temporary inspiration or storytelling is I will keep returning to this idea again and again. Trying to bring more of it to light, refining it. Clarifying the vibe. But there’s no story really. No background. It’s just presented as is with no explanation.
I also find these personas or ideas keep turning up in my moodboards without me even trying. They don’t really go away.

Irl this just plays out as me trying to get more of myself into each outfit. This can’t happen every single day so I usually go about it by focusing on going out outfits and then let that trickle down to daily outfits.

A persona I’m thinking about now as example,
I want to introduce more dance and ballerina elements into my outfits. Not so much a literal ballerina at practice or YouTube balletcore, I mean maybe some of that. But it’s more like that little ballerina that’s in the music box but not literally her outfit, it’s the vibe. It’s the feeling of that little ballerina spinning around in the box, an old box from the 80s, my childhood. I had one of those boxes, it’s that feeling of when I imagine opening that little box when I was a kid that’s the vibe I want.

There’s something about nostalgia to me that always feels dark. I guess it’s the way in your mind you look back 30+ years you know and it feels hazy and it’s dark around the edges, the memory it’s not crisp and clear and bright. So maybe that’s why when I do these girly nostalgic childhood touches they always need to feel a little dark, a little unclear, hazy, misty, a little sad.

I mean I didn’t really have a happy childhood. It wasn’t tragic, but it was definitely fraught. So those nostalgic elements need to have some fraught vibes in them to feel authentic. I think it doesn’t feel authentic if it feels too bright and sunny that’s why I try to get away from looking too on the nose cute. I think it doesn’t feel authentic when it’s one dimensional.

These are the persona phrases I’m thinking about right now. I don’t think of them as different characters I take on. They are more flavors. I am sometimes more in the mood for this flavor or that. I may be working on a recipe to tweak certain flavors, like messy doll growing out of haunted doll. Or combine the flavors.
Haunted doll.
Messy doll.
Jewelry box ballerina
Surreal sweetheart.

Developing flavors/personas:
I think coming up with a specific name for the persona helps me clarify the idea. Otherwise it just remains this kinda fuzzy nebulous vibe.

I’m still searching for a phrase that captures the vintage, kinda pinup but not in the typical way look. This is sometimes combined in my mind with a circus flavor. Sometimes it’s more vintage ingenue. It needs some darkness or edge in it though to work best.

I would love to fully realize a circus/harlequin persona so I can add it into the mix when the mood strikes me. This one has been really difficult to shop for.

Also interested in a coquette flavor that maybe emphasizes underwear and sleepwear as regular outterwear🤔 maybe a Victorian or 1920s influence. With a dark or contrasting twist of course.

An older persona I still like is a kinda 60s or 70s babe. It’s a little too earthy for me to fully pull off but I still love bell-bottoms, chunky wood heels, a floaty top (but maybe small and cropped now). A Penny Lane persona. Actually thinking now about how to combine 70s babe and coquette…sounds cute.

These all are just different aesthetics. I guess how they become personas is by the way I wanna tweak them to make them me. This brings me back to a thought I had earlier about persona, is that I don’t think of it as I wanna be a pinup girl, so I’m going to go to the Vixen website and buy a dress that everyone agrees is pinup. I adore those dresses but I never buy one because it doesn’t feel like me. It does feel like a costume when I imagine wearing it. Partially I think because there is no twist, it’s very literal. But mainly it may just be that building an outfit like that is not making the internal external. It’s more just straight external, off the rack and the vibe is there which doesn’t feel as satisfying to me. Probably the same reason I don’t get much joy watching YouTube videos about aesthetics. It’s never the way I want to do it and I don’t want a list of clothes I need to buy to be a “haunted doll” or whatever.

Sometimes I might be working on individual personas, more focused looks/vibes, sometimes blended together. But most outfits on the daily come together very subconsciously. Only occasionally do I actively think something like…..I need a lot of doll, a good dose of haunted, some ballerina, a dash of vintage. I’m constantly working on the recipe through experimentation. Rather than working on individual outfits exhaustively, sometimes I do keep coming back trying to get a dress just right, but mostly it’s about a wider look, feeling, and way of being.

Good god so sorry for the length of this lol. Some recent pics to show I think you can see my default summer dollish look with the shorts; and some other personas. #3 is the outfit from today that got me side eye with the tore tights but it’s on the leg you can’t see. They’re all pretty tame outfits. I don’t think you’d look at them and think persona.

I have been thinking about this week’s challenge all day because I’m super interested in persona. I think there are maybe two aspects of persona for me. One is the gathering of interests and personality traits that will build the persona to be projected. And the other is the sending and receiving of the message.

I think I’m going to do a separate post on the first part so this doesn’t turn into a novel. I wanted to talk about the second part though because when taking some outfit pics today I noticed how different my photos were from some pics of me my husband took.

He volunteered to take a pic of the back of my outfit because I wanted to show how the strings in the back of the top mimicked the lines on the tights, I found that satisfying lol. He took a few more pics after that.

Looking at them it made me think how my persona and style might come across dramatic, intimidating, or idk, serious? But as soon as I start interacting with someone I think that all drops away. I wonder if this leaves the original persona I built intact, whether it be a haunted doll, ballerina in a box, or off-kilter cheesecake (I just made up 2 of the 3 persona names not sure if they are even accurate lol) or does the message sent change completely…

I don’t even know what I’m trying to say lol. I just noticed the me in action was quite different than the me with thoughts elsewhere or the me aura projecting. They’re definitely both me. That’s part of the other thing I wanted to say about persona. How I don’t actually see it as a character. I thought I did but after reflection I realized, no they’re all definitely authentic me, I need them to be. I gotta save that for later though. I’m already rambling!

Hm so I do feel like persona is partly a tool I use to send a surface level message of who I am. But I try very hard to keep it authentic because that’s what feels good and at the end of the day this is for my own enjoyment. But also so that once a person interacts with me it’s still true. But I do encounter a lot of confusion from people so maybe it’s not all synching up. Or maybe it is synched and I AM just confusing. Actually that’s probably it lmaoooo, I think my husband would say so anyway lol.

Oh re the outfit: I’m really into pairing super lightweight, sheer, even bedtime tops, with visually heavier bottoms like distressed shorts, chunky shoes, long leg warmers. Trying to exist outside of weather and earthly seasons lol.

Last night we went to see The Odyssey in the local big commercial imax theater. We normally see movies in a small non-profit alt-community theater so I knew the vibes were going to be totally different. I didn’t want to let that influence me though, I wanted to dress up for the movie like I normally would.

I pulled out this dress/top that I thought had a little Greek goddess vibe with the skin-toned color, lace-up front, and flowing ruffles. At first I styled it with sandals and a gold arm-cuff. Although probably a more cohesive, appropriate look, it felt all wrong on me. The cuff fit awkward, somehow too big but also pinching. I didn’t like how my feet and legs looked in the sandals. I realized those shoes are past me, not now me.

So I pulled out my usual tricks of a platform heel, staccato with sheer socks and added a black lace cami to match the black on bottom and give me a little more of a snug feeling because the top of the dress does not have as much structure as I would like. I paired it with cuff-off denim shorts which kinda spoiled the vibe but little lace ruffle shorts just felt like too much for the location, even for me lol.

I’m not sure that it was a successful outfit but it did make an impact I guess lol because the skirt was billowing around and flowing behind me in a very dramatic way when I walked. I didn’t actually realize it would do this but I just walked around with head up and shoulders back like I totally intended to be a dramatic queen at the boring pizza place and suburban movie theater 😂

I had been thinking about the challenge this week with the assumption that I do not relate to Gaia at all because I don’t feel earthy, elemental, or raw. But then I watched Rita’s video about Gaia and copied down some of the description she gave that resonated with me.

Gaia notes:
Style rooted in her own being.
Unapologetic embrace of the self.
Intriguing, unpredictable, sensual
Allowing the harmony of things in their contradiction.
The beauty of unpredictability.
Not downplaying intimidation.
Not making style likable or controllable for other people.
Takes space and be seen in the way she wants to.
Embracing your style, embracing you even if it makes the outfit less cohesive.
Not needing to smooth and polish out the differences.

The last two about not trying so hard for cohesion or needing to smooth out the differences are probably good challenges for me to work on. Although using The Siren comes with some need of cohesion. So I’ll have to think about that.

Lastly here are some images of the goddesses from The Odyssey. My muses! My favorite character is Calypso (although I wasn’t impressed with her in the movie) and of course The Sirens!

I feel like there’s not much video out there from the east coast tour in March. No official footage except maybe one short video of Boston I think? Pretty sure I watched everything I could find on Youtube.

I’m especially looking for Brooklyn and New Haven. Almost nothing on YouTube from Brooklyn even though there was so many phones out it was irritating me.
Where is the footage 🤌🤌🤌

A million photographers in the pit blocking my view of Pelle and then very few posts about the tour. Like what are they doing with the photos and video??

Lots of posts about the current festival tour and the South American tour but nothing about the east coast. It’s a mystery!

Sometimes I have a hard time pinpointing my ☀️ because my 🌸 is so prominent and I don’t really vibe at all with what I see used as examples of ☀️ styling. I know I need to add pops of sun though otherwise I get very bored.

Snow_manda has pointed out to me in the past that my cut-up band tees are a good example. I got a new tee this week and I realized I really love to wear them best with intense color and a costumey vibe. So leaning into ☀️ I think.

#4 the over-sized jeans and blue tee is my least favorite outfit here and I think because it feels too soft 🤔 and #8 is not quite there. I think I need to cut the neckline larger and find some pink and green socks.
As you can see, I get a lot of use out of my cut-off shorts and black mini. They make the rest of the outfit easy to style.

I’d love to see how you style band tees for your roots if you wear them!

In case you’re curious the bands are The Hives, Fontaines DC, Social Distortion, Snooper, and Oasis. I met The Hives drummer in outfit #1 and I was very happy I wore my ott ☀️🌸🌙 outfit lol, although he may have thought I was a goofball 🤣🤣

☺️ I was so excited, it was only like $17.
If only I had a Hives show to wear it to, alas!

I usually cut my band tees up haphazardly but I think I will leave this one alone.

Never thought I’d see the day much less get to see it in the uk with my daughter ❤️❤️ One of the best days ever.

So I was cleaning today and found these jeans. They feel like the very typical Gen Z jean. Baggy, worn, too big, not stereotypically flattering lol. They’re kinda cute but idk if they look weird so oversized. Not sure if u can tell from the pics how large they are. They hang off the hips. Imagine u stole your man’s jeans, that’s how they fit.

Also the look feels very plain. What would you wear with them? Just a cropped tee? I can’t really think of how to accessorize. I’m usually pretty mmmm not ott but I don’t do basic. I guess that’s why I’m puzzled by them lol. They’re very comfortable though.

If they’re a nay, tell me I’ll put them in the goodwill bag lol.
Ignore the wrinkles. They’ve been sitting on the closet floor for years.