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After an unexpected few month break due to debilitating health issues, I’m delighted to be back with a fantastic episode featuring Anika Krueger! I’m biased, but especially excited to share this episode as Anika is not only a great writer, but actually a listener of this very podcast—as such, very qualified to weigh in on the concept of “intuitive dressing”. We also discuss her great series Style Notes, what’s on her do-not-buy list, and more. Enjoy! Maureen: You’re listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style.I’m Maureen McLennon Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today’s guest is Anika Krueger, writer of NO WARDROBE. Anika is an uber-stylish corporate girly by day, personal stylist by night. We love her style analyses and the way that she makes high street look high end. Anika, welcome to the show. Anika: Hi, Maureen. Thank you so much for having me. So glad to get to talk to you. Maureen: You’ve such an early supporter of the concept of intuitive style and of the podcast, and just in general the idea of intuitive dressing. I would just love to hear from you—what is your definition of what it means to dress intuitively? What does this concept mean to you and how does it show up in your life? Anika: I think it’s so funny because I feel like from the outside my personal style doesn’t appear intuitive at all. It’s really minimal. I dress with a really limited color palette and very few details. My style is defined by clean lines, neutral tones, and really simple silhouettes. I feel like most people associate intuitive style with really playful, experimental, expressive looks, but that’s so not me. And I feel like the same applies to my home and my lifestyle. Everything is really minimalist—my apartment is really simple, really uncluttered, and filled only with things that make sense to me. Also with my interior decorating, I use really neutral colors. So both my wardrobe and my environment are always really edited and very curated—almost the opposite of intuitive. But I’ve realized that my intuition actually guides me toward this simplicity. It took me years to accept that my true style is that simple—and maybe kind of boring in a way—but my intuition expresses itself through calm and clarity. I like order. I like harmony. My brain and emotions feel best in simplicity. I recently had this epiphany that, for me, intuitive style actually means choosing what supports my nervous system. Does that sound weird? I need to wear clothes that feel like me and match my emotions that day. Dressing intuitively simply means aligning how I feel with how I present myself. So yeah, to sum everything up, it’s choosing what supports the version of myself I want to be and what supports my nervous system. Maureen: Well, we can end the podcast right there. No, I mean, that’s so incredible. And I agree with you on every point about the misconceptions—what we think intuitive style might look like versus what it actually feels like. Intuitive style isn’t an aesthetic; it’s a preference. It’s a way of choosing. You were talking about your nervous system and how clothing supports it. Can you walk through an example—maybe a time when you tried something more colorful or wild and felt it didn’t align, versus something you really enjoy wearing? What’s the difference in feeling for you? Anika: Off the top of my head, I don’t necessarily remember a specific example because every time before I leave the house I actually check whether something supports my nervous system or not. But I do remember this massive teddy fur coat I got probably two years ago. I felt so visible—so seen—on the street, and I couldn’t handle that at the time. That’s probably a good example. Maureen: Yeah, that’s a great example. I can think of that too—sometimes something just feels loud, and it’s not the kind of attention you want. Anika: Exactly. Maureen: You mentioned that before you leave the house every day, you do a nervous system check. I need more information. What is this? Anika: I mean, I do lay out my clothes before I leave the house because I leave really early in the morning for work. But mostly, I just look in the mirror and check: what’s on the agenda today? How do I feel today? And most importantly, how do I want to feel today? Then I do a little check—does my outfit represent that? Let’s say I’m wearing a leather jacket, but I don’t feel very strong that day, or I chose something that makes me feel more visible than I want to be. Then I’ll just change it or make little tweaks. Maureen: So the idea is choosing something that represents how you’re feeling on that day versus just in general—or maybe both? Anika: Yeah, yeah, both probably. I also—and I think I’ve talked about this on Substack before—I always feel like I want to have a cohesive look throughout my personal style. So that’s actually referring to what you said about emotions in general or representation in general. Maureen: Yeah. Yeah. What do you think it is about that idea of being cohesive that resonates with you? I know I do, and so many other people do. What is it about that that feels good to you? Anika: I think my Style Notes on Substack actually give away that I’m quite analytical. And also, I think that reflects my more perfectionist side. I feel like that’s probably the reason. Maureen: Yeah, yeah, that’s super fair. Let’s talk about that. So, okay, I think another misconception that I’ve experienced with intuitive style is that it’s somehow the opposite of being analytical. I think for me—and from what I’ve heard from you—they’re actually very intertwined. With your Style Notes, if I can summarize, you analyze a really cool person and their style, and you see what it is about that which works or resonates with you. So I’d love to hear your take on how being analytical relates to being intuitive. Do you think they’re opposites? Do you think they fit together? How does that work? Anika: Yeah, I actually think they do fit together, and they intertwine. I feel like on a subconscious level, I would always be analytical. But then this intuitive or emotional side that we’ve talked about also plays a role in that. I think I always have style formulas and patterns in the back of my head—even things I’ve probably already discussed on my podcast or in my style notes. And then my intuitive style actually plays with that. So they kind of intertwine—my more perfectionist or analytical side and my intuitive side. In the end, I think it’s a sum of both of those that makes me get dressed. Maureen: Yeah. Can I share how I see they relate and see what you think? Anika: Okay. Maureen: To me, it’s like if you think about a trained interior designer or a trained artist—yes, you can absolutely be completely self-taught and create something totally new. And also, a lot of artists learn techniques by studying people they look up to or artworks they’re inspired by. When you think about someone who’s learned how to sculpt marble, for example, that’s not something you just pick up one day and nail on the first try. Someone probably had to teach you techniques. So I see it as a study—it’s a study in something we’re clearly passionate about, which is getting dressed. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with studying what other people are doing in order to interpret it for ourselves. I think it’s just a deeper way of engaging with the topic. Maureen: And I think it’s—I don’t think that mimicking or taking pieces from what someone else is wearing is ever going to look or feel exactly the same on us anyway, because we are unique individuals. Our personality and all of that really impacts how it feels. So I see it as a way of engaging deeper in a topic that we care about. How do you feel about that? Anika: I love that idea. I mean, actually, when you mentioned the trained interior designer example, I immediately thought of a trained dancer. A trained dancer also trains—they have routines, they have training sessions—but in a way they have to bring emotion into it once they start dancing and moving. So of course there’s choreography once they’re on stage, but there’s so much intuition in the way they dance and move. And yeah, I love that you’re also a supporter of the idea that you can copy other people but still remain true to yourself or true to your intuitive style in the end. Maureen: Yeah. Well, I think we should touch on perfectionism then, because to me, being analytical isn’t the same thing as being a perfectionist. They’re related, but not the same. I’m curious about your thoughts on this. To me, perfectionism is where you take analytics too far and you’re like, “Oh, if it’s not exact, it’s not worth trying.” How do you think about analytics? Sorry, I should have asked you first—I got excited. Anika: No, no, that’s okay. I feel like I’ve never thought about it that way. They were always intertwined for me. This analytical side always had almost a bad association or connotation for me. But actually, analyzing something can support your idea of something, or just serve as research. And I like that you separate those two or differentiate between the two ideas. Perfectionism per se is not something bad, and being analytical is also not something bad. But I like that you actually separate them. Maureen: Yeah. I mean, I think I can give an example. I love your Style Notes series, right? And it encouraged me to write my own version—I couldn’t help it. I saw yours and I was like, “I have to do one like this.” I was so excited by it. That emotional response made me want to do this highly analytical thing. They’re very intertwined. And then the difference I see is this: if I analy

Head’s up—there won’t be an episode next week but don’t worry, we have amazing episodes coming up, including with Anika Krueger, Lindsay Sword and more folks you won’t want to miss! Today’s guest is Traci Landy of Rambling in Style. Traci shares her experience as a college athlete, discovering her creative-side as an adult, and what she’s trying to say with her clothing. Enjoy! Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. Welcome Maureen: You’re listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I’m Maureen McLennon Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today’s guest is Traci, writer of Rambling in Style on Substack. Traci launched into the scene in the spring and has been lighting up our feeds ever since. And in addition to writing about style, she’s a full-time school teacher and parent. I love her extremely relatable angle as a fellow self-taught personal style enthusiast. I think this is really important kind of representation. Traci, welcome to the show. Traci: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here. I’m excited to chat with you. Maureen: One thing I appreciate about your writing is your flexibility and the way that you allow yourself to kind of go where the vibe takes you. So for example, your post about palate cleansers, which aside from being a great lesson in slowing down, also touched on rule breaking. Specifically, you had planned out a handful of outfits and ended up dressing very differently. So what is that decision-making process like, planning outfits and staying flexible? Traci: It’s so funny because all my friends and family would describe me as like the least flexible person in the universe. To say, that this is a skill that I’ve had to really try to build over time is the truth. Our family was going to Aruba and I have been loving using Indyx to digitize my wardrobe and I’ll probably talk about it a lot here and there. I was digitizing my wardrobe, planning a collection of what I was going to wear each day. One of the things when we go away, we have this unspoken family rule that it’s carry-on only. Like we don’t check bags. We refuse to do it. We went to Disney World for like eight days and we did not check a bag. So I’m trying to get everything neatly in my luggage and I plan it down to the T, and I got to Aruba and it’s funny, like you mentioned vibes, the vibes just didn’t feel good. They felt off for what I packed. Old Tracy would have probably went into a panic, right? Of like, but I planned this and I have to take pictures and what about my content and what about my next blog post? And this new Traci 2.0 that I’m really growing into since kind of my Substack launched in the spring has really been kind of like, okay, pause. You don’t really want to get dressed right now. You don’t really want to put on these really cute outfits that you planned. You instead want to focus on just being present with your family. You don’t want to be running around holding your camera, taking pictures. Like it just wasn’t what I wanted to do on the trip. And there was this part of me that felt so guilty, right? Like I was like, I packed these outfits, I have to shoot them, people need to see them, that’s what the people want, and I had to take a minute and say, like, but what do I want? Like right now I want time with my family and right now I want to wear what just feels… I don’t really want to put a heel on or, you know, a pair of shorts that might just feel a little tight right now because I’m having fun with my family and we’re trying all the things. And I think it’s just building that skill of just giving myself permission to say, you can change course, right? Like you don’t have to go into something and say, I’m 100% doing this because it’s what everyone else wants. It was in that moment saying, well, what do I want right now? I want to be comfortable. I don’t wanna wear all these things that I planned out and I wanna enjoy being present with my family. And that’s kind of where that post came from. Like it wasn’t supposed to be that. It was supposed to be everything else. And giving myself grace to say, you can change course and allowing myself, I love to make rules for myself, right? Like I have to wear this or I have to have this done by this day or whatever it is. And a lot of the rules I make for myself, nobody else is making them for me. So in this new 2.0 phase, it’s been a lot of saying like, okay, you can pivot and you can pivot and be okay, right? You don’t have to have this breakdown or this shaming that you didn’t do what you planned. You can just pivot and try something different. When it comes to getting dressed, a lot of what I do is I pivot and I can make those adjustments. But the big thing for me has been like not following that up with shame, right? Of like, you did a bad job or you didn’t do what you said you were going to do. It’s okay to let the world down to take care of yourself. And I think that was that moment. So on this podcast, I try to talk about body awareness. And I think that’s a big part of telling our bodies that, or making sure that our bodies and our minds are in the right roles. Maureen: So I’m just curious, you had mentioned that in the past you would have panicked. This time, how do you make that transition to not panicking when the situation is the same? Do you lead with your mind? Do you lead with your body? Traci: Yeah. I think it’s a lot of leading with my mind because I think that is my worst enemy. And I write about this all the time about like, you know, being a super type B person and sometimes like being a little bit of a hot mess and having to juggle that. And sometimes that can be really stressful, but yeah, I think a lot of it is like conditioning my mind to say like, it’s okay. Like you can make those changes, you can be flexible, you can wear what feels good to you and nobody’s watching. Nobody really, nobody really cares what you’re wearing sometimes. And, you know, I think that’s just like an inner dialogue that I learned with a lot of help to have with myself. Maureen: And in those moments, do you try on the outfit that you were originally thinking and then take it off? Or is it more like you see the outfit in your head and you’re like, I don’t even want to put it on? How does that feel? Traci: So it’s like, I’ll get out of the shower, I’ll get myself ready. And then I’ll look at my phone and I’ll look at the outfit that I planned and I’m just like, no. Yeah. Okay. No, it’s just not today. You know, we’re going to get tacos. I don’t need to wear this gorgeous little look to go get taco meat spilled all over me. It’s just, no, I’m a big vibes person. And when I feel it, I kind of just try to trust my gut and what it’s telling me to do. “No, it’s just not today. We’re going to get tacos. I don’t need to wear this gorgeous little look to go get taco meat spilled all over me…I’m a big vibes person. And when I feel it, I kind of just try to trust my gut and what it’s telling me to do.” - Traci Landy Maureen: Yeah. Thank God for our gut. I’d love to talk about how you decide what to buy and where and what not to buy or wear. Traci: I think I feel like my style evolution has really changed this a lot in my life. One of the things that really attracts me to a piece is colors. And it’s funny, because I’m not a very colorful dresser, but one thing that I really obsess over is the combinations of colors. I always say I’m a huge copycat. I love to see things and put my own twist on it or admire it and appreciate it and try to replicate it in my own way. I never sell myself as an expert or a stylist. I literally am like, I’m a civilian. I’m a mom. I’m just trying to look good. And I’m like, I’m the guinea pig. I’m taking what everyone’s talking about and seeing how I can work it in real life. A lot of what I do is I’ll find color combinations that I really like. And then I’ll focus on a piece or something. And I usually like to then go to Pinterest. Right. And I’ll look and see, like, how can I work this green sweater? And I’ll just search, you know, green sweater outfits. And I’m just kind of looking through them and I’ll sift through them. And any time I find that color that matches this combination that I start to like, then I just start saving it. Right. And then after a while, when I start to see for me, a big thing is like, is it versatile? Like, can I really use this piece? Because if it’s really just this one-trick pony, it’s not worth it for me to invest. Right. I don’t have endless dollars. Like I’m a school teacher, you know, like I’m a mom. And for me, it’s a real careful consideration that most of my friends and family think is absolutely insane. But I like to really just kind of luxuriate in the colors and see if they can work. And I think that’s part of why I love graphics and design so much. I think another thing has really been like for me, as far as buying is finding brands that I really like. And unfortunately, sometimes brands that I like are out of my price range. And I have to be okay with saying like, I can’t afford that, right? Like, I could look secondhand, I could wait, I can hope for a sale, but I think it’s coming to terms with like, where can I get what I’m looking for that’s a good quality, that’s in a range that I feel okay spending. Because there’s nothing that feels worse than overspending for something that doesn’t get its use for me. So with that, I’ve found some brands that I really gravitate to. Like, I’m waiting for J. Crew to call me, like, please. But no, I think I love to, you know, I feel like they really align with my style. I fo

This week, Lee Alisha of Wearing on My Mind joins to share about her experience returning to self-confidence after loss and the role of bright color in showing her transformation! We also celebrate Lee’s recent completion of an MFA, discuss why writing on Substack is a breath of fresh, and how she decides what to buy and wear. Enjoy! Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. Welcome You’re listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I’m Maureen McLennon Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Maureen: Today’s guest bounded onto my Substack feed with joy, enthusiasm, and bright color. While she might be slightly newer to our Substack feeds, she’s been making style and beauty content on Instagram for a minute, which is equally as delightful as her writing style. Lee, welcome to the show. Lee: Thank you so much. Thank you for that introduction. It’s so sweet. Maureen: I love seeing a new creator come on to Substack and just have such a clear perspective, POV, and you certainly accomplished that. Lee: Thank you. Maureen: So with that, my first introduction to you was a post about your experience wearing vibrant colors over the summer and how that improved your self-esteem. For anyone who hasn’t read that newsletter yet, what changed and encouraged you to start showing up in that way? Lee: So I was actually maybe like a month and a half ago just looking through my camera roll and I noticed that most of my summer outfits—anytime I took a photo—it was some vibrant color or print. And I was like, I need to write about this because I didn’t realize how happy it was making me and how comfortable I felt in all those vibrant colors and everything. A few years ago, right when COVID happened, I was a junior in college. All my classes were online. I was isolated. I was grieving the loss of a loved one. So I was not connected to myself at all—you know, a lot of people weren’t during that time. And I started to not express myself anymore through the clothes that I was wearing. Prior to COVID and all that, I felt pretty confident in my skin and what I was wearing. My style has changed so much since then, but when COVID hit, I just started to hide myself. I hid my body. I was wearing more darker colors—nothing like the prints that I did this summer at all. And so, yeah, when I saw all the photos of myself from this summer, I wanted to write about it because it honestly surprised me that I wasn’t realizing that that self-confidence came back. And it reminded me of when we’re kids and we don’t care what anyone thinks and we’ll just wear whatever we want to wear. So, yeah. Maureen: Beautiful to hear that we can go through a period of kind of darkness and sadness and hiding, and sometimes we are lucky in the way that we can just find joy again without necessarily having to be super intentional about it. Sometimes it can just surprise us. And in that way, grief is non-linear and it’s surprising in all these ways. Were you shopping differently, or was it more just like you’d had these clothes beforehand and were just choosing to wear darker colors versus now choosing to wear bright colors? How was that materially different? Lee: That’s a good question. Some of the pieces I had, but a lot of them are new. I’ve been fortunate to work with some brands that have gifted me some items, so that has kind of propelled me out of my comfort zone—just working with different women-owned, small-owned brands. But personally, I don’t really know what it was. I just started to embrace things that maybe would have made me uncomfortable in the past, especially because I live in Florida. We had a very hot summer, and I was like, I can’t do the oversized dark shirt and leggings every day—I need to cool off. So I started to wear a lot more linen, and some of the linen pieces that I bought had prints or patterns and colors—it wasn’t just tan or white. So, you know, just making sure that I felt comfortable in extreme heat and also wanting to look cute in my own sense of style and everything. Maureen: I love that too, and this is one of the reasons that I have a podcast about this. Because I think sometimes it can feel like there’s only one way to do things. And I’m highly analytical—so when I’m shopping for my closet, nine times out of ten, it’s with extreme precision and intention and I overthink it. And I think what I’m hearing from what you’re saying is it was a little bit more organic and you were just kind of drawn toward these bright colors compared to when you were drawn toward darker colors. Am I oversimplifying that process, or was there more analytical decision-making behind that? Which, for the record, if it is very organic, I’m jealous. Lee: Right? Well, I’d say if I’m just shopping for everyday basics—like things that I can wear with five different outfits and remix—I may be a bit more analytical about that because I want to make sure it’ll last and I can get a lot of usage out of it. But, you know Like in that newsletter, I had this green caftan on. When I got that, I wasn’t like, “Yeah, I’m gonna wear this every single day.” You know what I mean? I was like, I know this is probably gonna be a piece that sits in the closet, but it makes me happy and I will wear it. But it’s not gonna be like an everyday item, you know? So I think the analytical, almost logical clothes-eye kind of goes out the window for me if it’s something I really, really like that may not be something I wear every day. Maureen: It’s awesome to give yourself permission to do that. That’s how we interject things that we didn’t even know that we wanted. Sometimes we’re just drawn to something like a moth to a flame. You also mentioned in the post there was a specific outfit that you wouldn’t have worn a few years ago. I think it was a little bit preppier or something like that. And I was just wondering—can you share more about maybe what changed your mind or how that change occurred, basically? Lee: I remember the dress you were talking about. I think it was the one where I didn’t have sleeves, and it had stripes. Yeah, so that was one of those linen pieces I was telling you about. I felt really cool in it, I didn’t get hot in that dress—it was a very comfortable piece of clothing. But a few years ago, I wouldn’t have worn it. Not because of the print or the color, but literally because of the arms—it didn’t have sleeves at all. And, you know, during COVID and isolation, I started to feel very aware of my body, but then also pick up little things that now I can look back and be like, I was being way too hard on myself. Like, I’m blessed to have this body and to be able, you know what I mean? But back then, I was just looking at my body and picking all these little things apart. And back then, I just did not like my arms out. I needed sleeves. I just wanted to be covered, you know? “I’m blessed to have this body” - Lee Alisha And so that piece—I love that dress so much today. I don’t have a second thought about my arms or anything. But like I said, that didn’t happen overnight, you know? Because I felt those insecurities like four or five years ago, and now it’s 2025, and I still have my moments and stuff. It’s not perfect, you know, but I just try to show up for myself and not be hard on myself, especially when it comes to what I’m putting on my body and how I feel, you know? Maureen: I know that you said you were grieving the loss of a loved one around that time, but it’s just crazy the way that COVID had such an impact on how we were all feeling. I also look back at pictures from a couple of years ago, and at the time I would look at those pictures and be horrified by my appearance. And it was just—like—totally normal. My body was so normal. And I just had this horrible lens on it. And now I look back at those pictures and I [see something really positive]. I see such a different version of myself. And for me, I would say partially that just comes with getting used to maybe looking different if your body’s changed. But also, I think there’s really something to what you’re saying about maybe it was just the COVID of it all — and how much time we had to just sit on our phones. I don’t know. Do you feel like that’s part of it? Lee: I mean, I kind of do, because I remember early days it was like, “Don’t go outside.” So it’s like, okay, well, I’m just going to sit inside. And sitting inside just became my normal, because like I said, all my classes were online. My classes continued to be remote until I graduated in 2022. So I was not on campus for almost a year and a half, almost two years. I just got comfortable with the four walls of my apartment—and I was like, it’s fine, it’s great, you know? That just became normal. Then, when it was time to go outside and see your friends and loved ones, that felt strange. You kind of want to hide yourself or just stay where you feel safe, you know? Maureen: I totally relate to that. I think that’s so fair. I mean, especially — I can’t even imagine college virtually. You sound very resilient and like you got through it and made the best of it, but I mean definitely, I think even now I’m still trying to figure out how to get myself out of the house sometimes. Because it still feels like—I don’t know, wrong sometimes. I get what you’re saying. Lee: Because when COVID first happened, I was like, “Oh, I am so happy to have online classes,” because I’m an introvert. I love having my own space. I was also a creative writing major, so I was like, I’m going to romanticize this. I get to sleep in, make my coffee, read my books, and do my English literature and stuff. But then, you know, a few months of

We’re in the middle of season two and there’s so much good yet to come! Upcoming episodes include fellow writers Lee Alisha, Traci Landy, and Anika Krueger— I cannot wait for you to hear them! Make sure you’re subscribed so you get notified when upcoming episodes drop, and consider sharing with someone you think would enjoy the show! Today’s episode features tastemaker, Parisian style enthusiast, film photographer, and all-around cool girl (who’s also really kind) OFELIA. We get into the differences between film and fashion, what it means to be a tastemaker, how dressing in Paris is different from dressing in Austin, and more. Enjoy! Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. Welcome You’re listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I’m Maureen McLennon Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today’s guest is OFELIA, writer of All The Above on Substack. She has a discerning eye for fashion, film photography, and vibes. You’ve probably come across her What’s Everyone Wearing in Paris series, or my personal favorite, Outfits Inspired by Film, featuring her original images. Best of all, she’s a self-proclaimed outfit repeater and looks great while doing it. Ofelia, welcome to the show. Ofelia: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here. Maureen: One of the key themes of All the Above is about your experience living in Paris, being from the U.S. originally. I’d love to hear how your style has changed between living in the U.S. and in Paris. How has the change of scenery impacted your style? Ofelia: Yeah, definitely. It’s changed quite a bit, I would say. For some additional context, I moved from Austin, Texas, where there’s maybe like two seasons—or one giant season and a couple months of mild winter. I didn’t really have to account for a lot of fluctuation. I mostly had to account for a lot of heat living in Austin. Moving to Paris, I now have to account for actually living in four different seasons, and even within a single season there’s a lot of fluctuation. I’ve had to get really good at layering, and I also have to account for how hot I’m going to get while walking places—which is something I hadn’t really had to think about before because I was driving everywhere and not moving as much. So now I start by opening the window every day and sticking my hand out to get a feel for the baseline temperature, then I either add or take off layers based on that. So, in terms of how much I’m wearing, it’s changed quite a bit. Maureen: That’s so interesting because, you know, I would think that the key change would be like, “I dress more fabulously now.” And I think you’d probably say that’s the case—but so much of what I just heard in that answer is about very practical changes. You’re more exposed to the elements, you’re walking more. It’s really interesting to talk about car culture and how that affects what we wear versus public transport culture. For me, I live in a car place right now in the Bay Area. And that means that, for example, when I was in Seattle recently, I wore Birkenstocks everywhere because the whole point was walking. But in the Bay Area, depending on what you’re doing, you’re just driving up to a restaurant. It’s really different. How do you find ways to be creative with that practical requirement versus just defaulting to what’s most convenient? Is there tension there at all? Ofelia: I think it really depends on the outdoor elements. One of my biggest struggles is the rain. I don’t have a solid rain shoe, and it’s actually really interesting—when we moved in December last year, I didn’t realize how rainy January and winter in general would be. It rained a lot. At the time, I only had a few pairs of shoes, and the ones I wore most were suede tennis shoes—not great for rain. So now, as we’re approaching that season again, I’m thinking, “Okay, I really need to get a rain shoe figured out.” I could wear tennis shoes, but my feet would get soaked. I still remember the feeling of my toes being wet outside! So yes, there is tension—but it’s mostly between utility and aesthetics. Like, how is this going to be cute while still functional? It’s interesting, though, because when we talk about comfort, I think that changes from person to person, but also within the same person from place to place. Before the pandemic, I would wear leggings, a sweater, and tennis shoes—that sounded comfortable to me. But in Paris, that’s frowned upon. I don’t really wear leggings outside of working out anymore. Now, when I think of comfort, I think, okay, I’m dressing down, but I’m still wearing jeans. Depending on the season, that might mean a flowy blouse or, like today, a sweater layered over a t-shirt. This morning I was wearing loafers, but I had to run an errand and changed into tennis shoes. The tension is still there, but I kind of balance it out throughout the day—appeasing one side of my brain at a time. Sometimes I’ll think, “My toes need a break,” so I’ll wear tennis shoes today so I can wear cute flats tomorrow. Maureen: Yeah, and maybe this is encouragement—but I’d love if you wrote a post about what Parisians wear in the rain! The Bay Area is surprisingly rainy—we really only have two seasons, the wet and the dry. When it rains, it pours. I’ve been trying to figure out my own rain situation, so very selfishly, I’d love a post on that. Ofelia: On it. I think I have more mental capacity this year to do it versus last year. Maureen: I have a bit of an ephemeral question, but I’m hoping you’ll go there with me. I’d love to talk about the intersection between your film photography and your interest in personal style. How do those two relate to you? And how do they differ? Ofelia: I think that’s actually a really interesting question. I think they both exist on a spectrum, and I’d say they’re quite similar in a few senses. Film photography has so many ranges within it, right? I’m not sure how familiar you are with film cameras, but you can buy a point-and-shoot, a disposable, or you can get really technical and buy manual cameras where you’re adjusting every tiny thing. And I think when we also think about style, it’s similar. We can hop on the trends and say, “I like that, I like that,” and that’s totally valid and fine. Or we can really discern what we actually like—what makes us feel interested or alive, what gives us that fun spark inside. For me, film photography does that—it gives me that same sense of discovery and play. So when I compare both mediums, they’re on the same spectrum. One is often more expensive and technical, while the other can be looser and more forgiving. Maureen: And which one feels more technical for you personally? Ofelia: For me, film photography is more technical. In terms of style, I guess let me backtrack a little. I didn’t really start thinking about how I was getting dressed until post-pandemic, which is interesting because that’s also when I started getting into film photography—around the same time. A while back, I wrote an article about what I called the Five Hierarchies of Fashion. At the very base level, you just need something to wear. Once that need is satisfied, you might start asking, “Do I actually like what I’m wearing?” Then, after that, you start thinking about the fabrics—how they feel on your body, how long they last. Once you’ve figured that out, maybe you start asking about sustainability practices. So, to me, I’ve reached a certain level of technicality within fashion. But compared to others, I’m not extremely technical yet—like when it comes to proportions or sleeve cuts, I’m still learning. So in that sense, film photography feels more technical for me because I dove deep into that world much more rapidly. But the technicality in fashion absolutely exists—it just depends on what people are interested in at a given moment. And those interests can shift drastically over the years. Maureen: I’d love your perspective on that “ramp up” between the two. From my point of view, clothing technicality feels extremely high-effort and high-resource to climb, in terms of that hierarchy you mentioned. How do you feel the two compare? Does one have a higher barrier to entry than the other? Or does it just depend on your level of interest? Ofelia: I think it depends on your level of interest. You could very easily start flirting with film photography by picking up a point-and-shoot camera—it’s a little more advanced than a disposable, but maybe it has a zoom lens or lets you turn the flash on and off. That kind of gets you in the mindset of thinking, Okay, I want a slightly better photo than a disposable, but I’m not quite ready for full manual yet. And fashion is similar. We can think, Okay, I want a white t-shirt. And that’s such a big, ongoing debate—what’s the best white t-shirt? But I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer. It’s more like: What are you looking for? How do you want it to lay on your body? Do you want a baby tee? Do you want pointelle? Or even—do you want a white t-shirt at all? And so I think it’s really the curiosity around what you’re trying to get to that pushes and propels you in that direction. Maureen: Hmm, I love that. And such a good analogy too. You know, separately, I’ve been thinking about this same concept—I didn’t realize you had an amazing post on it! I’m going to read it right after and link it in the show notes. I’ve been thinking about that idea of “levels” too. I feel like personally I’m phasing up into a higher level of personal style. For a while, I was just getting dressed, putting clothes on my body—it felt very survival mode, with

Today’s episode is a fun one, featuring a very popular content creator on Instagram—who may be less well known on Substack. She’s a real treat. Enjoy! Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. Welcome You’re listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I’m Maureen McLennon Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today’s guest is Cara Wengen, aka plus size Zoë Kravitz, which is obviously iconic. She’s a big thrifter, works in an art gallery, major, and has the best taste in music. Welcome to the show, Cara. Cara: Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here. Maureen: Likewise, I’m excited to talk to you. You just kind of recently barreled in, in the absolute best way, through my Instagram feed. And I was like—hold on, I need to know this person. She needs to come on the podcast. Everyone needs to know about what she’s doing. So I’m so glad that you said yes. I’d just love to really kick us off with your content creation origin story. What got you to start posting your outfits online? I know it’s kind of a scary thing. Cara: Yeah, so I think probably very similarly to many other people, I was just kind of scrolling. I don’t want to say addicted to TikTok, but using TikTok frequently and Instagram frequently and seeing these people who are getting PR sent to them—like free stuff. And I was like, mail is so cool in general. Like when you get a personalized letter, you’re like, this is awesome. Imagine getting clothing that you like sent to you or shoes or jewelry. And I was like, I want that to happen to me. So for that reason alone, I was like, I’m just going to start posting. So that was probably like 2023. I was dabbling, just kind of casually posting once in a while. And then I made a pact to myself: in January of 2024, my New Year’s resolution was I’m going to post a video a day. Might miss some days, if that happens, that’s cool. But I’m going to post nonstop for all of 2024 and just see what happens. And that’s honestly how it started. I started with outfit videos and then a lot of people were asking where I got my clothes and how I was finding them, and that turned into more thrifting videos, which is really my niche little corner of the internet. So it’s been wonderful. I’ve created an incredible community of people, and that is really the gift of it all. It’s not the PR, it’s the people. But yeah, that’s why I started. Maureen: Yeah. And what’s the experience been like to actually be posting and being online? How does it feel? Cara: Yeah. So I would say that at first, when I first got started and really started pouring effort into creating content, it was overwhelming. You know, I didn’t understand how to use the platforms, how to edit. I wasn’t in like a rhythm of filming and I kind of got burnt out. And I feel like that happens to a lot of creators when they first start out. They’re like, oh, I’m gonna do all of this stuff and keep going and going and going, and then nothing’s gonna happen, so I’m just gonna give up. And if that doesn’t happen to everybody, that’s amazing, but a lot of the people that I’ve spoken to, that happens to. So that was really frustrating at first, and I just kind of soldiered through it, brought those concerns to the community of people that were actually cheering me on every single day. And they were like, just keep going, just keep doing it. And that’s what I’ve been doing, and that’s the mentality I’ve had. Instead of killing myself trying to create content, I kind of have now found a way to incorporate it into my everyday life. So I have a routine. I film my outfit video in the same location every day, same time. If I’m going thrifting, I automatically have my little tripod and I’m filming everything. Everything is content for me now, which has really changed the way that I’m interacting with creating content. Editing gets a lot easier after you know how to do it—that’s probably one of the hardest things to learn. And then also just communicating with people and engaging, that’s important too. And I think that setting time limits for yourself for that is also really important, because I think it’s really easy to get caught up in, “Oh, I have to reply to every single comment.” You should, you should, you know, for your sake and your page—but I think also you need to get out of the online world and into your real life a lot. That’s just something that I had to kind of learn along the way and along the journey as well. Maureen: It’s like set time limits for yourself to do those interactions and that engagement. And I wanted to ask you about this because, you know, as a creator myself in different ways, I find so many parallels with the experience of writing content with the experience of personal style. In the way that you have to try new things, especially if you want your personal style to move in a new direction or if you’re trying to push yourself out of your comfort zone—it can take time to get used to. And so I just think it’s really fun to see the comparison, and not just talk about personal style all the time, because I think it’s good to have inspiration from everywhere. So I guess I’m curious—with that disclaimer—how, if anything, do you think your personal style has changed through being a content creator? Or do you feel that it’s pretty similar? Cara: Yeah, no, my style has definitely changed. And I attest that to the fact of documentation. Literally, that was my pact to myself for 2024: every day I’m waking up and posting a video. So every day I have footage of myself on camera. And in doing that, you kind of see—oh, that looks good (or what I think looks good, because that’s all relative). Or, oh, I can really see the way that I’m more confident in this outfit versus that outfit. Why is that? You notice things like, oh, I’m wearing this skirt in a lot of videos—that must be one of my staple items that I’m reaching for all the time. Those things just kind of naturally happen. It’s been super interesting, because pre-documentation, my style was just kind of all over the place. So if anything, it’s really helped me hone in on what I prefer to wear. And also I get inspired by other content creators and celebrities, because I’m so online that I’m exposed to more—which is really cool. Like, I’ll see something and think, “Ooh, I like that. I would have never thought to do that, but let me see if I can go thrift that.” And it’s just been really fun. If anything, I just feel more like myself now than ever before, which is really, really cool. Maureen: I want to stick on that for a second. What does it mean to feel like yourself? Maybe an example or a moment—you mentioned looking back at videos and noticing that you’re more confident in a particular outfit versus another. What does that confidence look like to you in the video? How can you see it now in a way that maybe you didn’t see in the moment? Cara: Yeah, I think it’s overall body posture—or the way I’m looking at myself in the camera. Because I don’t always film with the back camera, even though you’re “supposed” to. I still use my front camera a lot, so I’m literally looking at a mirror of myself. And I can tell—in certain looks—I’m feeling myself more. Like, you know when you’re feeling yourself and when you’re not. There are certain moments where I’m like, “Oh, I’m really working this.” And I don’t mean that in a cocky way, I mean it in a very reflective, real-time way, like: wow, you’re really feeling yourself. That’s been cool and interesting, because especially as somebody who lives in a larger body, I normally wouldn’t put on a tight shirt and think, “I feel great about myself.” But then when I’m reacting in real time to the footage of myself, I’m like, “No, I’m actually feeling myself. This feels good.” And it kind of makes you think—maybe I’ve been doing this wrong the whole time. Like, it doesn’t matter what size I am. I can wear whatever I want as long as I feel good, it’s comfortable, and it’s what I like. That’s all that matters. Maureen: Yeah. I mean, personally, I’m struggling with that right now, so I’d love to talk about it more—these limiting beliefs about what we can and cannot wear based on what our body looks like. Or even more than that—for me, it’s about what we’re used to seeing or not seeing. And for me personally—and I mean this with no pressure, only gratitude—watching you wear just the best things (and just looking cool, in my subjective perspective) has been encouraging. And in your subjective perspective, I can feel when you’re feeling yourself. It’s been really beautiful to see your work and what you’re wearing. I feel very encouraged, because there are some things I’ve told myself not to wear. And I’m actively looking for examples that tell me otherwise, and then trying to experience that myself. Maureen: I wanted to go back to what you were saying about maybe in the past you wouldn’t have wanted to wear a particular type of tight t-shirt or something like that. Can you walk me through—if you can think of it—the experience of getting comfortable with that? Like, let’s say you just wore it one time. Did you immediately feel comfortable, or was it something you had to try over and over again? What was that like? Cara: Yeah, it’s definitely not immediate. I would say that, just like you mentioned, seeing other people be so okay with styling pieces they might not necessarily be “told” to pick—that helps. Like, you see another size 16 wearing a little baby tee and you think, “Why can’t I do that?” So you try it, and at first you’re like, “Maybe this isn

The second episode of season two is here! Enjoy this episode with Harriet Hadfield. Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. Welcome You’re listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I’m Maureen McLennon Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today’s guest is Harriet Hadfield, the writer of Harry Styles—that name!—on Substack. As an early One Direction fan, you know what I mean. You know her from her nuanced, vulnerable writing about career transitions and mental health challenges, just as much as her playful and creative styling suggestions. Or perhaps you’ve seen her extensive backlog of makeup tutorials or journal making on her YouTube channel, Harry Makes it Up. However you’ve met her, you are sure to have loved her. Harry, welcome to the show. Harriet: My gosh, that intro was like the most lovely thing ever. I’m like, can you just send me that so can put that in like a happy book? Maureen: I will print it out, I’ll hand write a note. You can keep it wherever. Harriet: So lovely. Thank you so much Maureen. Maureen: You wrote it yourself, you did all those things. So you made it easy. Well, I wanted to start off by referencing your recent undercover work, a post that you put up on Substack, where you identified some themes and what folks on the East side of LA are wearing, which anyone that’s been following you for a minute would see that it’s a little bit different from your typical style. There’s lots of color. And, I just thought that was really fun because you reinterpret those looks with your own clothes. So I would just love to hear like, how did you come up with that idea? And just tell me, was it so fun to write? Harriet: It really was like the most fun thing. And I think sometimes to me, my writing, there are some things that I just know I wanna write. And then generally this situation, I’d gone to a coffee shop with my laptop and I got there, my laptop was dead. And I was like, man, there’s no chargers around. And I always carry a notebook with me, as you know, I love my journals. So I was like, okay, I’m just gonna people watch, which is another hobby of mine. And I just started writing what I was seeing, like socks with shoes, canvas totes. It was almost like a shopping list. I just kind of was documenting what I was seeing. And then I said to my husband, he was at the coffee shop with me, I was like, I’m Harriet the Spy. And then I think that whole thing, was like, this is so fun because like you said, I think my style is a little bit different generally to where I live and I don’t in any way say that to sound like it’s better than. Again, I think this is where style can feel really problematic. But coming from London, I think my style has always felt a bit dressier. But I love taking inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. So I also think I’m currently on another no-buy. I love being able to think how can I make my existing wardrobe work harder for me? And also like you said, like intuitive style in my opinion is about trying stuff. It’s about experimenting. So I love pushing myself out my comfort zone in the safety of my own home and knowing like, okay, here’s my barometer to decide what feels comfortable to leave the house in. What bits do I keep? What bits do I maybe go, cool, I tried that, it’s not for me. But for me getting dressed is like playing dress up. It always takes me back to being a kid and just wanting to try things. Maureen: How do you know when it feels right and you’re ready to leave the house in something versus like, I need to tweak this a little bit more or it doesn’t feel right? Harriet:That’s a really good question and part of me wants to say there’s lots of ways to answer that but I also think intuition and self-trust is something we build. So for me it’s both a physical feeling in my body, it’s kind of like a mental knowing of... I think as well for me it’s like a spectrum of like am I uncomfortable because it feels new or is it uncomfortable because...I just would feel more conscious wearing this than not wearing it. And I think if it’s the former, like, oh, this just feels new, then this is why I like doing, like, play dates in my own wardrobe at home, because it gives me time to get used to seeing myself in a new way. It gives me space and time to be like, ooh, there’s something that keeps making me look in the mirror and go, I’m not mad at it. I don’t hate it. And sometimes I think you have to start there before you can get to a place of, oh my god, this and sometimes the my god I love this does happen very instantaneously but for me I think it’s almost it’s it’s learning to develop patience with when I’m trying something new it isn’t always gonna click straight away and there will be some things where try as I might I’m like looks great on everyone else but it’s a no for me like I think it’s that it’s it’s building that self-trust which I would love to say I could tell you exactly how you do that. But I think it’s, I think to start with, it’s maybe wanting to build the self-trust. I think that’s a good place to be. Like, I think I’ve outsourced my tastes when I was younger so much. I look for someone to tell me what style is, what would be right. Again, you know, coming of like the noughties and the, you know, 90s teenager, like I grew up with, everything should be flattering, everything should be done, you know, avoid horizontal stripes. So I’ve had to unlearn a lot as well, but I think that started with wanting to unlearn it. Like there came a point where I was like, I would like to make decisions that feel good for me, even if other people don’t get it. And I think that’s a good place to start is just wanting to kind of like build that trust. Maureen: Can you be my co-host on this podcast because... Harriet: You Anytime. Maureen: I mean, everything you said…there’s no bows that we can tie. There’s a reason that this is an 18 plus episode and growing podcast because I don’t think that there’s a one answer on how to build this self trust, but it’s like you said, it’s a choice that we’re making and, something that we have to put time and attention into doing. yeah. Harriet: Yeah. No. And I think make it fun, whatever fun looks like for you. Like for me, I’m still a big kid at heart. Like I wanna put 90s boy band music on while I have a wardrobe play date and you know, have a sing and a dance in my closet. And I’m always like, how can I make this feel like play versus something I have to get right? Maureen: Are there any outfits that you tried recently or as a result of that post that, was there like anything that stands out that you’re like, I did this new thing and it felt really good. What was that like? Harriet: I think the socks and shoes I see come round again and again. I think it’s one of those things that in fashion, it’s been used in so many different decades. I see people, like I I live on the East side in LA. I see it a lot on the East side and I always appreciate it on other people. I’ve just always been like, especially trainers and socks, loafers and socks. And I remember realizing at one point, I don’t actually own a pair of white socks. I only own black socks for the winter with my boots. And I remember wearing a pair of black socks over leggings with like a really oversized blazer and then like a white strappy sandal and I loved the contrast of that. I remember thinking like, oh this feels like me. Again, that spectrum I talked about, it was a very instantaneous yes. And so because of that, I was like, okay, well what if it’s not a loafer in a sock for me? What if it’s just a different shoe in a sock? So again, I kind of like the same Harriet the Spy thing. I’m very investigative. Like, I don’t even think that’s a word. But like, I’m always trying to be like, what is the bit I do like? Like, warmer, warmer. And I remember I had this pair of shoes that were actually from the Alison Bornstein, Jack Irwin collection when she did that launch. And I’ve got to be honest, I don’t always wear them. And they’re suede and I live in LA, so I have no excuse. But I was just like, I need to wear these more. Again, there’s things in my wardrobe where I’m like, I love this item. If I’m not wearing it, is it because I need to find new ways to wear it that excite me? Is it just that I haven’t put it enough into heavy rotation? And like I said, I didn’t have any white socks, but Dave had some sports socks with like a pink and a brown rim around the top. And I was like, well, if I fold them and scrunch them, I can kind of make it look like a white sock. And it was like a thick sports socks. I was like, okay, this is really not comfortable, but it’s kind like I have this concept called like the bridge philosophy where it’s like where can you try something that is like point A of the spectrum of starring stuff and being like, okay, that’s my beginning point. And from doing that, although it was like uncomfy because the socks were too thick, I was like, I kind of like this. And again, for me, I have to always add something dressy into the mix. I feel like when there’s like a more formal looking bag or something that feels quite, I’m trying to what the word is. Like for me, I love grandma and granddad. That’s always like, feel like when people say like, what’s your style? I’m like, I don’t really have words, but I’m like, what a granddad would wear, a grandma would wear, or a librarian, or a geography teacher, like any of those probably would like cross my path some way. Again, yeah, and I just think like trying on those shoes with the socks, I was like, maybe I might get round to buying socks. So I think it’s, whether it’s

Intuitive Style podcast is back and better than ever! I took a break over the summer to rest, rejuvenate, and overhaul my recording method from top-to-bottom! We’re talking: new backdrop, haircut, logo, audio-set-up and even a new theme song created specifically for the show! While working a full-time job and continuing to write this newsletter. So when I say I took a break, I am speaking aspirationally. That said, we have an exciting series ahead with episodes featuring Substack gems Harriet Hadfield, and OFELIA (and way more!) plus a few new faces you’ll be sure to love. Despite my best attempts, this podcast continues to be 100% reader supported. If you enjoy what we’re doing here, please consider sharing with someone you think would love the show so we can get the word out! Onto the show… Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. Welcome Welcome back to Season 2 of the Intuitive Style Podcast! I'm Maureen McLennon Welton. I can't wait for you to see these episodes. I think it's going to be a fabulous season, kicking off with our guest today, Asta / Aastha. This is a great conversation. I think you're really going to enjoy getting to know her a little bit better. And this podcast is entirely community supported. So please consider liking, sharing, subscribing, and really just getting the word out there so that more people can find this show. And without further ado, let's get into the episode! Maureen: You're listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I'm Maureen Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today's guest is Aastha, the author behind the fabulous Substack Fit Happens—which is of course a fabulous name. Aastha loves wearing the brand Tibi, styling clothes in different ways, sharing about color mixing and silhouette, and chatting about weird shoes. Aastha, welcome to the show. Aastha: Thank you, thank you, and thank you for the introduction. Maureen: I feel that your newsletter, Fit Happens, is a good foil for mine in the way that you seem to have really honed the skill of dressing intuitively and do it with relative ease. Can you share a little bit about what dressing intuitively means to you and how you foster that sensibility? Aastha: Yes, yes, for sure. But before I jump into the answer, I do want to say just a few words to embarrass you a little bit, Maureen, because I'm just such a big fan of everything that you're doing. And I really appreciate your vulnerability in how you put yourself out there. I've been a big fan of your podcast too, and I really appreciate how welcoming you make the space for everyone and hold space for everyone. That’s why I was very excited to do this. So I wanted to officially do that after you start the recording—so you cannot take it out. So don’t take this out. Now, let me answer the question. So, it’s something that… just the idea of living intuitively has been very important to me for, I don’t know, like 15, 20 years at this point. And I don’t even remember what sparked that. But in terms of what it means to dress, it’s about—there is so much out there that tells you what is right, what is wrong. And there is no objective truth about how you dress, but also about how you live. Like, the kind of decisions you make. For example, I am here in Los Angeles and my family is in India, which means I’m probably not going to see my parents that many times in my lifetime. But who’s to say whether that’s right or wrong? That’s just a very big example to begin with. But truly, there are so many decisions you need to make for your own life where there is no objective way to say what is right or what is wrong. And to actually be living a life where you don’t have regrets, it’s so important that you tap into your intuition and what feels right in that moment. And intuitive style and intuitive dressing to me is just a capsule form of that exact same idea—that you wear what feels right in that moment. And as long as it feels right, you’re going to have a good day and you’re not going to worry too much about, “is this right or is this wrong?” Even if I look back at my style five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago—I don’t have any regrets, because I know it felt right in that moment. Who cares if it doesn’t feel right now? If I had fun in that moment, that’s enough. It’s kind of like: if you have fun in the present, the past and the future take care of themselves. Maureen: I was going to ask about the regret of it all—you already answered. So what I heard from that is basically the only way to prevent future regret, which is this scary intangible thing we can’t predict, is by trusting that we’re making the best choices in the moment. And if we change our minds later, that doesn’t mean anything about what we did in the past. Aastha: No, no, it doesn’t. And also, I think when you live long enough, you realize you will change your mind. That is normal, right? So if that’s going to happen anyway, why worry too much about it? When people ask me for career advice, I usually say, just do what feels good to you in the moment. Because if you have fun every day, you will also be having fun every day in the future, right? So the future takes care of itself if you just focus on the present, basically. Maureen: I did a meditation before this, so it's really ringing true for me. No, I love this—such a good way to explain dressing intuitively. I know we'll talk about it more throughout the call. Switching gears slightly, I love to talk about the Tibi of it all. I know that Tibi, the brand—you’re not affiliated with them, you don’t use affiliate links—but you mostly or very often wear their clothing. And I just think it's so interesting, to me and to other people, to see someone really living authentically with a particular brand. That's also, like, sometimes divisive, as I think you’ve shared on your social media and on Substack. So I’d just like to hear a little bit more about the origin—how you found Tibi and what it is about that brand that resonates with you so much? Aastha: Yeah, it's such a great question. It is a big part of my style life for sure, and my closet, right? To the point where, because I'm a big Indyx user too—and you know how you can choose whether you want to see the brand names or the item names—the default is brand name. And I was like, that is useless to me because all I’ll see is Tibi, Tibi, Tibi. That does nothing for me. So I changed it to item name. But the thing about me is that I really, really dislike searching for things, shopping, and trying on different things—figuring out what's going to work and what's not. I just feel so frustrated when I have to spend time doing that. I think it's such a waste of time and there are so many other things that I’d rather be doing. In the past, I think pretty early on, I learned about my body type and what works for me. And the thing about most brands—unless they're very expensive brands, like Margiela, Comme des Garçons, that level—is that they’re not very consistent in the lines and the clothing that they make. So, for example, with Anthropologie or J.Crew, those kinds of brands—they just make anything and everything. When I would wear some of those brands (and I’m a big Anthropologie fan, just as an example), it was like: I’d have to look and not understand exactly what they’re doing this season. It would be all over the place. Some stuff worked, some stuff didn’t. Just very annoying. I am a fan of Issey Miyake. That said, their lines are consistent, but those lines don’t look great on me. There are very few pieces that actually work for me. Anyway, long story long—I was in New York, and I wanted to go to the Issey Miyake store because I was willing to spend time finding the one thing that might work for me. But the store was very busy—it’s a small store in Soho—and I didn’t want to deal with that. So I was like, let me just walk around and see what else is out here. Tibi was right around the corner. I didn’t know anything about the brand because it’s not that well known. I’m also not very engaged in style content on social media—at least before Substack—so I didn’t know anything about them. I walked in, and there was a stylist there, Grace, who was super nice. She talked about the brand, I was interested in some of the clothes, she helped me try them on—and I instantly fell in love. Literally 90% of the stuff looked good on me and the lines worked well for me. I ended up buying three things, walked out still not knowing about the style classes or anything like that. Then I did a few email exchanges with Grace afterward to figure out shoe sizing—because their sizing is all over the place. That’s when she told me about the style class, I started watching it, and the rest is history. But truly, I think what drew me to them is that they are very consistent in the kind of clothes they make. And most of their lines work really well on me. They do make some clothes where the lines don’t work well on me, and I just know that and steer clear of those silhouettes. Maureen: Yeah. And I know from your writing that you have a specific definition of what “lines” mean and what looks good on you. I just wanted to take an opportunity to clarify—what does looking good mean for you personally? Aastha: It's such a great question. I think for me, it's a combination of what aesthetically looks good. I think that is important, because sometimes we gaslight ourselves or others into thinking, “Oh, it doesn't matter. You know, it's fine. It's not about flattering.” And it is not about flattering. Maureen: I agree. Aastha: So that whole idea of the lines working for me—one is, is it giving me aesthetically what I want? And two,

This is the LAST episode of Season One of Intuitive Style the podcast, featuring one of my long-time inspirations, Christine Platt. I’ve kept up with Christine’s social media for years, since I first discovered Minimalism in earnest back in 2020. Her approach to intentional-living is unparalleled, leading with introspection, questioning everything, and being open to surprise. She’s also recently joined Substack herself at Lessons on Liberation, give her a follow! I can’t think of a better person to wrap up the first season with. While we’re on break for summer, you can catch up with all of the incredible previous guest episodes here. Enjoy! Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. Maureen: You're listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I'm Maureen Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today's guest really needs no introduction, but I'm going to give her her flowers anyway. She's a multi-genre author, a trailblazer for representation in the lifestyle and wellness space. And a voice so many of us turn to for wisdom and inspiration. You might already follow her on Instagram or perhaps, you know, her beautiful book, The Afro-Minimalist Guide to Living with Less. I'm honored to welcome her to the show, Christine Platt. Christine: Thank you so much for having me, Maureen. I'm happy to be here. Maureen: Likewise, I'm so excited to get to talk to you today. I'll just jump in with one of the aspects of your work that really resonates with me. Especially reflected by the title of your upcoming book, Less is Liberation, is how you move towards what is good rather than simply away from what's bad. And so you center alignment, possibility, empowerment, rather than focusing on restriction or lack or even comparison, right? And that approach has really stayed with me and makes me feel empowered, loved, deeply capable, all the best things. Can you share how you came to see the world in that way? And how did you learn to find expansion where others might see limitation? Christine: You know, this is the new sort of muscle that I have learned to exercise. It's almost like we're taught to be hard on ourselves. You know what I mean? So for so many years, I was just so hard on myself. And, you know, there's a quote in The Afro-Minimalist Guide that is still a mantra that I live by, which is: I am not a grown woman, I am a growing woman. And I think that that mantra helped me sort of move from this space of like, “You should know better, you should…” you know what I mean? Just being really negative and hard on myself to being in this place of like, wow, you're growing, you're expanding, you're learning something new every day. And the other part of that quote is, And may I always be growing. So I'm not a grown woman, I'm a growing woman, and may I always be growing. And I think that leaves space for us to not be so hard on ourselves and understand we're all students of life. We're all trying to figure it out. And there's just no reason for us to be as hard on ourselves as we are. Like when I look back on my younger years, I'm like, I was so mean to myself. You know what I mean? I was so hard on myself—and why? And again, I think so much of it is learned behavior. So learning to look at myself, reframing a lot of what I've been told as a child, unlearning a lot of what I've been told by society, and really getting into the space of like, you know what? Let me love myself. Let me love myself through all of these life lessons, through these journeys. And it's just been beautiful. I mean, I think what a gift, right? To be able to reflect, sit back with ourselves, learn from— I don’t want to say mistakes—so many of the lessons that we have had throughout our lifetime. And really look at them through a lens of love instead of being so critical and understand that they have really helped shape and make us who we are. Maureen: So I'd love to hear from your perspective—could you share a little more detail on how do you actually change that self-talk in the micro moments? Do you have an approach to catching those negative thoughts? Christine: Yeah. I mean, I think we catch them all the time, right? They're more like limiting beliefs—that's what I speak to them as in Less is Liberation. They’re these limiting beliefs that have become a part of our narrative, that have really started to take over our lives, become rules that we live by. They influence our behaviors and what we think about ourselves. And in those moments, it’s almost like catching yourself, like you said, in real time. When I hear myself being critical, just pausing—the power of pause has been a big part of my practice. And that is pausing when I'm saying something to myself and I'm like, wait, where did that come from? Pausing to self-assess, pausing to be introspective. And then in that moment, reframing. Because it's in that reframing where we get to tell ourselves new stories, where we get to look at past circumstances that may have truly been life-altering and defining for us in one way—and reframe them in another way that becomes more empowering. So for example—excuse me, here in DC the pollen is crazy, so I’m going to apologize now for any coughing—but for example, being very critical of ourselves and saying something like, “Man, I just should have worked harder on that,” even when we know that we gave something our all. Pausing to say, “What—you did work hard. What makes you think that you could have worked harder?” And it starts this drill-down of messaging and conditioning. And it’s just like, “Well, I could have worked harder because I went to bed at nine. I could have probably stayed up until eleven.” And then: “Well, why do you feel like you need to stay up until eleven?” “Well, I was taught…” You know what I mean? It’s a lot of self-talk. And I think that’s a part of “doing the work” that people don’t really talk about—is that it’s really conversations that we have with ourselves. We spend so much time seeking external validation. We spend so much time looking for answers outside of ourselves, when all the while, the answers are right within us. And so doing that introspective work, asking myself “why?”—repeatedly drilling down—is where I found out like, man, I really am a people pleaser. I didn’t realize that I was a people pleaser, right? Because I’d reframed it in other ways: “I’m just helpful,” “I’m just kind,” “I’m just sharing,” right? And then really sitting with myself one day and being like, no, this is people-pleasing behavior. Why? Where did this come from? That work—that reframing—it almost has to happen either in real time or through being introspective. So if you can’t catch it in real time, make time every day to be introspective. But what most of us do—and I’m not pointing fingers, because I feel like the way our lives are, the way society is set up, we live in this capitalist world, we’ve been taught to consume and work—most of us don’t make time for that introspection. We don’t make time to self-assess. But in those little moments of self-assessment is where that reframing happens. It’s where you get to reclaim your narrative, reclaim yourself, and really start to do things differently. And I like to say, we can replace our limiting beliefs with liberating beliefs. So we can say—man, it’s funny, I’ve worked through so many I can’t even think of one! But I’ll try. Like one was: “I have to work hard,” or “I have to get it done or no one else is going to do it.” Replacing that with a liberating belief: “I am not the only one who is capable of doing it. Other people are also able to do it. And me giving them time and space to do that is also enlightening and helpful for their journey.” Just replacing it in real time with something that is liberating, as opposed to berating ourselves all the time. So if I can think of a practice or a “how to,” it is just: make time every day to think about, “Where did this thought come from?” We know the thoughts that aren’t serving us. Then question it—just do a little inquiry. Maureen: Yeah. Christine: Don't know. Have you ever heard of the book... oh my goodness. I can, I can see it—it's Michael Singer and... Maureen: Yeah. Christine: It is... Maureen: Is... Christine: You... Maureen: This... Christine: Know... Maureen: The... Christine: Like... Maureen: Untethered Soul? Christine: I'm talking... Maureen: I'm... Christine: Yes. Maureen: Obsessed with that book. Christine: Oh my God. It's so good. So, you know what I'm about to say, which is that inner roommate, man. It's our inner roommate. And when he talks about—I don't know if you've listened to the audiobook—but the audiobook is so funny because... Maureen: I'll check it out. Christine: Yeah, like you really—I have the physical copy and the audiobook too—but the audiobook is so funny because you really get to hear how our inner roommate is like so unhinged, right? Maureen: Yes. Christine: So it's like, we have that thought like, "Man, I should have worked harder"—that inner roommate. And for those who haven't read The Untethered Soul, first of all, you should. And then secondly, what we're talking about is like our psyche, that part of ourselves that narrates our life around us and what's happening. But we become, I don't know, like beholden to that voice. And we think it is a part of us. Right? And so if we have that thought—"Man, I should have worked harder"—our inner roommate is like, "Yeah, you should have. You know who I bet was working harder? So-and-so. And you know what? I bet so-and-so is going to get that promotion at night," right? So I've also learned to silence my inner roommate and distinguish between what

You’re reading the second-to-last episode of Season One of Intuitive Style. While we’re on break for summer, you can catch up with all of the incredible previous guest episodes here. Next week, we be our season finale with mindful living extraordinaire Christine Platt. Stay tuned! I’m delighted to share this week’s episode with much-awaited guest, Jennifer Cook of mom friend! We discuss everything from how Jennifer’s professional experience in fashion impacts her personal style to what she most enjoys writing for Substack! Enjoy. Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. Maureen: You're listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I'm Maureen. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today's guest is Jennifer Cook from mom friend. Jennifer is a Brooklynite with a job in fashion. Chic. You know her from her weekly recaps covering everything from what's happening in politics to what the moms are wearing at Space Club. Jennifer, welcome to the show. Jennifer: Thank you so much for having me. It's so nice to meet you. Maureen: Likewise, I've been reading mom friend for a little while. I'm not even a mom and what you're writing is still really interesting from the fashion insider perspective—just like life in Brooklyn. I like catching up with what Mom Friend's up to. I took a look at your about page and it really struck me. You said, “when something becomes your job and pays your rent, it's easy to become numb to it. This page has helped relight my curiosity and interest around the industry as a whole, and I love being able to write about it and be in it at the same time.” I don't work in fashion even a little bit, so I would just love to hear a little bit more about your day job in fashion and how writing in your free time feels different. Jennifer: Yeah, I have been working in the fashion industry on the business side for about thirteen years now. I started on the retail side when I was like fifteen, so I've always been around retail and fashion. It's just kind of ingrained in my bones and who I am. But that said, when you work in something, it becomes a little monotonous. Or when it becomes your paycheck and your livelihood, it can kind of lose some of the luster. Part of the reason I got into fashion was because I loved it. I loved the clothes. I loved retail. I loved the energy it brought. I loved the people, the artistry, the creativeness of it. Being on the business side for the last decade plus, it lost a little bit of its luster. So in writing the Substack and developing mom friend, it's been so fun to kind of find that playfulness again where it's not so dependent on—my livelihood is not dependent on it. I can play with it, I can have fun, I can explore, I can learn, I can engage with it in a way that's a little bit different from my nine to five. In the last year or so, I started a new job. I'm a buyer now at a store in Soho in New York City, and I like to laugh about it and say that I just shop with someone else's money for a living, which is not super far off from the truth. But it still has that expectation that you're doing it for someone else—for a store with a different personality, a different customer, a different viewpoint. So on the Substack, it's fun for me to just do things for me. It's what I like. It's what I'm finding. It's what I'm resonating with as opposed to what I'm getting paid to find for someone else. That part has been a lot of fun. Maureen: That's a really clear and powerful distinction. When you're shopping for the retailer, it's not necessarily about your taste. It's also about what is going to sell, right? Just based off of some things that I've read from you. Is that kind of a fair shake? Jennifer: Absolutely. There's so much data these days behind my job. So it is kind of a gut feeling you have. It's a taste level. It's knowing your customer. But it's also looking at metrics like selling and developing merchandising plans based on how many iterations of a short sleeve you might need. It's looking at profit margins. These days, where it's being made and where it's shipping from is all the more important. So there's so many factors that come into how I'm buying for the store versus how I look at fashion and style just for myself. I've been lucky in this role. I've been able to bring a lot of my own personal taste and style and preferences into it. So I feel very fortunate that that's been afforded to me. But at the same time, there's so many other things that go into that job that are based on data and numbers and metrics and getting to know a different customer than I am. Our store is in Soho, New York. I live in Brooklyn. For those not in New York, those two things are worlds away from one another. The style that you see in Brooklyn and the style of people roaming around Soho—it's vastly different, even being just a few miles apart. So it's really interesting to have to kind of capture that information, process it, and then feed it back in a different way through the store and through my own style. Maureen: Totally cool if this is too much information from your company perspective, but what is your customer base like then for the brand? Jennifer: We started many years ago as a menswear brand. So our core customer is a guy. I kind of call him the LinkedIn bro of New York. You know the type—he's a corporate bro, he likes nice things, he's an aspirational customer. He's not totally buying luxury, but he's also not shopping at Zara. He wants things that feel good, that look good, that are basic and easy to wear and don't take a lot of styling. That's always been our core customer. In the last year, we've transitioned into becoming more of a multi-brand concept store. So we now have women's apparel, home goods, accessories, footwear. It's been a lesson in trying to figure out who that new customer is and how we get new people in the door. Being where we are in Soho, it is also very tourist-driven. It's striking that right balance between basics, vacation clothes, and fun grab-and-go items for people to remember their trip by. It really spans a wide range of customers. But it's also ever-changing. Especially in New York City—it's such a transient city. People are coming, they're going, they're changing jobs, they're having families, they're moving to Brooklyn. There's always change in who our people are. It's been fun over the last year to try and identify that and not just give them what they want, but also try and tell them what we think they should want. It's striking that balance between things we know they'll love and things we think they should be following. It's a hard balance to strike, but it's also really fun. Maureen: And I know that this line of questioning could seem tangential to your personal style. But for me, it helps me really understand where you're coming from and how you could get to that place where fashion is a little bit less fun. Everything you're describing sounds very cool and also very corporate. There's a connection element to knowing what your customer likes, but also very business-oriented. Going back to what originally drew you to fashion being the actual clothes and the experience of clothing—those feel worlds apart. What do you think your day job in fashion is? What is the impact of that on how you personally dress, if anything? Jennifer: It's a huge impact. Less so in my current job, but previously—before becoming a buyer—I was working on the wholesale side of the business where I was representing individual brands. Every time I would represent a brand, I would kind of have to dress in that style. I would dress in their clothes pretty much head to toe. Part of that was due to the fact that I usually had a nice allowance or got a steep discount, so it made it easier to dress like that. One of the perks of the job for sure. But part of that was also—you feel like a representative of that brand. I always felt like I needed to dress the part in order to sell it better and do my job better. Now that I'm on the buying side, I have a wider breadth of options to choose from, which is great. But on the other hand, there's so much out there that I almost feel too inundated with products sometimes. I'm looking at all these amazing products from hundreds of brands and it can be decision fatigue and information overload. It's been a lesson in trying to pare back my own style and see what resonates with me. What do I actually feel good in? What do I want to wear that fits my life? I'm looking at all these amazing products from hundreds of brands and it can be decision fatigue and information overload. It's been a lesson in trying to pare back my own style and see what resonates with me. What do I actually feel good in? What do I want to wear that fits my life? Part of my Substack is talking about fashion and how it relates to the life I actually live. I'm a newish mom. I have a toddler. I live in Brooklyn. I'm on my feet all the time. I'm always running around. I'm also a yoga teacher. I'm writing. All of these things play into the way I want to dress. And that's not really what I'm selling in my store necessarily. I need my clothes to work for me. I need them to be washable and easy to wear. I need sneakers. I need really basic things. I live in Brooklyn. I have a small closet. I don't have space. How can I get the most out of my clothes? Sometimes I feel lucky to be able to buy things for the store that I can't buy for myself because they don't fit my lifestyle. It's still a nice way to work with younger brands and designers, get them out there, without having to take on—not that it's a burden—but that burden myself of owning their product. It all plays together for sure. On the other hand, I'm out in the market all the time and sometimes I see amazing pieces that I’m lik

Heads up! There’s no episode next week while I’m away on vacation, but we’ll be back on Friday, May 23 with the penultimate episode of the season, featuring Substack favorite Jennifer Cook of mom friend. We’ll wrap up Season One on Friday May 30 with the incredible Christine Platt. You might know her from Instagram or one of her many books, The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living With Less. I can’t wait to share these final episodes with you! This week’s guest is Calley Dawson, the founder and CEO of circular fashion company, FXRY. We chat about her long tenure in fashion, how her approach to style has changed, and her take on what sustainable fashion even is. Enjoy! Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. You're listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I'm Maureen Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today's guest is Calley Dawson, creator of the circular fashion startup FXRY. She's a fashion industry veteran who turned her focus to reducing fashion waste by scaling tailoring and mending services. Basically, she's super amazing. Calley, welcome to the show. Calley: Thanks, Maureen. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Maureen: Yeah, it's so nice to get to sit down and talk a little bit more. I know we talked a bit a couple weeks ago, which is always fun. I had a look at your FXRY website and I loved your quote about your experience in the fashion industry and how you realized that was contributing to the landfill—and now you're looking to reverse that. Just to personalize that moment even further, can you share what got you on the path of advocating for circularity? Calley: Sure. I've worked in the fashion industry for twenty-five years at all kinds of different big brands around the United States. It was really exciting when I was younger. I really enjoyed the fun of fashion, and even when fast fashion started, it was really fun to be a part of it. I don't know if I was young or not aware—whatever it was, I just had no idea that it was so bad for the planet. But it was a really fun space to be in because it was exploding. For you, Maureen, or anyone listening, it's really fun to work at a company and in a space that's doing well. It's not very fun to work somewhere that's not doing so well. It just doesn't feel good. The longer I went on working at these different companies and as I've gotten older and matured, I started to realize that the values I have for myself in my own personal life—I want them to align with my work. I don't even know if I knew what my values were when I was in my early twenties. When I really started this journey of doing fashion design, over the years I've come to realize that doing good by the planet and, honestly, just doing good is what feels best for me. I want to always be doing what is the better thing of two options. Nothing's perfect—everything we create has its flip side—but I just want to be marching towards what feels good. So for me, when I left the last company I was at and thought about what I wanted to do next, no company really excited me in fashion and apparel. I really didn’t want to lose the network and everything I had built up in my career. If I had switched into a different category—if I wanted to go do tech—I’d have to learn something fully new. I really wanted to utilize my skill sets and the network I’d built up. It was just really exciting to realize that I could align my values by doing something that was truly sustainable and not greenwashing. That was the other thing that was really hard to watch. I sat in these design director positions and had to advocate for my company while also helping people more junior on my team understand how this isn’t greenwashing. And in a lot of cases, accepting that that’s what we were doing, because most brands are overproducing—especially the big ones. Maureen: Yeah, and that’s really interesting what you said about going where feels right because this idea of intuitive style is, of course, about what we wear and choosing clothes that feel good. But there’s also an aspect of paying attention to what feels good in every aspect of our lives. I really appreciate what you're sharing about what felt right for you with your career. I'd love to hear a little bit more too. I like to make this comparison that intuition isn’t negating experience, nor is it negating expertise. So I'd love to hear a little bit more from your perspective about how your expertise in fashion led you to figuring out what felt right—versus just a gut feeling. You talked about not knowing your values earlier on. How did you develop that sense of your values and what you wanted to do at work? Calley: To be really honest, I think one of the biggest things for me is I'm sober. I live in a community of sober people where one of our tenets is to just do good and to make amends for bad things we've done in the past, or things that weren’t appropriate. That has really guided my life. When I was younger and newly sober, I didn’t know how to talk about that. I hid it a little bit. As I’ve gotten older and more comfortable in my own skin, I’m the first person to shout it from the rooftops. This is a part of my life and a big part of who I am. That’s really allowed me to set forth who I am and bring it into my career. I’ll be one of the first people at a company party to tell people I don’t drink. I’m sober. I’m comfortable with that. Allowing those parts of my personal life to be in my career and to lead with the values I’ve developed from there has been really important to me. I’d say it’s been an amazing experience learning how to manage people at work and realizing how different everyone is. Also realizing that the way things work is by collaboration and coming together. But the only way that you can come together—for example, to do circularity, because you can’t do it by yourself—it requires so many different people. It made me realize that we’re all so different, and the only way you get full collaboration is by fully understanding each other: why you’re different, how you’re different. So you have to be your authentic self, so that you can show other people who you are. It allows them to show you who they are, and then you can figure out the path forward. In this case, with sustainability and really figuring out how we can solve this massive overproduction problem. I know that’s a lot of things, but— Maureen: No, that's amazing. I appreciate everything you just shared. As an aside, I stopped drinking habitually, so I just want to connect with you in that way. I wouldn’t call myself sober in that sense, but I have made some very dramatic changes to my relationship with substances in general. It’s a learning process to figure out how to talk about it with people—if at all. Now that I’ve been doing this for a little while longer, I’m like, “Oh, everything about my life is different. I can tell people this because it’s important to who I am.” So I appreciate you sharing that because I think it’s really helpful for people to hear. Just not being ashamed, no matter how anyone might react. I’d love to talk a little more about FXRY and what you’re trying to do with it. I watched some of your social media videos and one thing that really stood out to me was a video showing a mending experience for a pair of stretchy jeans. That really connected with me as someone who wears stretchy pants. Stretchy jeans specifically—there are some very loud voices that are anti-stretch denim, and I think that’s totally great. If you’re a person who can wear non-stretch denim, please enjoy that. And for everyone else who does wear them, I just really appreciated seeing that there is a way to mend that kind of denim and keep it in use, rather than just saying, “Oh, we should never buy that kind of thing.” So I’d love to hear a bit more—not necessarily about that specifically—but about the FXRY approach and how that extends the life of clothing, perhaps compared to other circular fashion alternatives. Calley: Yeah, totally. You bring up a really great point that's talked about often in these circularity circles that I find myself in. There are definitely different camps, and then there are people who sort of reside in both. Some people are really strong that you should buy quality and therefore spend the money to maintain the quality. And some people are like, but I can't afford that. So I'm going to buy the cheaper option. I've definitely been in some conversations where someone said, we shouldn't fix the Zara stuff. And I’m like, no, we should fix everything—as long as we can fix it. If someone will wear it, we need to fix it. One of the biggest problems with waste is the plastic and the synthetics. Zara and other similar brands are the problem in the landfill. So however we can keep them going longer is important. At the same time, I would encourage people to think more about what they’re purchasing. From my personal experience, I used to be a crazy Zara shopper. I spent so much money there every month. I'd get this huge haul shipped to my house, go through it, send half of it back, and keep the rest. I’d wear it not for very long, and then I don’t even know what I did with it—probably donated it to Goodwill. Today, I haven’t bought anything from Zara for probably three years. One of my favorite shirts is from Zara, and I will wear that thing until it’s a rag. We definitely have people who come in or book online to repair fast fashion items, and they end up spending more than they originally paid. That works for them because they love the item. I would really encourage people to buy stuff they absolutely love. Don’t buy something just because it’s the trend of the moment.

Only a few more episodes in Season 1 of the podcast! Don’t missing upcoming conversations with Calley Dawson— founder of circular fashion brand FXRY, plus Jennifer Cook of mom friend, and one more surprise guest I can’t wait to reveal. Make sure you're subscribed—you won't want to miss the finale! Today’s guest is stylist, writer, and creative consultant Fanny Adams of Always Overdressed. We connect over losing touch with our preppy roots while in art school, plus Fanny provides a bit more detail on her concept of the ‘Emotional Support Outfit.’ This episode touches on some tender topics—grief, body changes, and navigating personal style through it all. If you're having a tough week, know that we go there—but we also find some lightness and laughter by the end. Enjoy. Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. You're listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into that intuition so we can dress authentically and live fully. Today's guest is Fanny Adams, a stylist, writer, and creative consultant with nearly twenty years of experience in fashion. She's also an outfit repeater and the brains behind the Substack newsletter Always Overdressed. Fanny, welcome to the show. Fanny: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Maureen: It's nice to sit down and talk together. For anyone who hasn’t had a chance to read your column yet, can you share what got you started writing on the platform? Fanny: It had been in the back of my mind for a few years, but what really prompted it wasn’t a happy reason. My dad died a year and a half ago. I not only lost my sense of self but also my sense of style. I had a lot of thoughts on grief—how it affects you inwardly and how it impacts your outward presentation. I had this essay in my head for a few months. I was also looking to go out on my own as a stylist, and Substack felt like a nice complement to building my brand. That essay, combined with launching my website, got me out there. Maureen: I'm genuinely sorry for your loss. How did the process of writing relate to your experience of grief? Fanny: I had the honor of writing my dad’s obituary. That was my first experience writing to process loss, and it was really sad but meaningful. Last summer, while quietly building my Substack page and thinking about my first post, I made a promise to myself: I would get dressed every day. Something as simple as putting on real clothes—not just sweats—became a way to work through grief. It gave me a small, manageable goal. Sometimes even the smallest tasks feel enormous when you’re struggling. I started putting on what I call my "emotional support outfits"—simple, comforting clothes. Then I started documenting them. Some friends encouraged me to post on TikTok, so I did, mostly to hold myself accountable. At night, I'd think about things I wanted to write about—not just grief, but other style topics. That’s how it all began. Maureen: I love that. Having a small goal like getting dressed can give you confidence to do other things. Is that how it felt? Fanny: Definitely. Getting dressed was the first step to getting the day started, then moving on to harder tasks. It also became a form of self-care. During the year after my dad’s death, I gained weight. So part of the process was giving myself grace—finding clothes that felt and looked good enough for where I was at. It helped me feel more presentable while also rediscovering pieces I loved. At one point, I realized, "I need new jeans." And that was okay. We’re allowed to gain or lose weight. Our bodies change all the time—monthly even. So I gave myself permission to buy things that fit. That made the experience much more enjoyable. Maureen: It can be hard to give ourselves permission to buy clothes that suit where we are now—especially when we’re trying to be mindful consumers. What did it change for you, having clothes that fit? Fanny: I learned not to immediately get rid of clothes when my size changes, but I’m still guilty of it. Giving yourself permission to buy clothes that fit your current body is self-care and self-acceptance. It’s about meeting yourself where you are. I’m a millennial. I grew up with specific body ideals, and I’ve worked really hard to unlearn them. But it’s tough when you’ve worked in fashion and retail. That pressure is everywhere. Why make it harder? At one point, I bought jeans from Zara. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be this size, and they were a good, affordable option. Honestly, I now swear by Zara jeans—they did what I needed them to do. They helped me stay on track with this daily dressing practice. Maureen: I saw you recently posted that you’d fallen off the dressing routine. Fanny: Yeah, I’ve slipped a bit. It’s just life—nothing traumatic, just busy. But last summer, those pieces really helped. They were a bridge. Over time, I’ve invested in higher-quality pieces that fit me now. But Zara jeans were the perfect in-between step. They helped rebuild my confidence. Maureen: I really resonate with that. We all define mindful shopping differently. For me, my size is changing constantly right now. My approach is to buy fewer items and wear them to death. That’s how I justify buying from places like Gap. I’ve tried more expensive, more ethical jeans, but they don’t fit the way I need—or they don’t carry my size. We don’t need to defend our choices. What works at one moment might change in another. Right now, I’m buying Gap jeans. Not too many. I’ll wear them as long as I can, and one pair will become shorts for summer. The reason I bring it up is because I’ve been feeling tender about some things I’ve read online—posts that unintentionally shame people for shopping certain brands. When we’re already carrying heavy emotions—like grief or major body changes—we don’t need to add shame on top of that. Fanny: Absolutely. I think there’s a lot of pressure put on consumers, and I don’t think it’s fair. It’s all about balance. Like, giving up plastic straws isn’t solving the environmental crisis, but it’s something I can do. The same goes for how we get dressed. “High-low dressing,” for lack of a more current term, is a realistic way to shop. I don’t think it’s feasible—even if you’re a gazillionaire—to wear only designer or fully sustainable brands. We all make trade-offs. I buy four Uniqlo t-shirts at a time. It’s not the most sustainable choice, and Uniqlo, while more responsible than other fast fashion brands, is still fast fashion. But those are the shirts that fit me best, and I wear them nearly every day. I’m not going to spend $95 on a sustainable t-shirt that doesn’t fit or hold up the way I need. As consumers, we need to: shop for what fits and feels good, and do the best we can We’re part of the system, but we’re not the sole cause. Our wallets matter, sure, and it’s important to think about where we shop. But it's unrealistic to expect everyone to wear only organic, sustainable clothes—especially when you factor in size and price point. We need to be gentler with ourselves and each other, especially when we have a platform. We're already our own worst critics. Adding judgment from peers, writers, or creators only makes things worse. Maureen: I really appreciated your note on Substack about not feeling the joy of getting dressed right now. I related to that. Sometimes getting dressed is self-care, and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes, it’s the hardest part of the day. When we’re not distracted—when we’re alone in our room choosing an outfit—that’s when all the feelings we’ve been avoiding can bubble up. It’s not always about the clothes, but they can be the trigger. So hearing that from someone like you, who’s always overdressed and who works in fashion, helps bring balance. It’s a reminder that it’s okay to not always feel excited about getting dressed. Fanny: Thank you. Part of why I posted that was to let people know I hadn’t disappeared—I just wasn’t in the right headspace. I plan to write more about it this week. Going back to the idea of the emotional support outfit—some call it a uniform, but I think it’s either a step before or a step beyond. It’s a formula: something you can throw on without thinking too much, something that feels good enough. When my dad was sick, that outfit was jean shorts, a t-shirt, and Birkenstocks. I wasn’t working much—just helping my family and caring for my kids. That outfit made me feel comfortable and fine. Now that I’m consulting and meeting people in person again, I needed an updated version. I found that for me, it’s a button-up shirt, jeans or khakis, and loafers or ballet flats. That’s my current version of an emotional support outfit. I can throw on a sweater or a jacket, but those three pieces make me feel polished and comfortable. I’m literally wearing it right now—button-up shirt, jeans, and Birkenstocks since I’m at home. It helps me feel confident and presentable, even when clothes aren’t my focus. We all need to know the combination of items that helps us feel good enough to move through the day—whether we’re parenting, working, or just getting through it. We want to feel great, but that’s not always realistic. These past two weeks, I found myself repeating the same shirts because it worked. I was seeing different people each day, so no one noticed. But it made me not want to take outfit pictures—it was basically the same look over and over. Still, it was good to have that fallback formula. It kept me moving forward even when the joy of getting dressed wasn't there. And I still felt good leaving the house. It wasn’t exciting, but it worked. It’s like how Obama wore the same suit-and-tie combo daily—it reduced decision fatigue. T

Did you know new episodes of Intuitive Style drop weekly on Fridays? Subscribe so you don’t miss Fanny Adams, Jennifer Cook and more special guests in upcoming weeks! Today's guest is Sienna Reid, writer of the Substack column The Bronze Edit. I am both so inspired by her very cool personal style AND the way she writes about the experience of getting dressed. I so enjoyed connecting with her. Enjoy! Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. You're listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I'm Maureen Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today's guest is Sienna Reid from The Bronze Edit. In her newsletter, Sienna chronicles her experience figuring out her personal style in her 30s. As a fellow wide pants lover, she pulls the best inspiration images and eloquently analyzes how getting dressed feels. Sienna, welcome to the show. Sienna: Thank you so much, Maureen. I'm so happy to be here. Maureen: We've been having internet conversations for a while, so it's nice to actually see your face and talk to you. One of my favorite posts of yours is about the outfits you're too afraid to wear. I love how you bring awareness to that feeling—when you're excited to wear something authentic, you have all the right pieces, but it just doesn't feel quite right once it's on. You end up changing into something else. Could you share more about that post and what initially drew you to those outfits? Sienna: Yes, absolutely. That post came from a moment when I was getting dressed for my niece’s birthday party. I don’t have kids, so I was already feeling a little unsure about what to wear to something like that. I wanted to feel like myself but still fit in. I put together an outfit with a floral dress layered under a sweater and over jeans—pieces I’ve owned for years. I loved how it looked in the mirror. But the moment I thought about walking out the door, a flood of insecurity hit me. What will people think? Will I be taken seriously? Which is wild because it's a toddler’s birthday party. But the voice of doubt was loud. And that’s what made me write that post. I realized I already owned my dream wardrobe, but I didn’t always have the confidence to wear it. And the response to the post made me realize so many people feel the same way. That alone gave me the push to actually wear one of those outfits out. Maureen: Do you think it was sharing that post online that changed how you felt about those outfits? Sienna: I think it helped, yes. I wasn’t posting it to get validation, but seeing how many people resonated with the experience reminded me that people aren’t scrutinizing me the way I imagine. That realization helped ground me. It’s not that the outfit is wrong—it’s just fear. If I want to show up in a way that feels true to me, I have to push past that fear. And it's not easy. I’ve only worn one of the outfits from that post, but it’s a start. Maureen: I have a theory I’d love to hear your take on. Do you think we’re drawn to these outfits because they’re more expressive or editorial, which makes them harder to wear? Like we’re asserting something about ourselves that feels bold or different from what’s around us? Sienna: I think you're really hitting the nail on the head because I think most of us here do love fashion or style or something about getting dressed. Otherwise, I think we wouldn't be here. But then it is scary to go out into that real world and, and kind of say to the world, yes, I actually am interested in this, or this is something that I actually enjoy doing. It's kind of really putting yourself out there because. If you go out and people think, oh, she put no effort into her outfit, then I don't care if they judge me, right? But it's scarier if they think, she tried and came up with that? But it's scarier if they think, she tried and came up with that? I think the other piece is, there's something about to like, when I'm alone in my room, and I think about outfits I love, I do like when they're different. And I do like when they stand out. But then That is also really hard because in the, you know, in my real life, I'm a pretty introverted person. Like I don't love a lot of attention. So it's tough. Maureen: This is a really big question, but what are you afraid of? I'm asking myself too, right? I think you, you got pretty close with the idea of It's, it's harder when I've actually tried. It's more vulnerable than when I didn't try. Maybe that's why everyone's so obsessed with looking effortless? Sienna: That's actually such a good point. Yeah. I do think that is a huge part of it. Like I even think about, you know, other things in, in my life, like whether it's career or sports or things like that. It's kind of like when you're just starting out and there's no. Expectation that you should be good at it. It's okay if you fail, but. It's like if once you go farther and you've put in that work to get better, if you still fail, that's a lot harder to deal with. Maureen: I'd love to transition then to talking about the Bronze Edit. I feel some pressure as someone writing about style online, I feel like I should be pushing myself a little bit further, be a little bit more expressive or, I should be trying a little bit harder. Is that something that crosses your mind ever with The Bronze Edit? Sienna: That's a really good question. I think a couple of things. I think the one next almost negative that I've noticed is that—and I really fight this—I repeat the same outfits a lot. I have a couple of sweaters, a couple of pairs of jeans that without fail, I will wear every week. Maybe I wear like a different belt, but it's basically the same outfit. And I think there is sometimes this sense of guilt that I feel when I post the same thing over and over again, even though that's so normal in real life. It's almost like, okay, is this super boring for people? Because I literally wore this outfit last week and the week before and the week before. I consciously don't let me stop, like stop me from wearing those outfits because I love them, they're comfortable. I'm just gonna wear them. A very positive thing that has come out of it is that It's sort of giving me more confidence to try new things. I'm not at a point where I feel pressure to try and be more experimental. I have found it's actually been kind of a, a positive, um, effect to sort of say like, yes, you can try new things. If it doesn't work out, then that's probably a really fun thing to write about as well. It's been just such a natural organic thing. And I think you had posted something recently about like sort of the difference between Instagram and Substack. I don't think I will ever be someone who is regularly posting on Instagram. I just don't think that could work for me and my personality. That would be a lot of pressure to be coming up with these super cool outfits all the time. Whereas with Substack, if my outfits are boring, then I can write about how my outfits are boring and work through things that way. I don't think I will ever be someone who is regularly posting on Instagram. I just don't think that could work for me and my personality. That would be a lot of pressure to be coming up with these super cool outfits all the time. Whereas with Substack, if my outfits are boring, then I can write about how my outfits are boring and work through things that way. Maureen: Yeah, I would love to talk about this more because I had this thought the other day and I want to make the disclaimer that I think that Substack is a social media platform just like any other. The thing that I like about Substack is that there is long form content and so inherently that means that we aren't trying to make every little thing a sound bite that you can just digest in like a second. The process of trying to write my little Instagram bio was an absolute headache because everything that I write is really nuanced. And I can say something that can be completely contradictory to something else, and I hold space for both. A lot of writers on Substack do that and that's the benefit of a long form narrative is that you can actually get into the meat of something. Maybe that's why I like YouTube so much too — you can go so much deeper with long-form. Then on Instagram, I tried to promote this podcast, which doesn’t come naturally to me. Instead of putting up clips, I thought I had to make videos of myself putting on clothes. And I didn’t like it. It’s not what I want to do, so I only made two videos. But I had a moment where I thought, “Why am I trying to sell my personal identity and style?” That’s not what I do on Substack. I don’t know how you feel about that, because your platform is very much about your personal style, but it’s more nuanced. It’s about the experience. Sienna: Yeah, I think that’s true. For me, it’s rarely about the outfit or even the clothes themselves. Half the time, I forget to link what I’m wearing and then think, “Okay, maybe that’s annoying,” but it’s never really about saying, “Here’s a cool outfit I put together, you should copy it.” It’s about how I got there, how I felt. Honestly, half the time I’m just working through things in real time as I write — writing helps me process. That’s so different from Instagram, where it’s more about the visual — do I like the outfit or not? And that’s fine; I love using Instagram for inspiration. But for me, personally, I don’t think I could handle the pressure. It doesn’t fit my personality, and that’s okay. It’s not a moral judgment. It’s just not what I’m trying to do. Maureen: I love everything you just said. One thing I enjoy about going back to Instagram is seeing so many outfits I haven’t seen elsewhere — not on Pinterest or Substack. Ther

This week’s guest is Talía Cu, writer of Latin Zine by Talía Cu and veteran fashion journalist. She’s focused on introducing the world to cool designers and pieces with soul, sourced from the diverse cultures within Latin America. In our episode, we cover everything from her perspective on Latin American fashion’s influence on the global style scene, to how she personally decides what to buy and wear. Enjoy! Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. You're listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today's guest is Talía Cu, writer of Latin Zine. Talia is a Mexican fashion journalist who has worked for esteemed publications including Vogue Mexico and Latin America. As a fashion illustrator for luxury brands like Fendi and Bumble, she is currently a cool hunter of Latin American brands. Her Substack newsletter showcases her exquisite eye for emerging talent, hidden gems, and one-of-a-kind artisanal fashion. Talia, welcome to the show. Talía: Thank you, I'm really excited because it's my first podcast interview in English. Maureen: I'm sure it's going to be fantastic. Thank you for trusting me with this process. I'm excited to talk with you and learn more about you, your experience, and your personal style. For anyone who hasn't interacted with Latin Zine yet, would you share a bit more about your column? Talía: Of course. Latin Zine by Talía Cu is a newsletter dedicated to understanding fashion from a Latin American perspective. It's a place to discover new fashion stories and hidden gems—brands you don't typically see in mainstream media. Maureen: I love that your work introduces us to new brands. Many people are interested in connecting to style on a personal level. Could you speak more to the global impact of Latin American brands? How is Latin American fashion shaping global style trends? Talía: I wrote about this in the beginning of my newsletter. I don’t like to generalize Latin America because each country is so different. Designers often have to compensate for things like lack of materials, so they create amazing work with what's available. The whole region has a wonderful creative spirit. Globally, there's growing appreciation for artisanal pieces and sustainable practices, and Latin America is at the forefront of that. Maureen: I was hoping to talk more about sustainability. You write about fashion discovery, which can lead to shopping. But how do we appreciate and engage with fashion without overconsuming? Talía: That’s a big reason I created the newsletter. I found so many beautiful things and wanted to collect them somewhere. I do write about shopping, but I also share designers’ stories so there's more context to what you’re purchasing. I like to buy directly from designers or brands I've followed for a while and believe in their methods or practices. I usually don’t buy on impulse. I think carefully and sometimes wait for the right piece that resonates with me. I’m also building a small archive of Latin American designers—pieces I may not wear daily but that are meaningful or significant. Maureen: Even though your column isn’t personal style, or would you describe it that way? Talía: Not exactly, but I do look at Latin American fashion from my own point of view. It’s about the people I meet, the things that catch my eye, and what I discover. I've been covering Latin American fashion for years, but I’m always finding new designers and stories, and I share them as I go. Maureen: I love the way you balance discovery and perspective without it becoming strictly personal style. There's a clear intentionality and playfulness to your work. Let’s talk a bit about your own personal style. I'm interested in why people wear what they wear—how do you decide what to buy and wear, especially since you’re constantly seeing cool brands? Talía: Everything for me is intuitive. When I go into a shop, something needs to grab my attention—maybe it’s a color or pattern. I also care about the stories behind the pieces. Like, if I know a brand has an interesting upcycling process, I want something from them. One of my favorite things is when someone compliments a piece and I get to tell them it’s from a Costa Rican designer who upcycles leather. Fashion becomes a conversation. Maureen: That’s beautiful. Your clothing becomes a part of your story and a way to engage with others. Talía: Yes, I love talking about it. Maureen: Okay, this is something I struggle with. There's a brand called Wray NYC that’s size-inclusive and editorial, and they’re going out of business. My first instinct was to buy everything. How do you handle moments like that—when you want to support a brand but also make sure what you buy is actually useful or wearable? Talía: I’d say I have two categories: pieces I wear daily and curated archive pieces I only wear on special occasions. For daily wear, I buy things like printed mesh tops from Colombian brands that I wear often. I try to balance both—special pieces and practical items. Maureen: That’s a cool way to approach shopping. I always feel like something has to be utilitarian for me to want to buy it. But fashion can also be conceptual or artistic. Talía: Exactly. Maureen: Let’s talk about how body awareness influences the way you dress. Are there certain textures, fits, or styles you gravitate toward based on how they make you feel? Talía: Yes, especially as a woman with a larger chest, I notice many Latin American designers don’t make tops that fit me well. The models they show often have smaller chests, and I wonder how the clothes would actually look on me. That’s why I don’t love shopping online—I need to try things on. I also have PCOS, and for a while, my weight was fluctuating, which made me more self-aware. During that time, I started wearing more pastels. I think it made me feel soft and loving toward myself. I also have PCOS, and for a while, my weight was fluctuating, which made me more self-aware. During that time, I started wearing more pastels. I think it made me feel soft and loving toward myself. Maureen: That’s really beautiful. I've gone through body changes too, and it’s true—our relationship with clothing can shift with our relationship to our bodies. Some silhouettes I used to love just don’t work for me anymore, and that’s okay. Talía: Yes, I'm 35, and I’ve been thinking about how many independent designers seem to focus more on people in their twenties. I love what they create, but sometimes I see things like mini skirts and wonder—can I still wear that? Even if it’s not super short, I still question if I’ve passed the age for it, or if I’m just overthinking. I don’t feel as comfortable in those pieces as I did in my twenties, and I’m still processing what that means for me. Maureen: Can I ask—have you tried one on? Talía: Yes. Maureen: How did you feel? Talía: I felt a bit uncomfortable. I kept wondering if I was showing too much leg. Maureen: I totally get that. I’m all about self-compassion, so if that’s how you feel, that’s okay. You don’t need to rush into anything. I’ve been thinking about this too. I’m almost 30, so I feel like I could still get away with a mini skirt, but I’m married and live in the suburbs, and the idea just doesn’t appeal to me. I’d rather wear shorts—they’re more comfortable, and I don’t have to worry about anything riding up or flashing someone. But I think if wearing one feels authentic to you, go for it. And if it doesn’t, that’s okay too. Talía: Exactly. That’s true. Maureen: That’s where I’m at with it. Talía: I’d love to wear tights underneath, but it’s so warm where I live, so that’s not really an option. Maybe wearing shorts underneath would make me feel more comfortable. I hadn’t thought of that. Maureen: Yeah, I think a little bike short could help. Talía: Yeah, maybe. Maureen: Let’s go back to your style evolution. Have you had any memorable phases? Talía: When I was 19, I was obsessed with collecting earrings. There was a shop in my hometown that sold beads from around the world, and I was constantly buying jewelry. Then I went through a phase of buying weird tights online from UK brands—like ones with tattoo prints. In my early 20s, I wore a lot of pink and fuchsia, but a boy I liked told me it looked childish, so I switched to wearing black. I’m sad I let that influence me. Now, I’m really into rings, brooches, and necklaces. My hair also affects my style—since changing it recently, some things don’t look the same on me. Maureen: Yeah, for people listening, how would you describe your current hairstyle? It’s very cool. Talía: It's like half blonde and half copper. Maureen: And what was your most recent hairstyle before this? Talía: I tried a bit of pink with brunette. I've always had really dark eyebrows, that's my natural color. I started with a little pink and then decided I wanted something completely different. This is probably the most drastic change I’ve had. Maureen: I love that. As you said earlier, when I asked how you decide what to buy or wear, it sounds like you have such an intuitive approach. You're in your heart rather than your head when making choices. As someone super analytical, I tend to overthink everything. How do you stay light and in tune with yourself when shopping or deciding on hair and accessories? Talía: I wouldn’t say it’s always practical. My best friend gets texts from me at least once a month saying I don’t have anything to wear with something I just bought. She always says, “You need a leather jacket.” I do buy basics for function, but I’m not great with practicality. Maureen: So you're more of a magpie—you go for color, pri

Did you know new episodes of Intuitive Style drop weekly on Fridays? Subscribe so you don’t miss Fanny Adams, Jennifer Cook and more special guests in upcoming weeks! Today’s guest is Emily Grady Dodge, writer of Just For Fun. Emily shares exactly how she found THE pants that made the rest of her wardrobe come together, how she finds contentment with her clothes, and her number one tip for anyone struggling with their style. Even though this was our first time meeting, I felt like we’ve known each other all along. Enjoy! Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. You're listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe that everyone has style. I’m Maureen Welton. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today's guest is Emily Grady-Dodge from Just For Fun. She shares about her capsule wardrobe, asks the question, what are you wearing? And shares about how she is generally satisfied with less but better. We love her minimal aesthetic, dry humor, and real life realness. Emily, welcome to the pod. Emily: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. Maureen: I'm so happy to meet you. I know that we've virtually met through our writing, but it's nice to actually hear your voice and get to know you a little better. Emily: Oh, thank you. Maureen: For anyone who hasn't read your Substack column yet, can you describe what Just For Fun is all about? Emily: Yeah, so I started it a little over a year ago and did not think I would be writing about fashion at all. I thought it would just be more general like lifestyle and motherhood. About two weeks after I wrote the first post, I, for totally separate reasons, decided to jump on the Rule of Five challenge. And then my whole life just sort of funneled itself into caring a lot about clothing again. Naturally, my Substack just followed suit and I started writing about that. I was having a fun time writing about what I'm wearing, what I was planning on buying, because it was such a limited shopping year for me that everything felt really high stakes. I took every purchase very seriously—except for one, which I did very candidly write about. Just For Fun kind of naturally evolved to be this place where, literally, it's the title. It is just for fun. I'm not trying to make a career out of it. It's an outlet for me. It's something creative to do in my spare time. I do it from my phone. It's very low stakes, but I've had the best time connecting with people in this sort of niche community of like-minded individuals. We’re trying to figure out what we’re wearing to work, to date nights, to the mall with friends. How are we making choices that feel good and that we’re not regretting two months later? That was always a problem for me in the past. But anyway, long story short, Just For Fun is really about what I'm buying, what I’m really wearing—I’m super honest, big outfit repeater. I love outfit repeating. It's not something to be ashamed about. I just lay it all out there, and it's been interesting. It's very cathartic. Maureen: Yeah, I love that. It’s really fun to read your posts, and I always love your outfit pictures too. They always look really polished, but at the same time, they feel very real. Your descriptions go into the things you might not see in the image. For anyone who isn't familiar with the Rule of Five, could you share a little bit about what that is and why you were drawn to it? Emily: Yeah, so admittedly, I've never been very driven by sustainability. It's just not something that I feel overly concerned about mainly because I do have like a very naturally small footprint life like Uh, I moved to Jersey city from Brooklyn a few years ago, but I didn't have a car for fifteen years. I do. We do have one car now. Um, we live in an apartment. I have a really small closet with very limited space and just kind of naturally have to have a small wardrobe. Um, so my life choices were never driven by any like, oh, I really, really want to be sustainable. They just happened to be in line with that. Rule of five is very much rooted in sustainability. It came about from a study that said, if you're in this income bracket, you need to slow your roll. People who, in this bracket, if they shifted to only buying five items of clothing a year, we would fix this massive landfill problem that we have with clothing being thrown out at this record pace. And all of the ripple effects that are terrible for the environment because of that. That is not why I jumped on the rule of five bandwagon. I wish I could say that it was. But it wasn't. I think it's great that it exists for that. But for me, it was like, okay, I just finished the year 2023 of shopping. I kept track of all my purchases. I bought, I think, forty-seven things. By the end of the year, I was already selling half of it on Poshmark or the RealReal or donating it because I didn't even have the bandwidth to resell it. And just really questioning, like, what am I doing? Why do I keep making these terrible choices that even two days later after taking the price tag off, I'm like, did I have amnesia? Why did I buy that? What was going on in my head? Like, this doesn't make sense. So I saw the framework of buy five things new in one year. Renting is okay. Up to four items of secondhand clothing. And that all just felt like really safe to me. I needed somebody else to give me that boundary and to commit myself to it. When I commit to something, I am like a dog with a bone. I knew that I would do it. Like I knew I would stay the course. Trying [Rule of Five] really changed everything for me. It was such a year of pausing, of reflecting, of figuring out this root cause of why I kept making terrible choices. Um, and how to, I don't think you can ever be perfect or ever completely stop that from happening, but like how to have a better success rate with shopping moving forward. Um, and it was really, really huge for me and I loved writing about it and I loved, um, kind of that safety net when the year ended, I was a little. A little nervous, but also I felt like I was in such a good place, um, in my own head about what I wanted, what my gaps were. What vibe I want out of my wardrobe, how I want to feel when I'm wearing clothes, um, what length pants feel good, um, just all of these things that back in 2023, I was floundering and just grasping at straws and it wasn't working. There's a great Substack called Rule of Five by the woman who sort of outlined this whole idea. Her name's Tiffanie Darke. I highly recommend checking that out. My reasons of approaching it were a little different than the intent, I think. Maureen: That's so profound though, that idea that there's an intrinsic benefit to consuming less, or there can be. Emily: Right. Maureen: Personally, I would love to see people consuming less and be happy with fewer things because that is sustainable, but I love when we can exemplify that wanting less and being satisfied with less isn't a bad thing and it's actually freeing and helpful. And fun in its own way. Maybe could you speak a little bit more to how—or any moments in time when you realized like, oh, this is really good for me? This is really helping my style or helping me decide what I actually want? Emily: Yeah, this is gonna sound a little woo-woo, but bear with me. A few years ago, I saw someone and I loved her outfit, and I had this epiphany where I felt like this woman was 100% operating from a place of 'I am beautiful.' I could tell that the way she was dressed, she felt that way about herself. At that time in my life, I was postpartum, none of my clothes fit, I had a small wardrobe but didn’t love what I had. It struck me that I was not making purchases from a place of believing anything positive about myself. If you don't see yourself in a positive light, any clothing purchase is just a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. Like it's not going to get the job done and you're just scrambling for something that's going to make you feel better. But that is not what's going to make you feel better. The answer is not in clothing. When I had this moment of seeing this woman, and just the way she carried herself and what she was wearing. I thought I really need to work on myself and I'm not going to let myself shop until I believe I'm beautiful and worthy of having a wardrobe that reflects that. And that was hard for me at first. Like I was like, oof, like that feels big. That feels scary. That feels like, no, let me just keep shopping at J.Crew when they have a 40% off sale. I got to this place where I was like, if I believed I was beautiful, what would I buy? And it was a really different answer than what I was just kind of being drawn to buying without doing that train of thought. And I bought this pair of pants, and I wrote about this when I did a recent post about workwear. I bought this pair of pants on the RealReal, and when I put them on, I was like, holy, can I swear? If I believed I was beautiful, what would I buy? Maureen: Yeah, go for it. Emily: I was like, holy s**t. Like, where have these pants been all my life? I put them on and I was like, bury me in these pants. This is how I wanna feel all the time. This is my new metric. If what I’m putting on doesn’t make me feel like this, then I’m not putting it on. So if that means wearing the same outfit to every single work function, that’s what I’m going to do. Honestly, I did that. Like, I was wearing the same... I’ve worn the same pair of pants to everything. It’s crazy. And my boss, who has a very good eye for design, will be like, oh, I love those pants. And I just laughed at myself because I’m like, I’ve worn them five times in the last five times. You also told me that you loved them. Um, but I just had this epiphany with these pants. They had a really interesting cut. Um, not anything that I h

Sushmita and I cover the identity politics of slow fashion, unequal access to ethically made clothing, and how Sushmita is ready to be gentler with herself. Episode Transcript This transcript has been edited for clarity. You're listening to Intuitive Style, where we believe everyone has style. In conversation with fantastic guests, we explore how to tap into our style intuition so that we can dress authentically and live fully. Today's guest, Sushmita , is the writer and artist behind Ethical Fat Fashion . She's well known for her size-inclusive ethical fashion brand directory, zines, and fashion/political commentary. Welcome to the show, Sushmita! Sushmita: Thanks, Maureen. It's so nice! Maureen: Yay! Yes, I'm so happy that you decided to come on. To kick things off, I love the mission behind your newsletter, Ethical Fat Fashion. For anyone unfamiliar, can you share what EFF is all about? Sushmita: Yeah, of course. I mean, it's been a few years, and I'm still figuring it out, but Ethical Fat Fashion started off as a brand directory. This was 2021, 2022. I was sourcing size-inclusive and size-diverse brands—brands that started from a 2X or a US 20. From there, I switched to Patreon and started making digital zines, exploring a whole host of different issues. I was talking about body image, movie reviews—anything and everything I wanted to put in there, I did. That eventually brought me to Substack last year. I wanted something more frequent. The zines were seasonal, but now I post every single week, and the content changes all the time. The thread running through it is the idea of ethical fashion, but I’m looking at it from different angles—especially how our bodies and fashion connect, including how we view ourselves and how that affects how we dress. Maureen: Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s so true. And I certainly experience this as a writer on Substack myself—it can be hard to pin down into one thing. But that can also be the fun of it! We're allowed to explore different aspects of who we are and of a particular topic, and I think you manage that really well. In one of your more recent posts, you compared slow fashion to diet culture (aware of Virginia Sole-Smith), which really resonated with me—especially how you acknowledge the reality that participating in slow fashion has been elevated to a high moral status while simultaneously excluding so many people, particularly fat people. What compelled you to write this post at this time? Sushmita: These are really scary posts to put on the internet—especially in leftist spaces, where everybody is aiming for this moral purity. If you add any kind of complexity, you can become a target. I was scared to write about it, but I think Substack allows for long-form content rather than just 140 characters or less. It lets us balance perspectives. Hopefully, I was able to separate the idea of fashion justice from what we see as "sustainability" or "slow fashion" as a brand or an identity—because those are two very different things. Fashion justice is about better conditions for garment workers and ensuring they have living wages. I don’t think anyone is against that. I really don’t. But the means to achieve that—the current slow fashion or ethical fashion movement—has such a heavy focus on consumerism. It’s become identity-focused rather than actually looking at how we can achieve that outcome. I wrote this post after a series of revelations over the last couple of years. I started to feel more separated from the narratives that kept being repeated on the internet. One of the big shifts for me was material envy, which I talk about a lot. I saw someone very prominent in the space admit how much they owned, and I realized I owned maybe a quarter of that. The difference between our wardrobes was startling, and I had this feeling inside me—why can’t I have that abundance? Why am I not deserving of beautiful clothes? Another shift was recognizing the difference between identity and outcome. We're not really having conversations about how we can help garment workers. And I include myself in this—we, as consumers, have taken over the conversation. It’s almost a saviorism narrative: We in the Global North are going to help these poor garment workers. Maureen: Yeah, yeah. Sushmita: But the reality is that garment workers are already trying their absolute hardest to advocate for themselves. That’s why trade unions exist. Many of them are dealing with governments that, even if they have laws in place to protect workers—especially women—those laws aren’t effective. Sexual harassment in factories is a huge issue, and we, as consumers, cannot fix that just by buying differently. We are not in the factories. We cannot protect these workers simply through buying differently. Maureen: I'm getting chills. Sushmita: Yeah. Maureen: I so agree. I did not mean to cut you off, though! Sushmita: No, no, it’s totally fine. It’s a conversation! But a lot of these things I haven’t said out loud before, so I’m still forming these thoughts as I speak. I just feel like we’ve created this belief that we can buy our way into saving garment workers. And I don’t connect with that narrative anymore. Instead, I’m thinking about what actions we can take beyond consumerism to support garment workers. One thing that’s been on my mind is that, due to the new [United States] administration, one of the key trade alliances in Bangladesh, Awaj Foundation, lost 20 to 30% of their funding. We could directly give them money. That would be more powerful than tweeting or posting online, shaming other people about their consumerism. Maureen: Oh my gosh. Yes. Yes. We’re so aligned, and this is part of the reason I wanted to have you on the show right now. I’ve been a consumer of slow fashion content for a long time, and I think the early voices in this space raised important issues. They brought awareness to things people didn’t know about. And to their credit, a lot of work has gone into that awareness—helping us be more conscious of what we buy and why. But I also think it’s gone too far, to your point. It’s become about identity rather than outcome. I would love to hear you talk more about the identity of being a "slow fashion person." Why do you think that has resonated so much with creators? Sushmita: I think it follows what we already see in leftist spaces, where our identities become the whole of us. For me, the biggest issue is this all-or-nothing thinking. Either you’re buying ethically, or you’re not. Either you’re a "reformed shopper," or you’re not. There’s no in-between. I struggled with my own consumerism because I couldn’t afford the things I wanted to buy, and I didn’t give myself any grace. I had spent years building a platform against fast fashion, and unfortunately, the majority of the fashion industry—99% of it—still operates with fast fashion tactics. Maybe not at the same production scale, but there’s still a lot of opaqueness. It’s really difficult to be a responsible consumer. And I wouldn’t allow myself to step outside of those boundaries. I had all these limitations. I still have these limitations. But I was so scared of tarnishing my identity as someone who promotes ethical fashion. And yet, the whole concept of ethical fashion is actually very, very complicated. People want you to believe that being a responsible consumer is so damn easy. It's just about, you know, choosing the right brand. And now that I've been in this space for a really long time, I’ve been contacting brands that claim to be size diverse or care about inclusivity or sustainability. There are brands that use socially audited factories and have longstanding relationships with their factories, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they pay living wages. There are small businesses that have zero relationship to their makers. I’ve reached out to them, and they’ll be like, “No, we have no idea which factory we produce at.” And there's just so much ethics-washing. There's small-business-washing as well. There are brands that are obviously a lot larger than they make themselves out to be. And it's absolutely impossible to always make the right decision when businesses themselves are not being transparent with consumers. A lot of these businesses actually say that they’re ethical or sustainable, but nobody really wants to talk about that aspect. So not only is it difficult to be responsible when it comes to not buying from 99% of fashion, but it's also difficult when you are only buying from ethical brands because ethical is not regulated. Maureen: Right. It's like the word "organic" in the United States. What does organic mean? Okay, well, organic means that it’s made out of earth-created materials. [But] organic does not mean that you don’t use pesticides. So there’s this kind of—perhaps purposeful—opaqueness around what a term means, then you don’t have to define it and you don’t have to have restrictions to work within. I also wanted to go back and validate something you said earlier, which was that writing that post was vulnerable and difficult, and I completely relate to that. I put up a post, I think around the same time that you did—like, I think it was the same week. We were just on the same wavelength. Oh no, I responded to yours. I'm so sorry. I responded to yours. Anyway, I put up a post like, There’s this narrative that it’s easy to shop ethically, and yet the reality is very far from that for so many people. Again, going back to this idea of an identity rather than an outcome. I started looking into the data around fast fashion. People say, Consumers buy sixty-eight items of clothing every year. I can’t find the statistic or the background for that. There are so many things that impact our carbon footprint to begin with. And I know the term ethical doesn’t just mean sustainability—it d