Inspiration for outfits could not be easier with style on social media; there is so much style on social media it’s all at your fingertips!
I feel social media gets a bad wrap a lot of the time; but if you are open-minded, look past all the curated unrealistic lifestyles that are produced only for likes and followers and find one or two style influencers that really fuel your own style journey – it can be an amazing resource.
When I was younger (yes I sound like my mother) we only had the daily newspapers and monthly magazines to give us any style content. I was really lucky that I worked in a newsagent from the age of 15 to nearly 18 and I was in charge of managing the magazine stand plus all the media print returns – I used to spend hours in the back room looking at all the fashion, rather than filling in the paperwork!
That was the only resource available to me, plus what you saw on mannequins in shop windows or on Top of the Pops on a Thursday night to give you any style inspo!
Now it’s available 24/7 at your finger tips on a global scale! Long written content like blogs, shopping hauls videos on YouTube, quick videos on outfit ideas via TikTok and of course many media formats via Instagram – we’ve never had it so good, and yet the need to know more continues.
Wearing what you love, what reflects you right now as a woman and exploring new designers and brands can be so liberating. Following for following sake or wearing trends that suit ‘her’ but not you – won’t make you happy in your daily life.
I spend my time seeking out style on social media, using different platforms to give me ideas and help me to move my own style journey on. It’s horses for courses and not everything I do will necessarily work for you, but I’m sharing what I do, and how I use style on social media to make affordable changes to manage my style for the long-term.
It might surprise you to hear, especially as I spend a lot of time on Instagram that Pinterest is my favourite fashion and style resource on social media. You see Pinterest is such an easy tool to use, I can quickly see it on my phone when I am getting ready in the morning to help me with ideas.
My Pinterest boards I have kept really simple, so I have boards like – White Blazers | Grey Jeans | Teddy Coats | Black Biker Jackets and so on – you see I own all of these types of garments. I will spend my time creating inspiration boards on specific garments and save pins that I love to those boards; so that when I am dressing I can tap into that inspirational board very quickly and get some new ideas.
I also use it to start planning for the season ahead. You may be in Winter 2020 but I am already in Spring 2021 in my head and have been for the last few weeks. One of my biggest tips to anyone who want to be stylish, stay stylish or make the most out of their wardrobe, you need to get your head into the next season as early as possible.
You’ll see on my boards that I sometimes pin the same outfit more than once – well that’s not done at the same time, that could be weeks later – so if I have pinned an outfit several times, this tells me I really LOVE this and I should explore this outfit more. Allow your mind to pick for itself, don’t control your selections. Your Pinterest boards will develop over months – it’s a not a race!
YOUTUBE
This is my next style on social media go to! I must spend on average 2-3 hours a week watching YouTube – various different influencers and not all of it is style, I watch a lot of beauty and skincare influencers too. These videos generally are around 30 mins each, so no different to spending time watching a favourite soap episode.
Finding ‘your people’ on YouTube can take a few months – I recommend watching a whole variety of different style and beauty influencers and the more you watch, YouTube will offer you someone new (but similar). Branch out and explore them too, you usually find that within the first 10-15 mins you either love them or not…. only subscribe to those that you love!
There are also some fashion magazines that offer a lot of video content; what’s good about them is that they always repeat the format. So for example The Sheerluxe Show is usually around 45 mins long, in my world I only can spend that time watching a full episode about once a month; however I do want their weekly style content, which they show around 20 minutes into every episode, I will just fast-forward to there and spend 5-10 mins watching that section and I have my fix!
If you are following style and fashion accounts then Instagram will throw you styling inspiration from every angle – If you are not necessarily following style, perhaps you are more into interiors or food, you can easily find style inspiration from hashtags #ootd #styleover40 #fashionlover and so on.
To save any outfits you love, you simply use the bookmark symbol on the right just under the photo and that ‘saves’ it to a main folder. You can then sort these into mini folders, a bit like Pinterest boards, to categorise your finds.
I find I get hooked on a couple of accounts for a number of weeks, then Instagram will show me similar in my Explore feed, I then find a new muse to do a deeper dive on.
I think it’s good that the platform showcases other content to you (no advertisement) but other similar accounts, as this helps you to evolve and explore without much effort.
Instagram is also good for THE LATEST dress, shoes, bag – if a particular item is flying, it’s because it’s a hit on Instagram. Any hits then usually make it into the media, sometimes a little too late as it’s likely to sell out before it really makes mainstream.
Fashionistas love chasing the next big hit and get a bigger buzz when they know it’s sold out but they have it! I have on occasion joined in, sometimes I know and other times… like the Daily Mail feature is lands like a bomb with no heads up it was going to do this… well it is only a dress at the end of the day!
TIK TOK
No I don’t do any of the dancing! And actually, I don’t follow people. Tik Tok is an interesting platform, I love it for it’s very quick and content rich videos. You can learn A LOT in 15-30 seconds. The homepage is quite clever, the more you ‘stop & watch’ or the more you press the LIKE button, more of that type of content will be served to you from Tik Tok from creators who make similar content.
You then end up with a varied but relevant feed. If you start to get bored, then you just browse hashtags of the type of content you want to watch and this updates the activity you want to see in your home feed.
There is a whole mix of outfit posts, tips on styling and also make up and beauty. I tend to scroll through about one or twice a day whilst waiting for the kettle to boil – it’s amazing what you learn in that little amount of time.
This shows you don’t have to be an active user yourself to get the benefits of the style content is has within it.
LOVE THE IDEA, BUT DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START?
Here are a few tips to get started on using social media as a style tool for you!
- Download these four social media platforms to your smart phone – you need to access them quickly, so perhaps keep them all in the same app folder
- You don’t have to be active, but it’s likely you have to create an account to start using it (don’t worry you don’t have to put a photo of you, leave it blank or use a colour)
- Write a list of five things in your wardrobe your would like to wear more of (e.g. biker jacket, leopard print ankle boots, pink scarf, beanie hat, red handbag)
- Now create a Pinterest board for each of these and write the item into the search box, pin any you love to the relevant boards
- YouTube – start with Sheerluxe, Trinny London and British Vogue – as you start to watch more styling, YouTube will make recommendations
- Instagram – Head to my account @lovedbylizzi and see who I am following if you want to find sources of inspiration
- Tik Tok – as I said above, start watching the home feed, the more you like a video the more of that content will come to you
