If you don’t follow Dorsey founder Meg Strachan on Substack, I highly suggest you start soon. While I have loved the return of style blogging (including my own!), it is hard to deny the nagging feeling that the fashion conversation in general has reached an inflection point.

Any person with an internet connection and a credit card has crowned themselves a fashion maven…and that is just not the truth. Everyone can have an opinion, sure, but not everyone is an expert. And the duplicative nature of modern fashion and the “dupes” culture running rampant on IG/TikTok are enough to make a person mad! 

Meg recently opened up the comment section for readers to reflect on their current relationship with fashion media. In a nutshell, we are alllll sick of the overconsumption and total lack of tasteful curation. Even the word “curate” is all but hollow in the current landscape. Combing through each comment and sub-thread on Meg’s newsletter forced me to reconsider not only how I am shopping, but also how I consume other people’s consuming. Chicken or egg?!

For starters, I have unfollowed any writer, blogger, Substacker who does not have a clear POV or perspective that feels truly aspirational, authentic and cultivated over many years. If you are telling me to pair a $30 Amazon set and red Adidas Gazelles with a $10k bag from The Row, you now have one less reader. Love ya, miss ya, mean it!

I have also reconsidered which brands I allow to hit my inbox. The sales are endless, promos nonstop and I am intentionally steering myself to pieces I am obsessed with, not just the ones that are an extra 40 off sale.

Finally, I am clearing my closet of anything that was purchased from a place of anything but my highest taste level. Remember the Target conversation? Much of that will be purged. I don’t prescribe to the Mari Kondo method, but I am making the stars the stars! And for the love of all that is holy, I will not be buying more plastic from The Container Store to “organize” my life. The gall— consume more now to manage overconsumption from the past.

My only goal for spring style is to open a drawer or a closet and get a glimmer of joy.

1. Chanel flats that never let me down
2. A crisp white suit that makes me feel like a hot boss
3. That leather (actually pleather!) jacket from Scotland that defies seasons and genres
4. The last-in-the store bamboo + glass vases housing fresh flowers on my dining room table
5. A perfume that floods my senses with a sweet memory

That feeling is the point of personal style—definitely not “adding to cart” some designer knock-off that a nice lady from the middle of nowhere is hawking on LTK.

With all due respect, we can do much better than that, so let’s! Xx

**sorry for the snark, but we can do better, right?