Today, I’m starting a new series on my blog. Going forward, I’m going to be sharing my favourites each season. I love it when other bloggers and YouTubers do this. It gives me so much inspiration! And today, I'm kicking it off and sharing my Spring favourites with you.
Taking note of inspiration
I mentioned 'inspiration' in my opening above. When you are passionate about style and fashion, I think it’s really important to take note of what is inspiring you at any particular moment in time. As Coco Chanel once said:
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, the street. Fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live and what is happening.”
While we are currently living in very unusual times, it is unlikely that the pandemic is going (in my view at least) to have a radical impact upon fashion. Yet this lockdown period is likely to affect the way that we think and the way that we live going forward.
In this post, I'd like to try and capture a sense of my ideas, thoughts, moods, feelings and inspiration over the last few weeks. It will be so interesting to look back and see if and how this period has impacted my style, my fashion and my mode de vie.
So, after that slightly philosophical intro, let's get straight into my Spring favourite no. 1.
Favourite no. 1 – The feel good
Through these highly unusual times, I think many of us have been searching for a sense of normalcy and those 'feel good' things which we can enjoy at home.
For me, these have been a small handful of beauty products. In no particular order, they include:
Essie nail polish in Ballet Slippers. It’s such a classic, elegant shade.
Chloe Nomade perfume. It's fresh, floral and feminine and currently my signature scent.
The Body Shop Shea hand cream. While it takes a couple of minutes for this hand cream to absorb, it leaves my hands hydrated throughout the day and has a soft, gentle fragance.
Now more than ever, I think its all about those little luxuries in life!
Favourite no. 2 – Nordic thrillers
Jumping now to an entirely different category, I've been really captivated by Nordic thrillers this Spring.
It began, around Easter time, when I read Clare Francis’ Wolf Winter. Its a truly excellent spy thriller, set in Norway during the Cold War. The plot is complex, layered and suspenseful. I also found the author's descriptions of the bleak, snow-covered vast expanses of Lapland (in the far north of Norway) to be completely absorbing.
About a month later, I watched Wisting, a Norwegian detective series on the BBC iPlayer. I've enjoyed Nordic noirs for years and this one did not disappoint. It was intriguing, with plot twists and turns and an appealing father-daughter relationship between the two main protagonists. And it also had a lot of snow!
So how exactly are these Nordic thrillers going to affect my style? Well, for me they conjure up a mood – one of cold, bleakness and vast snowy landscapes (hardly positive I know!). They also remind me of my own trip to Norway five years ago when it was still so very cold even in April!
Its true that this genre / mood is unlikely to inspire my Spring or Summer capsule wardrobes. But I do think that it will come to the fore in my Autumn and Winter capsules. In fact, I can already see that influence if I look at my Autumn and Winter Pinterest boards I think you can see from these that I'm going for a Nordic-Parisien kind of blend once we hit the colder months.
In my view, it doesn’t really matter where the inspiration comes from - its what you do with it that counts!
Favourite no. 3 – Natural beauty
I'm really fortunate to be based in the countryside at present. And so I've been going on lots of long, country walks. It's been such a beautiful time of year to be doing it and Spring is always my favourite season.
And wherever I am in the world, I always like to have a favourite view. Right now, its this:
What can beat natural beauty for inspiration?
Final thoughts
And there we have it. Those are my three top faves for Spring 2020. Reading it back, it’s quite a random list!
How about you, what has been inspiring you this Spring? Is your list as random as mine?! Make sure to leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
As always, thank you for taking the time today to read my post. I'll be back next week with the start of my summer content when I'll be publishing my Summer Edit. Til then!
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