But the double whammy of 40 newsletters and my 40th year means I’ve spent the last few days thinking about some stuff.
Every January I pick three words to focus on for the year ahead. I usually forget them pretty quickly, but there they are, in my Notes app, for the last six years. It’s nice to see how I’ve evolved, although I’ll be honest, “patience” was on there for three years running, until I replaced it with calm, which also makes another appearance this year.
So I picked my three words for 2025 - calm, joy, and trust - and I jotted down some good ole life goals.1 (Those will stay in the Notes app, for now.) Then I thought, since I launched this Substack this year to write about fashion, style, and design from an industry perspective, I should also come up with three Fashion Words to focus on for the year.
Shorthand style goals, let’s call them.
Here’s what I landed on!
Joy. A crossover word on both lists! But what is the point of fashion if not to bring joy? (What’s the point of life…?) One of the ways I know I can experience more joy is through what I wear. I delight in color combinations, fabrics, shapes. Always have, always will. Even though my 2000s scrapbooks and decoupage have morphed into Instagram Saved Folders and Apple Photo Albums,2 I’ve always loved looking for inspiration and bringing it to life.
Dress for joy! (And apparently what brings me joy is animal print, sequins, fairisle, florals, suiting, blazers, and red, white and blue.)
, and I immediately knew what I wanted mine to be:
“My 2025 style resolution is Dress Out Loud! I don’t want my clothes to be quiet anything anymore. I want sharp shoulders, bolder silhouettes, more pattern (not just stripes!), brighter colors (trying!), lots of layers, and statement shoes. I remember how I used to love choosing my outfits for school, that frisson of anticipation and potential as I lay out my outfits each night. What might tomorrow bring? Who knows, but I want my style to speak again, to shout happily: hello world, here I am, let’s go!”
This might not look like much to you, but for me, wearing a Bright Pink Sweater is like wearing a feather boa and a top hat lol.
Ease. I don’t love the Instagram emphasis on effortless dressing, since we all know a lot of effort goes into most of this. But getting dressed shouldn’t be hard, and it should make us feel good. I’ve always felt pretty comfortable in my skin, but now I want to feel as comfortable as I can in my clothes. All the time. After three kids, a pandemic, WFH, RTO, hybrid office life, the return of international business trips, travel, and a reawakened social schedule, I’m rediscovering how I want to dress and curating a closet that reflects that.
Easy as apple pie. Ease in my style means always mixing in an element of comfort, like a sweatshirt. Menswear also has an inherent ease to it, and I love looking for iconic menswear inspiration.
Embracing ease means admitting I am a Pants Person and then admitting I am not a Dress Person. I buy ‘em, I wear ‘em, but I rarely love them. But I have been dabbling in skirts, long ones with weight, like in leather or suede or maybe twill or canvas or denim. Something that feels like a hybrid between the practicality and tomboy prep of pants and the dressiness of dresses. Skirts can be flowy and soft and sensual, but also practical, weighted, worthy. Worth exploring regardless. Or maybe I’ll just keep wearing the pants in my fashion relationship with myself.
The long and skirt of it. Can I be a Skirt Person in 2025?
Intention. Remember those magazine spreads that offered suggestions on how to style a trend depending on whether you were 20, 30, 40? Did they even go higher than that? I remember a lot of scarves for the 40-something set. That was dumb, but I do want to explore how I want to dress this decade. Not because of the number, but because of the circumstances, the occasions, the career, the events, the mom-ing. Not dressing your age, but dressing with intent. Putting together outfits with the care and consideration that I didn’t consider when I was younger. Finding a tailor. Buying (and learning to use) a handheld steamer. Investing in accessories. Solving the puzzle of a great outfit regularly. (Speaking of puzzles, I loved
Beautiful tailoring, blazers, suiting, accessories. Is this 40?
I’ll be honest, my brain is a bit fried after the holidays, vacation, routines blown to smithereens, and some big life events. But I like this idea of shorthand style goals, and I would really love to hear yours.
What are your three Fashion Words that you’d like to focus on for 2025?
Share in the comments, pretty please?
x Lindsay
P.S. I may move this newsletter to Sunday mornings, like the funnies (and hopefully a sliver as amusing?)…I’ll keep ya posted. Thanks as always for being here.
I wholeheartedly agree with Erika’s How to Dress Like You in 2025 suggestions, especially this one: “Instead of scrolling social, I’m trying to make my time on the apps more productive. If I see an outfit I like, I screenshot it and add it to my Outfits To Copy album. That way, if I’m stuck or just want to think about what holes might exist in my closet, I can consult the list. I do this on Pinterest and Tiktok, too. Sure, I could have folders in all the apps, but I like keeping the screenshots handy.”
Happy Milestone year! I can attest to liking 40s better than 30s (mostly- but do be careful with your knees and back). I struggle with word selection so much. Can I co-opt yours? I am mostly trying to lean into the Lee Radziwill edict of 'simple clothes / interesting accessories.' and I really want to push myself on 2nd hand shopping. I also want to stop buying anymore "it" items- especially in the summer, which is when they always seem to find me. Xx
Love this!!! My two words for 2025 in general are Ease + Joy--so we share a lot in common. I've had so much fun last quarter exploring what dressing joyfully means and I'd love to continue experimenting.
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Happy Milestone year! I can attest to liking 40s better than 30s (mostly- but do be careful with your knees and back). I struggle with word selection so much. Can I co-opt yours? I am mostly trying to lean into the Lee Radziwill edict of 'simple clothes / interesting accessories.' and I really want to push myself on 2nd hand shopping. I also want to stop buying anymore "it" items- especially in the summer, which is when they always seem to find me. Xx
Love this!!! My two words for 2025 in general are Ease + Joy--so we share a lot in common. I've had so much fun last quarter exploring what dressing joyfully means and I'd love to continue experimenting.
Congrats on this milestone year!!