My Personal Aesthetic: A combination of inspiration from pop culture, the outdoors, and current fashion trends

I feel like my personal aesthetic comes from a combination of a few things- an appreciation for pop culture/music, a love for the outdoors, and an attention to current fashion trends. I really love for my passions to show through in my aesthetic, and I think my style and living space are good examples of that. 

My backpack – a pretty solid representation of what I feel my personal aesthetic is

In terms of the first main influence I love movies and music, and I think that heavily influences my aesthetic. My living space is covered in movie and music posters, there are a lot of references to pop culture. Specifically, I love classic rock, folk, and indie music; and I have a lot of posters and records that picture artists related to these, and really love to wear band t-shirts. I also really love watching critically acclaimed/cult-classic movies, some of my favorites are Apocalypse Now, Fight Club, Star Wars (ESB), Whiplash, Good Will Hunting, and gangster movies like Goodfellas. I love watching all the oscar nominated movies every year, and often find really cool takeaways from the movies that influence my aesthetic choices.

A bunch of my favorite t shirts that reference pop culture
I like to collect movie posters

My love for outdoor sports also really influences my aesthetic. My main passions are rock climbing (see my Post 1 about climbing aesthetic, it’s full of super interesting sub-aesthetics) and skiing, but I also like hiking, sailing, mountain biking, skateboarding, surfing; really anything outside. This definitely influences my aesthetic, as a lot of my life revolves around being outside, so I often am wearing outdoor brands and outdoor-ready clothing; I could walk around an REI for hours on end (…and often do when I’m around the flagship back home in Seattle) just because I love the aesthetic so much. Again, my living space and style are good examples of this influence, as my room has a lot of outdoor equipment and outdoor posters covering it. Some of my favorite outdoor brands are Arcteryx, Patagonia, Mammut, and FiveTen. I also wear a lot of niche climbing specific brands that I like to rep because of the climbing culture tied to them, such as E9, Tension, Prana, La Sportiva, and Kinetik. 

Some of my favorite pairs of climbing pants (E9)
Outdoor equipment/ski map collection

I think that I also pay a lot of attention to current fashion trends, which heavily influences my style and I think gives me a unique aesthetic from being just tied to super outdoorsy stuff but I also often really like popular trends in fashion. For example, while I like climbing and that culture, I often combine it with more mainstream and fashion based athletic or casual brands such as Urban Outfitters, Lululemon, Nike, Adidas, and Gymshark. While I love climbing culture, I don’t necessarily love to look like a dirtbag all the time; I really like fashion too. I really like the current trends such as retro graphic tees (which also ties into my love for pop culture), blocky shoes (I love my white Nikes and Doc Martens), and distressed jeans (Levis is my favorite). Day to day, jeans and a tshirt is pretty classic for me. 

My favorite pairs of shoes

I also think that a big part of my aesthetic is more general, that I love bright, statement colors. For example, my favorite pair of climbing pants are bright purple and I also tend to gravitate towards bright pink. I definitely stray away from what I feel are boring combinations of colors, which creates what some people could probably interpret as a chaotic look, but I really like the way stark color contrast and patterns look. 

My living space, a representation of my love for the outdoors and pop culture coming together

 

 

*All photos are my own.

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2 Comments. Leave new

  • Michael Burns
    March 23, 2021 11:27 am

    Hey Maya,

    Great post, your aesthetic is super cool! I really like how you incorporated your upcycle project as your personal aesthetic. Not only does it add another purpose to that project but it fits really well.

    Reply
  • Hunter Meissner
    March 17, 2021 3:21 pm

    Maya,
    I really enjoyed reading your personal aesthetic post. Your love for pop culture, the outdoors, and current fashion trends could definitely be something you could incorporate into your final project. I don’t remember exactly what you were planning on making, but I think if you could incorporate all of these different aesthetics your final artifact could be something really interesting and visually pleasing.

    Reply

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