Designed To Be Unique

Sometimes I feel like we live in a cookie cutter world.     A world that seems to teach us to not stand out from the crowd. What makes us want to be marked with sameness?  Or marked by the lack of originality that mass-produced clothing and home furnishings often bring?  

We are designed to be unique, right? 

Thankfully being cookie-cutter is a trend that is on the out.  More and more, we are finding clients that don’t want furnishings and clothing that readily appear for anyone with an internet connection or offered by big-box retailers.

Instead, they prefer that their homes reflect their own personal tastes in style and not feel like it was just lifted out of a furniture catalog from a single source.  And prefer wearing clothing that you won't see on several others through the course of your day.

So how do you make sure that your own home or wardrobe is more personal, unique and special?

Solution #1:  Mix-It-Up

Whether you are shopping for clothing or home, we recommend that you mix-it-up and pull items together from various sources.   

Which is precisely why we utilize 330 different suppliers in the home store (I was going to guess about 100, until I actually went into our system and counted) which gives you, our clients, not only a view of what we believe to be the best of the best but the ability to design rooms that are uniquely yours.

Clothing should be styled in the same way.   We all have our personal favorite brands, for sure,  but there is more benefit to mixing them up than to not.

Take this lovely Lafayette 148 skirt, paired with a Veronica Beard Jacket and a Theory blouse.  Uniquely yours.   

Solution #2:   Dare I say...Stop Using Your Social Media as a design source

I can hear you now…”Yeah right!”   Okay, here is the deal, social media has made us all more aware of trends, what looks beautiful and what other stylists and designers are doing.   But it really seems to force everyone into a cookie-cutter mode instead of championing what works for your own home or aesthetic.    Or what really flatters your body and personal style.   

All social media does is spread a bland view of good taste all across the world, two or three times over before the next good idea takes over for the masses. 

Instead, listen to your heart.    Actually, go see the things, in person, that should and could go into your home.   Try clothing on so you can discover what works for you rather than what happens to look good on a professional blogger or catalog model.   

Solution #3:  Study What You Don’t Like

There is a lot to learn from what you don’t like.    Take note (to yourself of course) of the interiors (and/or outfits) that you don’t respond well to...is it a specific color palette or pattern, certain styles of furniture (sloppy, too tailored, too feminine, too masculine), cheap finishes, too symmetrical or not symmetrical enough.  

You’ve got to take an active part in putting the ‘You’ back into your life.  

Solution #4:  Utilize boutiques like ours

If you want individuality for your outfit or your home, this is where you will find it rather than big-box retailers or chains.   Their goal is to sell mass quantities of what they believe the mass will purchase. 

As for us?   We often get something in that sells like wild-fire...out the door before it is in.   The natural response is to think well, shoot, we ought to get 10 more of those.  But that is not how we roll.    You won’t see mass quantities of anything coming through our doors...just choices that we view as uniquely beautiful.

You have heard me say, "I promise you’ll be inspired."   

Instead, I will say that when you embrace all that makes you different and unique, it will inspire people around you.

Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything
that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision
against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace,
the slaves of the ordinary.
~ Cecil Beaton

So many people are encouraged to not break out of their shells and express their own individuality.    But when they see you, your unique choices and the beautiful results, you will inspire them to break free from a cookie cutter life.  

A cookie cutter plays it safe because it seems that everyone else around them is doing it.    How very boring, right?    Stand out.   Be different.   Be you, beautifully.

Welcome back to those of you who were on Spring Break!   It's hard to take off sandals once you've started wearing them, isn't it? I'm with you and plan on breaking out the sandals myself starting with this super cute pair that we got in last week!

Have a wonderful week!

Julie