Your Niche? Or, You’re Niche!
The “It Girl” has been around for decades but has shifted and taken many forms throughout the years. Their influence remains unfaltering, even now. Sarah Jessica Parker’s bold silhouettes and airy pink tulles are instantly recognizable to any girl who tuned into her TV during the ‘90s and ‘00s. Janet Jackson’s seamless blend of military style and streetwear was an unquestionable staple of R&B fashion. Julia Roberts’ oversized blazers, untamed curls, and outspokenness cemented her as a beloved icon for many girls and women. Pop idols and movie stars blazed through the media, flipping the cultural zeitgeist on its head with each bold choice. Not only did they reshape the media landscape, but they also set the stage for the next generation of icons: Gwen Stefani’s scarlet lip is still talked about to this day, and Chloe Sevigny’s tiger tights have gone down as an epochal moment in fashion history.
Today, the It Girls are ever-present (although they are now known by a new name: the Cool Girl). Emma Chamberlain’s playful yet sleek platinum pixie, unparalleled wardrobe, and exceptionally earnest podcast; Charli XCX’s dark palette that bleeds Y2K hemlines and silhouettes into 21st-century minimalism, paired with an iconic party girl persona; and Pink Pantheress’ incomparable 2000s revival and down-to-Earth, shygirl interviews—each of these women springs to mind, renowned globally for their heavily individual celebrity styles and approaches to public appearance. But even through the infinitely more intimate lens of social media, we are constantly exposed to an endless amount of women who are aspirational enough to be revered but esoteric enough in their styles or interests to be deemed “niche.” It seems we each have a favorite niche influencer—someone who embodies the styles and values we admire and looks good doing it. Someone who molds so perfectly into the cutout of our ideal lives that we cannot help but privately nurture the desire to crawl into their skin a little bit.
But even through the infinitely more intimate lens of social media, we are constantly exposed to an endless amount of women who are aspirational enough to be revered, but esoteric enough in their styles or interests to be deemed “niche”. It seems we each have a favorite niche influencer — someone who embodies the styles and values we admire, and looks good doing it. Someone who molds so perfectly into the cutout of our ideal lives that we cannot help but privately nurture the desire to crawl into their skin a little bit.
But if it’s this individuality, this inimitable nicheness, that we crave, why do we idolize and admire these other women (who aren’t us) so? Why do we obsess over their pages and strive to perfectly replicate their lifestyles?
To put it simply, they have flow. Every element of their lives spills effortlessly into the next; their stylistic cohesion is unmatched. Their outfits, home decor, diets, and music taste work together in perfect harmony, seemingly without much effort from the women themselves. They allow us a glimpse into a masterfully crafted corridor of elements that fall perfectly into place, putatively moved by nothing more than these women’s vibe. What they don’t show, however, is the realism of arriving at that point: the rent that needs to be paid, the long and far from glamorous commutes to and from work, the price tags on the countless hauls, and the time-consuming meal preps. Put like that, it’s easy to see why we idolize them to such an extent—they are gorgeous, stylish, and impossibly chic; but the curation of that unrivaled “niceness” is never shown, and so a certain illusion is created where no extraneous effort or worry at all is expended on that well-put-together look.
But if the goal is effortless originality, isn’t sweating over a perfect replication of someone else slightly contradictory?
The desire for this elusive coolness isn’t inherently wrong. It’s a projection of the underlying ambition to be organized enough to be successful and successful enough to be cohesive—to be perceived with some degree of respectability, if only even on a visual level. However, the issue with the attitude of duplication is that there is little to no authenticity within it. Perhaps more important, though, is the nagging feeling that you’re always two steps behind your role model, this person that you’ve chosen to replicate. That feeling isn’t incorrect—if you’re constantly striving to imitate instead of emulate, you’ll never arrive at a place where you understand yourself well enough to emanate chic individualism.
So, how do you emulate?
I’ve found that an effective rule of thumb to follow in that department is giving yourself time to pause, and this pause is most efficient when done in two primary ways.
First, pluck your inspiration from media whose production efforts were far and wide; media that required weeks or months to make and were the product of dozens or even hundreds of people. Each of these people has a different background and therefore a different perspective to offer the final outcome, and your scope of inspiration ends up becoming infinitely more intersectional. On top of that, each admirable aspect of this inspiring piece comes with a hundred times more intention and consideration behind every creative choice, inviting analysis and critique from the consumer and naturally building up the ability to navigate and discern creative output.
Next, allow yourself to stew in the stimuli you engage with. Rather than speeding through short-form content and vaguely registering some amorphous vibe, sit down for a minute and analyze the things in front of you. In the words of Morgan Vogel, “Every stylish person is a good observer.” So, observe! Take the time to record creative choices that elicit some kind of emotional reaction from you, no matter how small, no matter how positive or negative. Whether it be fashion, architecture, music, cinema, or cooking, engage in introspection and prod at the root of what you think might have stirred this reaction in you. Was it the colors, the shapes, the textures, or the artist’s intention? Do you understand it, and if not, do you feel somehow compelled to?
Not only is this kind of exploration exciting, but over time, you also find yourself with a collection of ideas and themes that align with you somehow; thus, your understanding of what excites your being becomes clearer. You begin to recognize what fits into the little corner of existence that you’ve carved out exclusively for yourself, and with this amalgamation of recognition and knowledge, you find it’s much easier to pull together different aspects of style and culture to curate an environment that is personal to you. Anne Bogart said it best—"You cannot create results. You can only create conditions in which something might happen.”
Give yourself the time and space to learn which conditions create the results that you want to see. Without it, you’ll find that your jeans, couch, and playlist fit together perfectly, but somehow there’s no space in between them for an authentic you.