It's a Mood: Accessories Edition

The joy of accessorizing, Insta moodboarding, and why wardrobe repeats are good for the planet

I’m heartbroken for LA. I can’t imagine the devastation of losing your home, neighborhood, precious mementoes, or even more unimaginable family, friends, or pets. I’m so grateful for everyone on Substack sharing updates and resources with ways to donate to individuals and charitable organizations. The dog rescue where I volunteer is taking in adoptable dogs from LA to help lighten the load on Southern California shelters. If your local rescue is working with shelters affected by the fires, another way to help is by volunteering as a transporter, foster, or dog walker.

Outfit Tracking, Item Repeating

As you might know because I wrote about it every five seconds last fall, I did in-depth research on the different ways that people are logging their outfits for a project on digital wardrobing apps. I was especially intrigued by Vogue Business’ article on Gen Z using the Notes App¹ for wardrobe tracking, with culture researcher Agus Panzoni saying that this indicates a wider acceptance of outfit repeating. This is great news for the climate crisis since the average piece of clothing is only worn seven times before it’s tossed, influenced by OOTD culture on social media. As we’re starting to break away from microtrends and move towards personal style, I have high hopes for curated wardrobes where items are bought for longevity vs. Insta clout.

I’m happy to report that I’ve become an outfit and item repeater - in the 14 days since I started using Indyx, the data shows that I’ve worn the same things over and over again. My old grey Zara sweater has the highest wears at six times, mostly styled as a scarf replacement, followed by my white Agolde Lunas, brown faux croc belt, and Vejas at five wears each.

I want to track how I’m actually styling my items and my next goal is to attempt to get a photo of my sweaters with the arms hanging down so I can have the visual of a sweater scarf on Indyx. Curious if anyone’s been able to successfully layer images for a sweater over shoulder moment in their Indyx outfits?

I’m all over gray and white with a pop of red.

Insta Moodboarding

I’ve used Pinterest to moodboard for the last 10+ years (my boards are particularly maximalist-centric the further back you go), but around 2018 started dipping my toes into Instagram for saving outfit inspiration². It was faster and easier for me to use Insta since I’ve amassed a follower-ing of 1.5K+ fashion accounts to track trends for work and for fun as someone who genuinely loves fashion and personal style. There doesn’t seem to be a limit on saving - I’m at 61 folders and counting, and while Instagram doesn’t provide an image count I’d estimate that my saves are in the realm of 10K images by now.

Fast forward to 2025 and I save images daily to follow shifts across fashion, beauty, skincare, sunscreen, health, wellness, home goods, aesthetics, food, sustainability, responsible brands, tech, and society, and dogs and books always. Unsurprisingly, the folders that see the most action are my fashion inspiration saves and I scroll through these constantly to use for wishlisting and outfit inspiration.

Accessories ftw

As a former jewelry and accessories buyer I love all things accessories, but my closet is light on categories like belts and scarves since I was on a wool and leather no-buy for the better part of a decade. The vegan versions were never what I was looking for and I wanted to avoid ultra-fast fashion brands that used stunningly low quality faux leather and acrylic. I recently decided to start incorporating secondhand wool and leather into my wardrobe as a way to balance my ethical and sustainable values, and there are so.many.options that I’m excited to accessorize again.

Breaking Up With Vegan Leather

I currently own three vegan leather belts, two of which are samples from my merchant days, and two rectangular scarves circa the late 2000s/early 2010s. I’m wearing the belts to the point where I’m starting to see signs of the dreaded vegan leather peeling and haven’t touched my scarves in years, other than when I dressed as indie-sleaze Ashley Olsen this Halloween. Needless to say, I have a lot of images saved in these categories and noticed two clear-cut accessory trends in my inspo folders over the last few months, plus one that’s emerging for me. I’ve been updating my hearts across all of my favorite secondhand platforms and have found some gorgeous handmade options on Etsy.

---

What I’m Wishlisting for 2025

• Studded Belts When I was an accessories buyer we had an entire collection devoted to studs, spikes, and grommets in the early 2010s when Valentino’s Rockstud was on the rise. It was styled in a very rock and roll way, which was a big step forward for my workwear-focused brand. Today, I love how studded and grommeted belts add an unexpected touch of toughness and textural interest to a polished or preppy look. My #1 wishlist item is a brown studded belt, specifically this Isabel Marant style that I wasn’t fast enough to grab on The RealReal. It’s already haunting me, but I have a feeling I’ll see it again before the year is out.

  

  The studded and grommeted belts of my dreams. Images clockwise: @kendalldair, @thefrankieshop, @sapna_rao, @sheerluxe, @dehanche__

  

  So true - I need an embroidered pillow with this saying

  ---

• Triangle Scarves I’ve been imitating the look of a scarf for the last few years by wearing my sweaters and sweatshirts over my shoulders. While I still love this look and getting extra styling out of items in my wardrobe, I’m ready to graduate to a triangle scarf in cotton or secondhand wool. I’m vacillating between the v chic smaller Sophie scarf as a more polished take on my bandana collection (circa mid-2010s Madewell) or a larger triangle scarf that can double as a balaclava. Unless I can find both of these silhouettes preloved, I’m only investing in one to keep my fashion footprint down.

  If you have either of these scarves, which do you think will get the most use?

  

  If you haven’t heard, the colors of 2024 were red and brown. Images clockwise: @lglora, @heddamors_strikk, @petiteknit, @sapna_rao, @louisahatt, @sidselalling, @rebeccaferrazwyatt

  

  I love @louisahatt's triangle scarf look so much that I had to pull it out to admire it in more detail

  ---

• Brooches I’m still building up inspo around this low-key trend that popped up around 2022 and love how a brooch can make your outfit look that much more elevated. I have a vintage brooch from my grandmother that I’m going to style with my favorite secondhand Ganni blazer - or even better with my future triangle scarf - to see if this could be a wardrobe staple that would warrant a second vintage brooch. Fun fact: The RealReal’s 2023 Luxury Consignment Report highlighted a 27% increase in brooch demand over the 2022 holiday season, underscoring the growing consumer interest in recommerce.

  My favorite early brooch moment was in spring 2023 when I saw Julie Lellouche, aka @le.petit.colette, style brooches on her blazers. I started following her early on and have been so inspired by her personal style over the years. If you love minimalist, polished outfitting, she’s the account to follow.

My two b’s for 2025: blazers and brooches. Images clockwise: @whatpeoplearewearing, @cristinamonti, @le.petit.colette

---

I had so much fun putting this together - it reminded me of the joy of moodboarding trends for work and I might make this into a series of what I’m saving down for styling and secondhand wishlist ideas - I have a lot of thoughts around sweaters and jackets now that I’m in the market for secondhand wool and leather.

That’s it for this week, thanks for reading! Please tell me all about your studded belt, triangle scarf, and brooch adventures - I’d love to see how you’re styling these.

1. Looking for a comprehensive Notes how-to? Check out

Emily Grady Dodge

’s post on how she uses Notes to curate inspirational content - it’s very informative with detailed steps on how to optimize Notes.

2. Have you started to save things and can’t figure out where to find your folders? Go to your Instagram profile and click on the hamburger (the three stacked lines), look for the saved tab and voila! All of your saved images and folders can be found in one place, with the option to create more folders, change cover images, and switch images between folders.