75 HARD STYLE CHALLENGE

Long time, no see. I hope you’re enjoying the new site design! I’ve been unsure how to approach this space as life has gotten crazy. And I’m also finding myself turned off by the heavy-shopping focus of the blogging world. So, while I might be alone in this, I want to go a little old school and use this space to share inspiration. I’ll still share links with most posts, but the focus will be on inspiring you to wear what you have. Only add what you feel you need (either for practical purposes, or because your soul needs the joy of a beautiful garment).

And I thought the best way to start that, both in myself, and for you, was through a styling challenge! A styling challenge can be a great way to find the gaps in your wardrobe, clean out your closet, build a bank of outfit ideas for those tough days, and hone your personal style.

I’ve decided to try the trending 75 Hard Challenge, specifically the style challenge started by Mandy Lee. Now that I’m about a third of the way done, I figured it would be a great time to share a little about my goals and how it’s going.

MY CHALLENGE GOALS

Based on the original Instagram post, there is a set of standard “rules” for the challenge. The ones I’ve chosen to prioritize are: documenting my outfit, going on a shopping ban, avoiding the use of social media for inspiration, and cleaning out my closet. The creator also encourages setting your own goals each time you do the challenge as a way to hone in on your personal style and favorite outfits.

One of my biggest goals is simply to have the benefit of getting ready every day. Whenever I’m dressed, I feel more productive. I’m more interested in being productive. If I stick to my lazies, then I just want to spend my time on the couch. Now, I definitely have to keep in mind the style of outfit and my plans for the day, but generally, unless I’m doing household chores, I’m not picky about the overall vibe of what I wear.

In addition to the sort of emotional boost of getting ready, I also wanted to take the opportunity to style a piece from each outfit multiple ways on my TikTok, create an album of outfit ideas, and upload pieces to an app called StyleBook.

HOW IT’S GOING

So far, I’ve definitely seen the benefit of the daily outfits translating to feeling more productive, especially on days when I work from home. I’ve only missed two days of outfit documenting, but they were deep cleaning days so old lazies were the must-wear.

I’ve also generally avoided using social media for inspiration. I do scroll so I’m incidentally inspired in that way, but I’ve not looked up styling ideas for a specific piece at all. This really aligns with the goal of the challenge as well, since it’s also meant to build personal creativity.

As far as the other goals, I haven’t been doing as strongly. I did post a few TikToks, but I haven’t uploaded any pieces to my app yet. I created a highlight on my Instagram featuring all of my outfits, but I haven’t taken the time to create one on my phone. I’m torn on if I need to do this or not though, as most of the time I can just reference that highlight myself.

I’ve also made two orders. I was torn about these, but the pieces were quite special and there was a limited discount available. The items also fit within gaps in my wardrobe that I’d already identified, so I don’t feel tooooo guilty.

THE NEXT FIFTY-ISH DAYS

Moving forward, the most important part of the challenge to me is still the mental benefit of getting ready every day. I cannot underscore enough the impact it’s had on my mental health. As I’ve been experiencing more physical health challenges lately, the boost of getting ready has made it a lot easier to cope.

Through the challenge, I’ve also determined a more efficient way to organize my closet. But I probably won’t order the pieces or set that up until we move again or if I decide to swap my office and our guest room. In the meantime, I’m just trying to make it as functional as possible for day-to-day outfit styling. I may choose to add things to my StyleBook app here and there in the meantime, but I think it’ll be easier with the planned set up.

Finally, I would like to keep up the rest of the goals, knowing that I don’t need to be perfect about them. I want to embrace doing a little more as I can.

have you ever tried a styling challenge? how did it go?