Why Pinterest means so much to me

It all started in 2011.

I remember the exact moment I learnt about Pinterest. I was working an entry-level job at The Walkley Foundation For Excellence in Journalism (fancy) not long after I finished university, and back then — around 2010 — the way many of us got our news, long-form reads and new posts by our favourite bloggers was via an RSS reader. Remember those? Typing this is making me remember how much I adored that part of my day and how simple the Internet was. There seemed to be *just enough* stimulation but not enough to keep you glued here for hours on end.

Blogspots were life. I loved Childhood Flames, Jezebel (founder Anna Holmes’ version and vision for it), Girl With a Satchel, Style Rookie, Jak & Jil and Style Bubble. I had just moved into a room in a guesthouse in Paddington to pursue my dream of becoming a journalist and after paying my weekly rent of $250 (cash slid into a letterbox that had been built into the wall downstairs) and then riding my bike to Woolies to buy $50 worth of groceries for the week, I didn’t have much money left to buy new clothes or stuff for my magical new room, so I did a lot of browsing — both online via fashion blogs and in-person, mostly wandering up and down Oxford and Crown Street.

My room had this incredible, antique wooden bed frame, a grand marble fireplace and a huge ornate mirror sitting on top of it. I hung my silk scarves off it and the beret I bought from a vintage store in Amsterdam. I blue-tacked the photo of me standing by the Seine in Paris rugged up in the navy blue double-breasted wool coat I’d thrifted days before I left Sydney to live with my dad in the UK for a bit after a particularly nasty break-up. I adorned that mirror with the reminders of the progress I was making in the direction of a more diverse, interesting and abundant life.

There was a matching wooden dresser with an art deco mirror, and a wardrobe that I thought resembled the one from The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe but on reflection was just an old, wooden wardrobe.

The balcony of my room had been converted into a little kitchenette — the perfect size to cook my weekly bolognese and lattice slice (randomly my snack of choice for the years I lived there). It also had two wrought iron chairs and a little table that I’d only use if I had a friend over for a glass of wine, or if I was sneaking a cigarette out the window. Hard to believe now, but I smoked on-and-off for almost 15 years.

Living alone in that guesthouse, I thought I’d made it and to this day, that room is a happy place in my mind. I developed character in those four walls. I became interested. That room in that guesthouse owned by that old lady with the horses was a homecoming for me in many ways. It’s where I began to live into my life.

When I met Tony in 2011 (I think!), we mostly went to cafes, little hole-in-the-wall restaurants, to the park to read the paper or to his place for dinner in the early weeks and months of dating. He had this cool warehouse apartment above Redfern train station filled with interesting art and Space furniture. I was in awe but I didn’t think what he had was any better or greater than what I had.

He thought otherwise... my kind man. The first time I took him to my special little space the first thing he said was: “Oh baby, we’ve got to get you out of here.” Out of here?! Here is brilliant. Here is magical. Here has texture. Here is what it real for me. Here is mine.

Looking back, I get it. It was a step above a hostel, but I’ve always had this way of romanticising reality. And if I allow myself to really feel into this (bit hard, body is contracting), it’s a survival thing. I’d been in some sad, scary, unstable and unsafe situations growing up and I taught myself to tell a different, more meaningful and sometimes magical story. One that my mind and emotional body could relax into. This is how I got through hard things. I painted a different version in my mind as a way to unsee what was in front of me.

I’d been planning my great escape since around the age of 14. I knew the reality I’d been born into wasn’t for me and I knew I would be relentless in my pursuit of what felt true. Being the first child in my family to go to university, getting a job at a highly reputable journalism foundation and landing a bedroom in a charming old guesthouse smack bang in the middle of Sydney was the epitome of success for me.

Tony is 13 years older than me so there’s always been this older-man-meets-ambitious-younger-woman dynamic in our relationship, and his early and loving directive to nuzzle under his wing and get comfortable was exactly what I needed at that time in my life. Was this entirely healthy? Did I need saving or had I already saved myself? We could get into but I am trying really hard to get to Pinterest now.

So I’m at work, scrolling my RSS reader and I see this media story about a new social media platform called Pinterest. Its value proposition being the world’s first visual discovery engine that allowed users to personalise inspiration, vision and mood boards. And the best bit: You needed to request an invite to join.

This Chosen One acquisition strategy has been used by so many new platforms since. Make it feel exclusive — like an insiders only club — and watch them line up. I must have been in the first few thousand people to request an invite. Surely! But regardless, I share this to say that I’ve loved Pinterest since the beginning because it allowed me to take the storylines I had written in my mind for a brighter future and place them somewhere I could literally be with them. The sweetener was an increasingly sophisticated algorithm that served me images that were very similar to what I was already Pinning and that felt like a hug on my brain.

Pinterest quickly became a salve. A place I could go to construct, curate and cultivate my desired reality and without knowing it at the time, begin to feel into the energy of all that I was declaring for my one, big life. It was only this year that I realised Pinning was a vehicle to becoming the energetic condition for what I deserve and upon acknowledging this, leant into it big time and my life hasn’t been the same since. Another landing.

In the 12 years I’ve been on Pinterest, my boards have changed dramatically. And that makes sense, because my life is dramatically different to what it was in 2011. I’ve been through stages where I exclusively Pinned inspiration quotes, more abstract and artistic phases that represented more of a mood than an aesthetic or a vision, recipe and self improvement Pinning, wedding Pinning, baby and motherhood Pinning, business planning Pinning… And if I wasn’t such a dramatic Cancerian, this would have been an amazing time to link back to those seasons of my life. But no, I’m a snipper. Once I am done with a season I like a hard close.

Today, the primary reason I use Pinterest is to get ideas and inspiration for the cabin I am going to buy in the next couple of years (typing it into truth). My Highest Vision is a retreat house for my family and for Offline’s community. Also, a home for Betty to call her own. Something I have never had but she will. I made a decision a long time ago that the cycle of generational poverty will end with me and alongside a conservative but consistent investment into shares from more or less birth, Betty will also own a house.

Second to my cabin, is fashion. A bit of hair and nails, too, but mostly fashion as I navigate the murky waters of postpartum style. Wait, can I still call it that? She’s nearly three. What stage am I in now?

For a long time I had one occasion to dress for: Fancy fashion job. Now, each day is a three-part act: Mother and business owner who works from home and whose job requires her to be on video calls morning, noon and sometimes night, and also showing up on Instagram looking… true. I guide people home to themselves and I take this role really seriously, so it’s important that I feel true in my body and my external self. It’s important that I feel explored and expressed. Fashion is one way I do this.

If you read my last entry, you’ll know about my other long-term love of thrifting and buying vintage from reseller sites like The Real Real and Vestiaire. What I wanted to get into in that entry is my process for cultivating a style mood on Pinterest and then using that as a guide for buying pre-loved pieces. This entry has been severely at risk of not getting to the point as well so let’s go.

Reseller sites can be super overwhelming and what I’ve learnt in the years and years I’ve been shopping them, is it’s all about multiple, very niche searches vs. trawling the entire site by size hoping you’ll land on something you love.

And what I’ve learnt about outfits I’m attracted to (and maybe this is true for you, too) is it’s very rarely about what the person is wearing and more about how it looks on their body type and shape, the colours of the clothes against their skin colour, how they wear the outfit (vs. the outfit wearing them), how they’ve styled it and what accessories are pulling it all together.

Take the outfit inspiration picture below for example — something I Pinned a while back when I was wanting to elevate my style a bit more and try the suiting trend. I liked it and could see myself wearing something similar, but it’s important to note what I actually understand about why this outfit looks objectively good on her:

• She is thin and this amplifies the oversized look

• She has a tan and that is making the gold jewellery pop

• The low neckline takes the vest from suiting to sort of… sexy? Definitely feels effortless

• She’s flat chested which is what makes it possible to wear such a low neckline

• Her pose creates the perfect angle for this kind of outfit

I think it’s important to take a more critical view and where I am always trying to land is in the mood of the look vs. trying to replicate the entire look from head to toe. I think style is something that emerges from us, not something we can emulate.

Halston belt ($65), Chloe slides ($400), Ranjana Khan necklace ($299), Rokh pants ($180), Rag & Bone vest but lose the t-shirt under ($131).

This is where I landed after a quick search on The Real Real. I wouldn’t never buy it all at once, instead, I’d buy the key piece like the vest and maybe one of the accessories. In this case probably the belt because I’d get more wear out of it than the necklace which isn’t overly classic. I have similar pants and I added the shearling slides because I have a similar pair to these ones also.

I don’t know if this feels true to anyone else except me, but when I look at the curation above, I see something more interesting and more personal than the reference. She gave me a mood. A jump-off point. I created an outfit that feels true to my personal style.

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Some search tips:

• Niche description in search bar: “black button up vest”

• Filter to your size and up one size (I usually buy bigger and alter)

• Filter to "pristine, excellent, very good”

• Sort from lowest to highest price to get the best quality for the lowest price

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I’d love to share some of my Pinterest boards with you and I’d also love to know if you feel inspired to start Pinning for the first time, or maybe returning to it as a support tool for feeling into the Highest Vision you hold for your life. Comments are open!

• CABINS 🌳

• Naturalness (a new style board that is starting to come together)

• Style

• Autumn/Winter Style

• Hair —> Perfect Fringes

• Home Decor —> Lounge

• Christmas

Alison xo