Inspired by: New Year’s Inspirations

And, breathe…

Go ahead! Give yourself a pat on the back, grab a celebratory drink, and kick your feet up. You deserve it. You made it through one of the busiest times of the year for most people – and you did it with such style.

Now that the holiday rush is slowing down and with only one or two more events lined up before the end of the year (does watching the ball drop from the comfort of our couches count as an event?), we are finding ourselves suddenly standing face-to-face with another new year ahead. With the busyness of the Christmas season, we barely had time to consider what the next year could hold for us, yet all of a sudden, here it is!

So, in the few spare moments of quiet we have leading up to New Year’s Eve, we are spending some time reflecting on what has happened in 2015 and the things that we hope to see in 2016. Last year, we were inspired by the idea of buying fewer, but better, pieces (ethically-sourced and made, local, organic materials). We hope that we have helped to inspire you to also seek out fairly-sourced, well-made items for your wardrobe and to see fashion as an interesting and viable arena for positive change.

We prefer to call the things we aspire to our “inspirations” rather than our “resolutions”; resolutions are easy to break, but inspiration sticks around and asks you to be creative in the ways you use it. If we “resolved” to simply buy “better”, we might feel guilty for every purchase we made that didn’t fit the criteria, eventually giving in to the idea that it’s too hard or too expensive to keep going. Being inspired to buy better actually got us thinking about the who, what, where, when and how of each item and prompted us to do a little more digging before purchasing the first thing we saw.

So, you ask, what is our inspiration for 2016?

To be bold.

We feel inspired to make 2016 the year that we say, “Yes” to fashion choices we might normally steer away from, inviting patterns and prints of every ilk into our fashion fold. We feel inspired to wear bright colours and lean a bit further away from a monochromatic palette. We feel inspired to mix it up every once in awhile, choosing looks that truly inspire us over the ones we feel we can “pull off”. We are inspired to make bold choices and risk looking a bit over-dressed at times – and perhaps even turn a few heads!

Here are a few of the looks we are hoping to channel in 2016.

Finally, for good measure and because she hits the nail square on the head:

What is inspiring you as we head into 2016? We would love to hear what is in your hearts and minds as we begin this new year! If you have Twitter, send us a tweet: @ParkersCleaners or leave a comment on this post, below.