Notes on Taste
Deep Read with Creative Director Juliana Salazar
I interviewed creative director Juliana Salazar earlier this summer - a moment, it’s important to note, when global current events were less devastating than they are right now - and the subject of taste was on my mind. As I age out of any bracket that might confidently be described as ‘youthful’, I’ve been thinking more about my personal style choices and general consumer habits. I’m known among friends as a ruthless declutterer, but a major wardrobe clearout recently revealed to me how much filler I’ve managed to accumulate over the past few years – mostly thoughtless purchases dictated by some flight of Instagram-fuelled fancy. The tedious process of sorting/selling/donating garments that I can’t recollect why I ever bought in the first place made me question to what extent I could say my taste is truly my own.
I’d also just opened an edition of Opulent Tips - the “internet’s first invitation-only Natural Style-Email Newsletter” - by the effusive fashion writer Rachel Tashjian Wise on this very subject. Writing under the subject title ‘THE PERSONAL STYLE EXISTENTIAL CRISIS’, Wise writes: “SORRY BUT NOT EVERYONE CAN HAVE STYLE AND YOU KNOW WHAT, I’M IN FACT NOT SORRY!!!!!!!!!!” (Her enthusiastic use of caps lock, not mine). Tashjian Wise’s broader argument - that people now flock to social media to dissect and replicate original personal style in a way that is neither organic, nor particularly stylish - might be unapologetically elitist, but it rings true. “Personal style is a skill, a talent, a passion, a special kind of genius,” she writes. “The average person scrolling through TikTok is never going be on that level.”
All of this is to say that the Tik-Tokification of personal style is something I explored in my conversation with Juliana, alongside questions of taste, travel, and the highs and lows of life as a creative multihyphenate. A Deep Reading list featuring recommendations from both Juliana and myself can be found below.
The conversation can be found on Apple here and Spotify here.
Thank you for reading,
Phoebe
JULIANA SALAZAR: DEEP READING LIST
Keywords and Phrases: The Meaning of Taste, ‘The Fashion System’, Personal Style is Sustainable Style, Subculture, Social Condition, Aesthetic Anxiety
Juliana’s Picks