Fashion – Shea-ish

I Recreated 3 of Carrie Bradshaw’s Most Iconic Looks

Let’s talk Sex and the City. I’m definitely a Miranda but I always admired Carrie’s adventurous fashion choices, even if some of them missed the mark (giant flower brooches, anyone?). Her effortless and even unkempt style has stuck with me from my teenage years into adulthood.

While SATC holds a special place in my heart, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to rewatch it all the way through. The show was ahead of its time in some ways but has not aged well in others (I recently watched a clip of the characters discussing bisexuality and damn was it cringe worthy). Topics of race, sexuality, and gender were not handled appropriately by 2020 standards, not to mention the complete lack of diversity among the main cast.

What do we do with shows and movies that become problematic as they age? Leave them in the past? Approach them with a critical eye? Stop putting them on a pedestal? Recognize them as a representation of culture at the time? I ask myself these questions more and more frequently as I age.

Though Sex and the City has aged poorly, Carrie’s style has remained evergreen. I find myself returning to some of her most iconic (or even underrated) looks time and time again. I love how artistic Carrie was with her style, often wearing pieces in a different way than they were intended. I hope to bring that same mindset to my own fashion choices. I decided to recreate and modernize three of my favorite Carrie looks. These re-imaginings are all much more affordable and the majority of these pieces are thrifted.

The Ab Belt

This outfit haunts me. I used to hate it because the belt was so strange with the cropped button-down situation. I don’t actually hate the belt though, so I decided to re-imagine the look as ’80s-inspired workout wear! Work those abs!

The Boyfriend Button-down

I absolutely love the messiness of this look, but she still makes it look intentional with the addition of the belt. I decided to add bike shorts to modernize this look and make it more wearable. I hate to think what would happen if Carrie bent over in this outfit!

The Midnight Walk

Let me think back to the girl I was when I first saw this look in the Sex and the City Movie.
I was a creative and ambitious teenager, though still a bit naive and insecure. I aspired to be like the women I looked up to: successful, fashionable, confident. I remember watching the New Years Eve scene where Carrie throws on Manolos and a fur coat over her pajamas to go comfort Miranda in the middle of the night. “THAT is the woman I want to be,” I thought. It’s uncertain what made this scene resonate with me so much. The opulence of throwing a fur coat on over pajamas. The audacity of walking through the city in mismatched pajamas. The sweetness of trekking through the snow to see a friend.
Whatever it was, that scene stuck with me.
Back then, I spent so much time envisioning the woman I wanted to be. Pasting pictures of her around my mirror, flipping through pages of her in magazines, watching her in movies. But now, a decade later, I’ve realized that I am her. I’ve always been my dream woman. All I had to do is decide that I was. Who knew it could be so easy?
So, to show myself that I am indeed the fabulous woman I’ve always wanted to be, I recreated Carrie’s thrown together New Years Eve look (sans Manolos of course) using all vintage and clothing I already own. The dream woman is a state of mind!

Which look is your favorite? Comment down below and let me know which look I should recreate next!

The Biggest Photo Editing Mistakes Made by Beginners (and how to avoid them)

Editing is an incredibly important part of digital photography. While you should try to master using composition, lighting, and your camera’s settings to controlthe outcome of the photo, post-editing is also super valuable to your toolkit as a photographer.

When photographing myself, I’m acting as both photographer and model, and I can’t always control every element of the photo. This has made me incredibly comfortable using Lightroom to achieve my desired effect.

When I was just learning to use Lightroom and Photoshop, I made a lot of mistakes that made my photos look amateur, and I wish I had someone to guide me through them. You’re always going to run into bumps along the way, but here are the biggest editing mistakes I wish I had known when I was a beginner:

1. Not editing at all. When I first started taking photos I wouldn’t edit them at all. I thought I was preserving the integrity of the photo, but I was actually just missing out on stylistic opportunities. Post-editing your photos can help you create a mood and develop a cohesive style.

2. Editing too much. After getting over my fear of editing, I went the complete opposite direction. I was using selective color and taking the saturation slider up to the maximum. I thought that intense editing and colors would make my photos more interesting. This is not always the case. Photos can easily become overwhelming if the eye doesn’t know where to land. Focus on enhancing the elements that are already present in your photo, this will keep it from becoming too busy.

3. Not using presets. This one is incredibly important, especially when posting your photos on Instagram. Purchasing or creating your own presets in Lightroom helps to create a cohesive artistic voice. It also helps cut down on editing time and gives you a place to start when editing each photo. If you’re just starting out, I definitely suggest purchasing a preset pack from a photographer you admire. This will give you a great starting point and insight into how they edit their photos. You can always make your own changes later.

I could talk about photography forever! Drop your photography and editing questions in the comments and I’ll tackle them in an upcoming post!

Why I Started Blogging

Why did I start blogging?
It’s not because I love having pretty pictures of myself (although, damn, do I look good). Truthfully, it’s because I was disappointed. As a teen living in the Midwest, there weren’t a lot of local resources for fashion inspiration or community, so I flocked to online spaces. However, I quickly became disappointed with with the focus on fast fashion trends and designer labels within the fashion blogging community. It seemed like many bloggers were copies of one another—combining the same trends and designer pieces into nearly identical outfits—claiming they had style just because they had money.
I thought that to be a blogger, you had to have a Chanel purse and a new wardrobe for every season. No one would want to see the little strange pieces pulled from the back of my closet.

Then, I thought about the people whose style I admire most. The reason they inspire me isn’t the brand they’re wearing, but the way the put it together and make it their own. Those weird little pieces in the back of their closet are exactly what I love seeing!
I started blogging to change the narrative of consumption in fashion and bring my creative perspective to the world of fashion blogging. I want to show that you don’t have to buy new clothes every season or have the latest ‘it’ item to have style. Style comes from the vision, ingenuity, and creativity within all of us!

3 Ways To Use a Bed Sheet In Your Photos

If there’s something I want to be known for as a blogger and as an artist, it’s using what I have on hand. I fully believe that art and fashion should be accessible to everyone, and that means you shouldn’t have to keep buying stuff in order to participate. You can have the most high-end camera and the most expensive props, and still take shit photos. It truly is not about what you have, it’s about what you do with it. So, today I’m sharing three things you can do with a simple bed sheet to create fun and interesting photos!

1. Use it as a backdrop! Hang a string (here I tied it to two branches) and affix the sheet using clothespins. Pro tip: if doing this inside you can just tape the sheet directly to the wall!

2. Style it as a skirt. Tie the sheet around your waist and tuck the ends. You may need to fluff and style it to get the look exactly how you like.

3. Let it catch the wind to create movement. Toss the sheet up in the air to create an airy, breezy effect. It may take a few tries to get the shot!

Let me know which photo is your favorite and tag @shea_ish on Instagram if you try any of these so I can share your results!

Styling Vintage Nightgowns

If I look up from where I’m sitting in my living room, I can easily spot several useless but pretty items I’ve collected over the years: an empty french cookie tin, glass candle jars with nothing but a stub of wick and a thin film of wax at the bottom, a beer bottle with a minimalist design that I now use to display a single dried leaf. I find it impossible to part with these items because they’re too pretty for the trash bin. Once every few months, I’ll get overwhelmed with the clutter and purge some stuff from my stash. But, without fail, a few months later I’ll have another budding collection of tiny glass jars and artfully designed boxes.

One item I consistently gravitate towards even though I have little use for it is a pretty vintage nightgown. I’m always cold when I sleep, so I prefer to wear something more cozy than a gown. Many of my prettiest sleepwear pieces have therefore spent years balled up in the back of a drawer, but time and time again I would leave the thrift store with another lacy gown to add to my collection.

I eventually decided that I needed to change my approach to these pieces and rethink how I could use them. Since then, I’ve started trying to style my vintage nightgowns in ways that can be worn out of the house and look more appropriate for day to day.

If you’ve never thought about thrifting sleepwear and want to start, or if you have a bunch of nighties you never wear, here are my four top ways to style a nightgown for daily wear!

1. Layer it over bike shorts and a tight tee.

2. Tuck it into jeans to make it look like a camisole.

3. Tie it up for a cropped cut.

4. Dress it up with makeup and accessories. Slip dresses are very trendy for dressy occasions right now—no one has to know you got this one in the sleepwear section!

How do you like to style vintage sleepwear? Let me know in the comments!

The scam of being an influencer (and how to avoid it)

I used to think that in order to be relevant in the fashion blogger world, I always had to have the next best trendy thing. I think back to the items that it seemed like EVERYONE had for a season—Jeffery Campbell Lita boots in 2011, or, more recently, Cult Gaia’s Ark bag in the summer of 2017. I remember feeling left out because, in my mind, I couldn’t get the perfect summer photo without that bag. In reality, my lifestyle had no need for a see-through bamboo handbag. Still, I was worried that people on Instagram would assume that I didn’t know what was going on in the world of fashion if I didn’t have the ‘it’ bag.

I also had this little voice nagging inside my head that asked, “but do YOU really even like it?”

In the end, I decided to listen to that little voice and not buy the bag. If I saw someone carrying it now, it would feel strange—like a relic of the past. Why had I wanted that bag, that fit neither my personal style or my lifestyle, so badly?

This is the type of groupthink that can be hard to avoid in the age of Instagram influencing. Not only does social media make you believe that you always need the ‘it’ item, it also makes you think that you need new stuff in order to be churning out new and original content daily. I thought that I had to have all of these trendy things in order to be an influencer and for people to take me seriously.

So, who was really being influenced here?

We may think that we have to give into these trends in order to stay relevant, but I’m here to tell you that this is completely untrue. I also want to let know that it’s okay if you’ve felt this way.

Now I’ll ask an important question: What makes good content?

Is it how new and on-trend it is? Is it how aesthetically pleasing it is? How much attention it gets? Or is it the story it communicates? These are questions I’ve asked myself a lot, and let me tell you, it’s not about what purse you do or don’t have–it’s about what you do with it.

The desire for something new is natural, but there are many more ways to fulfill this desire that won’t fill our closets with trendy pieces that will be obsolete next season.

In my own content, I’ve tried to combat this by focusing on creativity in everything I post. What makes each photo I take different from the last is not what clothes I’m wearing, but the way I’ve styled them, the story I’m telling, and the techniques I’ve used. I collect inspiration like crazy, and try to come up with new ways to challenge myself.

The second thing that has helped me is thrift shopping and shopping my own closet. Yes, thrift shopping is still consuming, but it’s a more ethical way to fulfill that desire for something new. It also allows you the see the many possibilities in each garment and be creative with how you style and photograph it.

The third (and maybe the most difficult and important) thing that will allow you to avoid the trap of trends, is having a strong sense of self and your unique value. I used to want to be so unique. I got upset when I thought someone else was trying to dress like me, and honestly that’s one of the reasons I got into thrifting in middle school—I wanted to find unique pieces that no one else had. At some point that drive to be different diminished, and in navigating a new space like Instagram, I more than anything wanted to fit in and be liked. I was afraid I would be called an imposter for posting about fashion when I didn’t even have the trendy item of the moment.

I can’t tell you how important it is to stop this little voice in your head that tells you that you have to be like everyone else in order for them to see your value. Your value lies in your differences. No trend was ever started by someone who follows. Even if most people don’t get it, I promise you that there are people who do, and they will gravitate towards you.

The value of your content lies in what you have to say and your perspective, no one else’s.