Surf Style inspo (✿◠‿◠)

I've been into surf style from around 1998-2001 lately! My brain is so scattered from looking at magazines for too long. I wanted to write a post to try to collect my thoughts. I took some photos of a few magazines I have to try to help myself with fall inspo. They're mostly from the wrong seasons, I don't care, I'm gonna make them into fall appropriate clothes xD 

I've pretty much accepted that if I wanna look like this I'm going to have to do a considerable amount of DIY. I tried looking for pieces like this, even the same cuts but solid colors, both on US and Japanese secondhand sites and they just don't seem to exist or maybe I don't know how to properly search for them. I overwhelmed myself by searching so much, and I ended up just feeling really discouraged. 

●︿● I have so many ideas in my head but none of them actually exist in real life for me to buy.

I've actually found it difficult to even find just plain tshirts that are cut the way I want which is driving me insane. I recently got an Alba top that is just a plain tshirt with a big embroidered hibiscus, so my plan was to make something sort of inspired by that since embroidery should be no problem for me. 

ughhh, sometimes you just wanna give up because it's so frustrating. I feel like I look too average day to day. I need clothes for fall, and I don't wanna settle for boring clothes, but I feel like what else can I do?? This is the style that is calling to me at the moment and I never wanna look any way but tropical, so this is now my daily frustration. I think I would even settle for modern clothes that I could use as a base for DIY, but they are all in colors I don't want like brown, beige, black, or washed out colors. 

As for what I can actually do about this, once I track down some decent tshirts I know I can make those. I also want to embroider some flowers onto jeans, same with a denim jacket I bought a while ago. I realized that I always used to save photos of outfits with skirts, but really I very rarely wear them. I just feel more comfortable in pants/shorts/capris. That makes things a bit more complicated since skirts are the one thing I feel like is more easily accessible. I actually own at least 3 plaid skirts that work well, but since the only place I really go day to day is work, they're much too short to be practical. Accessories I either already have or very easily have access to the supplies I need to make them. Sweaters I can't do much about without becoming an expert knitter, so I will have to settle for whatever solid color turtlenecks I can find. 

Whew, okay. I don't think my brain feels any better (⊙︿⊙✿) I might have made myself more confused, but at least I have something written down. I really want to persist in my enjoyment of this style, I don't want this overwhelmed and frustrated feeling to make me give up. I just have to find a way to make it work. All of the ideas are swirling around in my head ~(⊕⌢⊕)~  I have such a clear sense of the feeling I want my outfits to give, and it's really frustrating to not be able to express that. The pictures don't really even express my feeling exactly, because I'm not trying to literally copy this style, it's a source of inspiration that has given me ideas for how I want my own stuff to look. It feels very personal to me, like a combination of things I have liked since I was first able to pick out my own clothes as a child.  

Here are my inspo photos. I really want to use these more for the general feeling of the outfits, I don't want to copy any of them. I really like tropical prints and the little details like embroidery that are on a lot of these clothes. The prints from this era have a really nice hand drawn look to them that I feel we've mostly lost with clothes today. I'm not sure I captured it well with these photos, but this surfer girl style has a really natural (like nature that can be wild and colorful, not like clean girl minimal) and comfortable kind of feeling to it. It feels very fitting for me. I like that there are sometimes accessories that look like they might have been handmade or hand painted because they aren't totally perfect. I have a magazine from 2004 that I actually like a lot less because all of the models look much more "glamorous" and don't have this sort of "real person" aesthetic I guess? Like they all have really shiny curled hair and perfect nails, very crisp makeup... and the clothes have started to lose a little of that sort of natural/wild feeling. I like that the models in these older magazines are still very stylish but aren't "perfect" looking. I guess this is also the reason I'm drawn to old school gal as well. There's something that feels very "home-y" about it? I can't think of another way to describe it. It's like being warm and comfortable in your home where you belong. 

I thought this was an good example of interesting pants.. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to find something like that though. 

The embroidery on her dress is what drew me in. 

I really like the flower print on that navy blue skirt. 

I think the embroidery on the flatlay clothes is really inspiring! 

I have a loom for making jewelry like this, makes me want to break it out again! 

I've been really into denim with interesting details like her skirt has here. 

These floral patterns are interesting. This is what I meant about the patterns being hand drawn, not crisp digital art like we mostly see now. If I ever figure out how to properly digitize my paintings, I might use spoonflower to make some floral fabric.  

WHY don't they make sweaters like this anymore am I gonna have to learn to knit too?! 

I really like those black pants with the floral print. The cuts on their sweaters are a bit unusual for this era, at least in the magazines I have. 

This is the only one from a seasonally appropriate magazine LOL. I liked her top a lot. Leopard print feels findable, at least? 

(O∆O) we've reached the end. that was a lot longer than I planned. Thanks for reading, if you did actually make it to the end! Please leave me a comment with advice if you can think of any (◕‿◕✿) I like hearing from you!