I have a new girl crush and things are heating up between us. I cannot stop looking at Laura Harrier and her exceptional street style.
As I’ve been obsessing over Laura recently, I came across this interview she did with The Cut in March and read;
The actress would rather describe her style as “expressive minimalism”
This struck me.
*Immediately googles “expressive minimalism”*
Vogue dubbed Fashion Week Street Style as Expressive Minimalism in their coverage in February so I do think this is a relatively new term that is describing much of popular fashion.
According to Vogue UK;
Expanding on the typically stark genre and imbuing it with personality and fun, it was all about supercharging clean silhouettes with unexpected pops of colour, unusual cuts and statement accessories – and sometimes all of the above.
So let’s unpack this;
Visualize a spectrum with Leandra Cohen at one end and literal stock-image photos of women at the other end. It would look like this;
To simplify things we are going to call the left-side of the spectrum, the Leandra side, MAXIMALIST and we are going to call the right side, STRICT MINIMALIST. I know a lot of people identify as minimalists that are far more stylish than the above but stick with me for a minute.
If we were to expand that spectrum and let’s insert someone like Laura Harrier or the Moosgaard sisters or a number of the other celebrities who’ve street style I’ve previously fawned over. They would fall closer to the minimalism side (hence “expressive minimalism”). This women aren’t just putting on jeans and a t-shirt, they are still thoughtfully styling those basics in their outfits.
But if I also wanted to include some Tibi style (like Keturah) or
who I write about constantly or whose style I admire. The spectrum would look more like this;
You can’t tell me these women are Minimalist. I don’t even think I buy it as Expressive Minimalist. So I am creating a 4th category called Midimalist.
Here’s the thing, I LOVE expressive minimalist outfits. I am instinctively drawn to the scaled back outfits but I felt the need to unpack my feelings after I saw this outfit from one of my favorite websites, The Undone.1
I saw this image and it was an immediate YES for me. BUT I couldn’t help but feel like if I put this outfit on I would look in the mirror and feel like something is missing. I wouldn’t feel like this minimalist or expressive minimalist outfit is complete; I would want to add a colorful sock or a sweater over my shoulder. I would long for the friction of a “wrong shoe” or a statement necklace.
Where Expressive Minimalism (according to Vogue) adds unexpected cuts or accessories; Midimalism leans even further into building tension through color, texture and layers. Some might say “oh add accessories” but I think it’s more nuanced than adding things without thinking about the tension that item brings.
I present an example;
If you’ve read my Substack for long; you’ll notice that so many of the style tips that I find helpful work to take a minimalist base and make it midimalist (3-piece rules, texture friction, proportion playing).
This term has helped me look at outfits that I love on other people and thoughtfully evaluate how I could MIDIMALIZE into an outfit that would make me feel excited to put on.
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Please note that The Undone describes itself as being a place to purchase “curated, highly function” clothes and many times on the website “minimalism” can be found so they are 100% in their lane with this styling!
omg this it is! this is my style!
Wow! Love this, and explains so much about style.