outfit details & sizing linked here!
When people ask me what I do for work, I usually find myself flustered and fumbling over my words. It inevitably comes out different every time, but in the end, people generally get the idea that I create content and share style inspiration mainly through social media. Even though at this point, some would call me an influencer, in my head the word “influencer” has such a different meaning than what I aim to do here every day. I think part of that aversion to the idea of influencing is that when I started looking on Instagram for outfit inspiration, I found myself discouraged because the people whose style I was drawn to were sharing $400 dresses and one-of-a-kind pieces. That wasn’t what I needed (or could afford based on our budget!) I needed pieces that I could do life in – mix and match and get a ton of mileage out of season after season.
One thing I think about literally daily, is value. There are some pieces that I’d encourage us to invest in – and there are others places where it doesn’t make sense to pay a premium and I take that so seriously, because at the end of the day – in this stage of motherhood – there are so many things we are spending money on and I don’t want to be part of the culture that says you have to spend a ton of money to look and feel your best. Great style – and personal style – is often a mix of high/low price points with a few tried and true high quality pieces complimented by the right surround sound.
And while this community has grown, I still don’t think of myself as an “influencer”. I’m just a mom (that gets to do all the ordering and returning for us 😉 so you don’t have to! Because there is just so much out there and it can be overwhelming! ). I love that I can share my latest finds- be it the best pair of jeans, a cute date night top, an active set that gives us that nudge of motivation to workout, etc. etc. so that we can all show up as the best version of ourselves.
And that’s what it’s all about. At its simplest, I created Moments to help women build the daily habit of getting dressed again because for me, that habit was a powerful first step in a personal journey that took me from my lowest lows to a place where I felt like I was truly thriving again.
Let’s rewind 18 months. I had recently left my dream job of over a decade at J. Crew and Madewell because being a mom of two young kids while also trying to commute into NYC every day nearly broke me. Every single day at daycare, my kids were the first ones dropped off and the last to be picked up and I still had to leave my office by 4PM just to avoid aftercare. Talk about major mom guilt, piled on top of guilt I was letting my team down. Even staying up late and getting up early wasn’t enough.
So in 2022, I made the best decision for me and our family and decided to stay home with the kids full time. This was a major mindset shift for me because much of my identity was wrapped up in earning money. I had literally worked since I had my first job at babysitting when I was 13, followed by busing tables in high school, working two jobs in college and then joining corporate. Being a full-time mom is so hard to describe. On the one hand you feel incredibly blessed that you get so much quality time with your little humans. There are so many tender moments of snuggles and kisses, smiles and laughs every single day. You are there for every milestone, every first bike ride and lost tooth. It is also an incredible test of patience. Littles move incredibly slow, they are messy and siblings inevitably bicker. I had to learn the balance between correction and letting them fail and figure it out. While my mental load was no longer split between J. Crew and my kids, the mental load was still as heavy as ever. Laundry, meal prep, driving to activities…its surprisingly exhausting and takes all of you and more.
It may sound obvious, but in both my corporate life and my mom life, there was one thing I was forgetting to take care of: me. This manifested itself in two ways. First, I knew that for my mental health and my confidence, having a sense of purpose beyond being a mom was important to me. I truly believe that work is a calling and that we were born to share our gifts with the world. I also wanted to be a role model to my kids so they saw what hard work looked like and to show them that achieving your goals and dreams was 100% possible with the right focus, energy and effort. Second, I got into this rut of going most days living in my workout clothes which for me was an outward illustration of how I was feeling inside: a little frazzled, not confident and lacking focus. Around the same time, I read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear and I am not exaggerating to say it changed my life. I learned that small daily rituals have the power to meaningfully change your productivity, your identity and how you feel. I decided to start small and choose the one thing I could control in my daily routine that I thought could make a difference. I chose to get dressed.
This was a good news, bad news situation. The good news is that I’ve always loved clothes and style. As I kid, I used to obsess about my wardrobe to the point my dad would often comment that “life isn’t a fashion show!” … his reminder to focus on the things that truly matter like school, hard work, sports, and relationships. He wasn’t wrong by the way, those are the things that matter. But I also knew deep down that for me, getting dressed wasn’t about impressing anyone. It was a way to honor myself, to help me feel my best so that I could go out there and show up as the best version of myself for those things that were truly most important.
The bad news is that I had let my closet go since I left J. Crew and I only had a few pieces left. If I was going to build the habit of getting dressed again, I needed to build my wardrobe in the process. I realized it wasn’t easy to start from scratch, but I found that I really enjoyed the process of finding beautiful clothes, hunting for classic and new brands, basics and statement pieces and styling everything together. My life these days is full of trips to the playground, school drop offs, birthday parties, school events, running errands around town, volunteering/PTO events – and so my focus is on sharing everyday style that fits these everyday moments. Outfit ideas that are practical, comfortable, and effortless, but still give you that boost of confidence and allow you to start your day with intention.
What I also found is that as I shared my story of motherhood, getting dressed again and rebuilding my confidence with my inner circle, so many people felt the exact same way. Everyone wanted to be the best version of themselves, but somehow along the way they had given so much of themselves that they began to lose some of their identity and their swagger. And it was in one of those conversations that I realized that I could use my love of clothes and my newfound discipline of Atomic Habits to help other women with their own journey.
So that’s the long story of why I created All the Moments, why I share outfits every day, and what I hope I can help you with. Here you’ll find timeless style with the occasional trend, elevated basics worth investing in, pops of color to spark joy, and honest recommendations you can actually trust.
I hope you stop by for inspiration and leave feeling a little more confident, a little more put-together, and a lot more like your best self.
Thanks for being here!
Xx Meg
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