drag

Hey, I Like Your Style! Inside the wardrobe of Adelaide-based graphic designer and content creator, Josephine Ainscough

IMAGE VIA @JOAINSCOUGH/INSTAGRAM

WORDS BY JULIA KITTELTY

 

“I like finding style where you wouldn’t expect it.”

We know personal style is a journey (I’m looking at you, Tumblr years) and our series Hey, I Like Your Style! dives into the fashion psyche of our favourite creatives. We’re talking the good, the bad and the 2007.

While the internet has made our fashion icons feel closer than ever before, even the most effortless of outfits came from a closet with some (well-dressed) skeletons. Clickable product tags, photo archives and lives chronicled in 30-second clips just don’t tell the full story.


For more fashion news, shoots, articles and features, head to our Fashion section.


These are the stories behind the wardrobes, exploring how we develop our personal style. There’s a brilliance behind the way we choose to express ourselves and at FJ, we know every outfit has a story. For this instalment of Hey, I Like Your Style!, we enter the wardrobe of Josephine Ainscough.

Josephine has had a lot of different style identities. From taking inspiration from Tumblr as a tween, to being maybe a little too impressionable in her early twenties, she feels as though she might have finally figured herself out. By investing in pieces she cherishes and not limiting her wardrobe to an ‘aesthetic’, Jo’s style is all about the balance between hard and soft, always with “an element of the unexpected”. Read on to hear about her style journey.

Who are you and what do you like to wear? 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Josephine Ainscough (@joainscough)


I’m Josephine but always go by Jo. I am an Indonesian-born, Australian-based graphic designer and content creator. I am a furniture admirer and middle-child syndrome denier (my sisters would disagree). I like finding the balance between hard and soft, feminine and androgynous and trying to add an element of the unexpected.

What has your style evolution looked like? Do you feel like you’ve gained confidence in the way you dress?

I think I’ve always had a strong sense of self and that informs my self-expression and how I dress. But with that has come the embarrassing phases and eras that I was convinced were ‘me to my very core’. So naturally, my style has evolved significantly from being an impressionable Tumblr tween to a chronically online twenty-something.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Josephine Ainscough (@joainscough)


Deciding to invest in pieces that I cherished and planned to wear and keep for as long as possible was the turning point in my style evolution. Unfortunately, I have always been pretty confident in how I dressed which has done little to help with minimising my embarrassing digital footprint. I feel way more authentically myself with how I dress lately, though.

Personal style is a journey. Have you ever felt like you needed to fit into a particular fashion box? 

I used to feel pressure to fit into a particular box. I guess life feels simpler if you can squeeze yourself into a little box: ballet-core, gorp-core, office siren-core – I could go on and on. I used to struggle with sticking to a single aesthetic as how I dress is so dependent on my mood, [the] stage of my life I’m in and recent inspirations I’ve seen. But I came across something a few years ago that brought me a lot of peace.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Josephine Ainscough (@joainscough)


Instead of trying to be just one thing, this video suggested describing your style in a bunch of adjectives, once you have a list of words I was able to split them off into three style alter-egos… [This can] help dictate whether the new things you’re buying fit within the ecosystem of your wardrobe, focus and refine your personal style but also let you explore the most extreme spectrums of your taste. As we all know, we contain multitudes.

Take us back to those awkward teenage years. Do you have any fashion regrets?

There are a lot. They include block brow with a blunt eyebrow pencil, badly tie-dyed T-shirts and strappy gladiator sandals. I like to not look back with too much regret as it was what I liked at the time. That is always going to change so a healthy dose of cringing means growth – right?

What are the most expensive and least expensive items in your wardrobe? 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Josephine Ainscough (@joainscough)


The most expensive item in my wardrobe isn’t technically in my wardrobe yet, as I’m waiting for it to arrive. It’s a custom kilt skirt made from four colours of deadstock tartan fabric. It’s going to be a new fave and I can’t even physically hold it in my hand yet.

The least expensive thing is probably this navy wool jumper that I got from the market for $2 back in 2010. I have some sort of sentimental attachment to it because I used to wear it almost every day for a whole winter. I probably won’t be able to let that one go until it’s in tatters.

What is the most meaningful fashion piece you own?

This is going to sound silly but my Portugal cap I got when I was on my travels in Europe last year. It was the first cap I have worn in a serious way. I never thought of myself as a hat person and thought they always looked goofy on me. After days of walking around Portugal, trying it out for size and trying to ignore the feeling that everyone could tell it I was a fraud – I overcame my fear. A game-changer for managing dirty hair too; a true saving grace.

Who or what influences your style?

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Josephine Ainscough (@joainscough)


Absolutely everything I consume influences my style. I have a real love for film and I think film characters are such good style inspiration. The old people I see on the street are also not to be ignored. Sometimes a local neighbourhood character is rocking the biggest steeze ever – I like finding style where you wouldn’t expect it.

I think you can learn a lot from people who don’t consider themselves to be ‘fashionable’ in any way. The people I look up to are also big sources of inspiration. There are so many creative and amazing dressers online who never fail to give me new ideas or encourage me to try new things. Shoutout to my mutuals as well, ILY.

What fashion piece are you saving for right now? 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Josephine Ainscough (@joainscough)


As it gets cooler in Australia, I am saving up for a dramatic coat to get me through the winter. I’ve been on the hunt for a pointy shoe that has a tiny and wearable heel, that I can rock every day without my feet falling off.

I’ve got my eye on this beautiful chunky silver star necklace from an Australian designer based in Mexico City – it is customisable with a unique stone insert and I’ve been thinking about it ever since I clocked it in a video. This hat also makes the wishlist because I relate to it too hard.

What are the wardrobe items you wear on repeat?

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Josephine Ainscough (@joainscough)


Repeat offenders include a dramatic white collar shirt from Blanca, buckled distressed brown biker boots from Steve Madden, a matching Pleats Please Issey Miyake set, a plaid Ganni seersucker maxi dress, any and every pleated skirt I own, a crisp white Uniqlo Tshirt, and my trusty black Salomon XT-6s.

Who are your favourite local designers? 

Ooooh. Australia is so lucky to have some of the very best. My favourites are Oats the Label, Sister Studios, Permanent Vacation, Apres Studios, Deiji Studios, Sabi the Label, Blanca Studios, Affaires and Mutimer.

To see more of Josephine, head here.

Lazy Loading