Hey, I Like Your Style! Exploring the wardrobe of Auckland-based content creator, Poppy Iona
IMAGE VIA @LENTILMUM/INSTAGRAM
WORDS BY IZZY WIGHT
“I always say that if someone needs to identify my body and I’m not wearing some form of red, it’s probably not me!”
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 own 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 Poppy Iona. A self-proclaimed maximalist and a lover of “ridiculous prints” and hyper-feminine styles, Poppy’s wardrobe is built around vintage cowboy boots and the four colours she enjoys (the most important one being red). Below, she speaks on her style influences, wardrobe staples and why she will always be a dramatically overdressed person.
Who are you and what do you like to wear?
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Hi! My name is Poppy, I’m an amateur content creator and student from Melbourne, who currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand. I find my style tricky to define as it’s quite eclectic and all over the place, but my central style principles are unique, hyper-feminine and colourful.
About 95 per cent of my closet and jewellery is thrifted or from small businesses, and leans very heavily [toward] ’90s/2000s. While I would love to be an archive Vivienne Westwood, Blumarine or Chopova Lowena girlie, I am still on a student budget!
What has your style evolution looked like? Do you feel like you’ve gained confidence in the way you dress?
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Let me tell you, I came out of the womb in a pink tutu and red lipstick. I’ve always been an eccentric person and early on in life, I worked out that I could get attention from the way I dressed. As a kid, I would refuse to leave the house if I wasn’t wearing at least some form of glitter.
Be it sequins, glitter eyeshadow or costume jewellery, I couldn’t bear to be in public dressed anything less than what I saw myself as – a fairy princess. This has resulted in me having a lifelong love affair with ’90s/2000s fashion. I love the maximalism, ridiculous prints and hyper-femininity a lot of that era’s fashion embodied.
@lentilmumma one thing about me, im always going to throw some red in there 💋♥️ #pinterestinspo #ootd #fitcheck #vintageoutfit #thriftedfashion #fashion ♬ Ray Mysterio (Instrumental) – The Alchemist
As I’ve gotten older, I have realised I really enjoy about four colours, so I build my looks around that. One of the chicest people I have ever met was an old coworker who only wore head-to-toe pink.
I once asked her how she always looked so well dressed, and she told me that since everything in her closet goes together, it’s pretty hard to make a bad outfit. Honestly, I took that and ran with it. I always say that if someone needs to identify my body and I’m not wearing some form of red, it’s probably not me!
Personal style is a journey. Have you ever felt like you needed to fit into a particular fashion box?
Having been both a size eight and a size 18, being plus-sized makes it so, so much harder to be considered ‘stylish’. Mainstream stores don’t stock your sizes, plus-size stores don’t fit my aesthetic and op shops hardly stock anything cool that’s bigger than a 12 to 14. Trying to fulfil a vision you have in your head when it’s 20 times harder to find the right pieces makes you a much more creative stylist.
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Also, as a society, we are so obsessed with the idea that all clothes need to be ‘flattering’ – which usually just means it makes you look skinnier/hides features that society deems unattractive. It genuinely took me until I was 21/22 years old to be comfortable wearing loose clothing in public because I had such a complex about looking anything less than ‘put-together’ at all times.
I will always be a very dramatically overdressed person, that’s just who I am. But my style got so much better and more interesting once I stopped prioritising only what ‘suits me’, and instead started focusing on how fun the outfit is to wear/look at.
Take us back to those awkward teenage years. Do you have any fashion regrets?
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This is a pretty bold claim to make, but I think I had very good style for a teenager. Yes, there was a lot of poorly bleached hair and DIY crop tops, but you could never call me unoriginal. I was also at the peak of my Instagram fashion influencer bullshit in high school, so clearly I was doing something interesting.
I would say my only regret was the brief phase I went through of trying to fit in with my peers. You know how Dita Von Teese dresses ‘normal’ every Halloween? It was very that. I look back at photos of me in my friend’s Kookai bandage dresses and cringe… I look like I’m cosplaying as a Toorak socialite.
What are the most expensive and least expensive items in your wardrobe?
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Definitely the most expensive would be my shoes, I’m a wannabe collector of vintage cowboy boots. After one too many pairs of vintage heels crumbling on a night out, I now only buy very good quality (almost exclusively leather) shoes.
My least expensive would be my jewellery. I love nothing more than thrifting kooky statement necklaces from the early 2000s, fashion has come around [to the point] where they’re cool again but still cheap!
What is the most meaningful fashion piece you own?
@lentilmumma I havent been able to stop thinking about Saltburn since I saw it so here are my summer go to outfits 🚬💋🌟🛀🌸 #summeroutfitinspo #summeroutfitideas #vintageoutfitd #fitcheck #thriftedfashion #pinterestinspo #fitinspo #midsize #midsizefashion #midsizestyle ♬ original sound – Classic Tunes 02
All of my most meaningful pieces have come from my mum. Though technically not a fashion piece, my mum gave me two gold rings on my 21st birthday that she was given at the same age. I feel completely naked without them!
That, or my leopard faux fur coat I bought when I was 16. I have carried her through multiple countries, moved in and out of a dozen rentals, and still bust her out every single winter without fail.
Who or what influences your style?
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My motto has always been to dress like the hot mean girl in a teen movie! I have always been obsessed with movies/TV, and most of my style influences are costumes from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Jawbreaker, Hackers, etc.
I tend to dress very hyper-feminine, to the point of being a bit costume-like. I take a lot of cues from Rose McGowan; we have quite similar colour schemes and body types, and I adore how camp her outfits always were.
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I am also a pretty severe Pinterest addict, less so for outfits themselves and more for inspiration images like shells, disco balls etc, which I base outfits around.
What fashion piece are you saving for right now?
I will own a closet full of Fashion Brand Company one day if it kills me! They make such ridiculously whimsical pieces – every time I see someone wearing them IRL I instantly know who made it. Now that I’m almost done with university, I’m also trying to transition into a more ‘adult’ wardrobe by buying more statement, high-quality collector pieces from small businesses.
What are the wardrobe items you wear on repeat?
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You will almost never see me not wearing boots, I don’t care if it’s 30 degrees outside. While I tend to rotate bags a lot, I almost always come back to the same trusty little red purse I found in an op shop for $3.
Who are your favourite local designers?
I adore Sexiaz Lingerie, Oats the Label, Emily Watson, Wah Wah Australia, Caitlin Snell, Millie Savage, Roisin Dubh, BaoBei and Dyspnea.
For more of Poppy’s outfits, head here.
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