Goodwill Hunting #23: hot mom outfits

A reflection on evolving personal style as a Millennial mom

Feb 26, 2023

Welcome to Goodwill Hunting, a newsletter curated by Danielle L. Vermeer, a fashion tech leader and avid thrifter obsessed with making fashion more social, circular, and fun. Update: Goodwill Hunting is shifting to a monthly-ish cadence as I focus on building the future of online thrifting at Teleport. Download the free Teleport app.

✍🏻 A Reflection on Personal Style

Confession: I’m still figuring out my personal style.

This week, I connected with Emily Stochl of the Pre-Loved Podcast for an upcoming podcast (subscribe here!). One of Emily’s questions was about how I’d describe my style.

The short version is that my style is like “Midge Maisel meets Susie Myerson.” (If you get that reference, DM me because we need to be friends!)

Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein in 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' — Credit: Amazon Prime Video

The longer answer is that I’m just now rediscovering and experimenting with my personal style after spending the last 5+ years deep in the trenches of motherhood. My body changed and worked so hard over the last few years of back-to-back pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and nursing. I went up and down 4 cup sizes twice, which felt like an out-of-body experience after being the same size since I was a teenager.

Over Christmas, there was a TikTok trend of moms dressing up like their teen daughters. The videos went viral one after another, with hilarious references to Yung Gravy and MILFs.

It made me realize how for the last few years, I only wore clothes optimized for comfort and function—how easily can baby nurse when hungry? can this shirt get spit-up or toddler snot on it? is it machine washable or dry clean only? Any clothes that were inaccessible or too delicate were put away in storage bins for literally years.

Danielle Vermeer | Teleport ✨ @DLVermeer

the TikTok trend of dressing moms like their teen daughters made me realize something my “mom clothes” optimized for comfort & access while pregnant, nursing, pumping for 5+ years straight 2023 is the year of 🔥 mom outfits

In 2023, my body is finally just mine again. Will this be the year of hot mom outfits?

You’ll have to find out as I track my OOTDs on Teleport, a social app to share and shop outfits—think TikTok meets Depop. Join us!

Download Teleport

♻️ Thrift Finds of the Week

Sourced from ShopGoodwill. Shoppable moobdoard made with <3 with Landing.

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📕 Weekend Reading

What caught my eye recently in fashion, resale, and social commerce.

Could Anyone Keep Track of This Year’s Microtrends? (The Cut)

Social media has accelerated the rise (and fall) of trends. It seems like every week there’s a new TikTok “aesthetic” taking over—clean girl, fairy grunge, coquette, slobwear, etc. “The urge to group a collection of trends under cutesily labeled umbrellas is not new…[but] in 2022, we made up so many names for ways to dress.”

#GRWM: How TikTok's "get ready with me" videos are changing social media (CNBC)

Gen Z & digital strategist Sarah Wilson explains how “the best brands are indistinguishable from creators.” As the first digitally native generation, Gen Z audiences are especially aware of when they’re being sold to. That’s why Zaria Parvez, the mastermind behind Duolingo’s viral (and unhinged) TikTok account, explained: “If our entire strategy is that we don't want it to look like an ad, it’s. not. going. to. look. like. an. ad.”

How 13 Became the Internet’s Age of Adulthood (WSJ)

This article from 2019 explains why an internet privacy law intended to protect minors morphed into the internet’s de facto stance on 13-years-old being the “starting age” for social media use. But researchers and policymakers have growing concerns given the critical neurological development during teen and pubescent years: “At 13, kids are still more than a decade from having a fully developed prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in decision-making and impulse control.”

Association of Habitual Checking Behaviors on Social Media With Longitudinal Functional Brain Development (JAMA Pediatrics)

According to a study published this month in the Journal of American Medical Association Pediatrics, students who checked social media more regularly displayed greater neural sensitivity in certain parts of their brains, making their brains more sensitive to social consequences over time. The lead researcher of the study explains that this may be correlation not causation, “For youth who habitually check their social media, the brain is changing in a way that is becoming more and more sensitive to social feedback over time.”

The Unbundling of Facebook: Why vertical social platforms will dominate by 2030 (Isabelle Zhou)

Similar to this a16z piece from 2019 on the unbundling of Ebay, Isabelle Zhou covers the unbundling of Facebook as Gen Z shifts to new vertical consumer platforms for their social needs. Instead of Facebook Events, there’s Partiful. Instead of Facebook Groups, there’s Discord servers organized by niche, shared interests. Zhou mentions that younger users are moving to social platforms with more authenticity, community, and social proof. A few that come to mind: Landing for moodboards, Diem for social search, Arkive for curating culture, and Teleport for thrifting outfits.