Saved and Screenshotted | January

A catalog of images I saved last month

Does everyone have 1500 screenshots saved on their phone, or is that just me? I tend to either save on Instagram or screenshot everything that catches my eye, with the intention of doing…something with these images later. As you can imagine, I have never done anything with any of these images — until right now.

As part of my quest to pinpoint my taste (see here to catch up), I thought I would keep track of these things and share them monthly. This could either be really tedious or really illuminating (or both) and I am nothing if not firmly at the intersection of tedious and illuminating, so let’s get into it:

Exhibit A: Truly, what is going on with primary colors? If you had showed me this a few years ago, it would have felt like the graphic equivalent of comic sans; today it somehow feels chic and European (I lived in the Netherlands from the ages of three to six, my peak primary color days! I should know!)

Exhibit B: The Instagram account of the podcast “We Don’t Wanna Grow Up” posts one of my favorite things on the internet: videos flipping through 90s magazines and catalogs, with era-appropriate music accompanying. This particular page of a 1996 Delia’s catalog was a record-scratch moment — it felt like seeing an old friend in a crowd. (Is that weird? Probably.) That shiny light purple feels like it’s part of me.

Exhibit C: If I could pinpoint one trend among the things I’ve saved into my Instagram saved folder, it would be haphazard, cluttered bookshelves. If this was in my house, I would lose my mind. How can I incorporate some intentional light chaos¹ into my life without feeling like i’m suffocating?

Exhibit D: More and more Delft-inspired stuff is popping up on my Instagram explore page. This is almost certainly because I keep liking and saving what does come up, but is it also a little bit of a trend? (Also, again, I lived in the Netherlands as a kid — maybe I’m primed to be into it. Is it possible that I’ve just discovered the first cornerstone of My Taste: Dutch???)

Exhibit E: I’m still clinging to millennial pink for dear life. Is it because I like like it? Is it because I (giant confession coming) own a millennial pink couch (I know) and therefore am invested in its longevity? Anyway, when the millennial pink overlord (Into the Gloss) sent out this millennial pink bat signal (posted this swan mosaic on the grid) I came running (smashed that save button).

(PS: If you’ve been personally victimized by millennial pink, I highly recommend “Glossy,” the story of Emily Weiss and Glossier)

Exhibit F: These four images were grouped together on my Instagram explore page and I had to screenshot because they really felt like me. The stripes! The Olsen Twins! Grover! The girl at a laptop wearing a baseball cap!

Exhibit G: This isn’t a screenshot, but I took a photo of this bag of cough drops because I liked the packaging. The fact that I’m taking inspiration from cough drops should tell you what kind of winter we’re having over here!

I’m curious: are any of these things trending for you? Is the algorithm actually working for me, or are we all just being fed the same things?

See you next time, where I get really vulnerable and share a photo of me in an Outfit from 2004 and tell you about something trendy I bought recently.

1. This is different from unintentional light chaos, which my home is always filled with.