In today’s interview we speak to Luisa Kearney a professional fashion editor and stylist. She is a full-time blogger at Online Personal Stylist where she shares inspiring content for forward-thinking women with an interest in fashion, business and sustainable living. It’s a stylish destination where inspirational stories are told through fashion and where conscious living is mainstream.
The aim is to inspire, educate and encourage readers to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle and change the way they perceive fashion. At Online Personal Stylist we believe that dressing well in clothes that you love is the new luxury fashion!
Fashion is less an exhibit of beauty, but more an expression of who we are, what we believe in, our personal values and how we can influence people!
Read our interview below!
My readers want to learn more from you, can you pls tell us about your website?
I’m Luisa, a professional fashion stylist, editor and founder of Online Personal Stylist. Online Personal Stylist is a fashion and style platform for the forward-thinking woman, where inspirational stories are told through fashion and where sustainable living is mainstream! Follow my journey as I team up with aspirational fashion brands, create inspirational style content, and give you a behind the scenes glimpse at life as a professional fashion stylist and blogger.
What motivated you to start your conscious fashion journey?
I’ve always loved fashion and personal stylist, but there are so many aspects of the industry that I dislike. I wanted to embark on my own personal sustainable fashion journey and share it with others.
In addition to my personal ethical journey, speaking as a professional fashion editor & stylist, I wanted to change people’s perception of sustainable fashion. Sustainable fashion is more than just buying ethically manufactured products. It’s also a mindset.
Buying from ethical brands is great, but if you’re constantly buying items that you’ll never wear and always making poor buying decisions then it is still classed as overconsumption. I think a lot of people who are new to the idea of sustainable fashion can feel overwhelmed by the idea. They want to support the cause but are not sure where to start.
When in fact, we can all get involved and make a difference, simply by wearing what we already own and buying items we will actually wear. As well as striving to live more consciously myself, I also wanted to demonstrate to others through my work how it is possible for us all to be more sustainable in our everyday lives through small, simple habits. After all, it is about us all doing something rather than nothing. 
What was the most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far?
Finding my niche. I’ve been blogging for 11 years now and for the majority of this time, blogging has been my full-time career. I’ve always loved curating content, but my chosen niche has changed a couple of times over the years.
There isn’t anything particularly wrong with that. Blogging is my job and we’re entitled to grow and develop in our work. Finding my niche was the most challenging part, but at the same time I’ve also enjoyed experimenting with the topics I’ve written about over the years.
The best piece of advice on this was given to me rather late into my blogging journey and that was to brainstorm 100 blog post title ideas on your chosen topic. If you can’t think up 100 blog post ideas – and they only have to be loose ideas – then you might struggle with producing consistent content for your blog.
Plus, if you plan on earning money from your blog, you can’t afford to run out of things to write about. Of course, it is all a case of trial and error, but it’s something that new bloggers need to consider.
I feel that my blog has grown with me and I love where I am at the moment in my blogging journey. Will it change in the future? Time will tell. But as long as I am happy with the topics I cover and the brands I work with, I know I’m on the right tracks. 
What do you do, personally, in order to live sustainably?
Nobody’s perfect but I try my best. I recycle. I don’t own a car. I use public transport. I have a plant-based diet. I’ve switched over to using zero-waste or plastic-free items where possible in my home. I try to wear every item of clothing I own at least 30 times before discarding them.
I find that planning my outfits in advance is an excellent way of circulating what’s in my wardrobe. Often we have the habit of wearing the same few items on repeat, so this method helps me to look as though I’m always wearing something different, when in actual fact it’s all fashion I already own. It’s amazing what outfits you can put together with just the clothes you already own and a little imagination.
On the other hand, I haven’t completely eliminated single-use plastic from my life, despite my best efforts. I still own designer bags and shoes that are made from animal leather, which were purchased years ago before I started supporting ethical fashion.
I’ve debated many times whether or not to get rid of my designer fashion accessories, but I’m yet to find the best way to do that because it doesn’t seem right to profit from them or simply throw them out. So, I have decided to keep them and use them.
They’ve lasted me so long that I haven’t had to replace them or buy anything additional in so many years, which settles my conscience. I think it’s important to act rationally when you first embark on your new, sustainable lifestyle.
You might be tempted to detox your wardrobe and replace every single thing with ethical alternatives, but if it means producing unnecessary waste then it’s counterproductive. I feel it’s best to use everything you own until it’s no longer adequate. Then when something needs replacing, replace each item with sustainable, conscious purchases. 
Who inspires you? What about them impressed you?
There are so many people who inspire me. I couldn’t possibly name them all. Over the past several years or so since I started out on my sustainable journey, my lifestyle changed and so did the way I blogged.
Since then, the aspirational individuals and business owners I’ve discovered have been plenty – all spreading an important message and inspiring others. I know that there is a lot of negativity around the use of social media, but if you look for it, there is plenty of good to be found too.
There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t open up the Instagram app on my phone and find myself drawn into reading about the good so many people are doing.
Social media can be an overwhelming place, but I’ve learned to ignore the “noise” and focus on maintaining quality connections with those who continue to inspire and motivate me in my life and work.
Links:
https://onlinepersonalstylist.com https://www.instagram.com/onlinepersonalstylist/ https://www.pinterest.com/OnlinePersonalStylist/ https://www.facebook.com/theonlinepersonalstylist/
