Ivania Carpio is the 25 year old Dutch native behind blog of minimal wonderlust, Love Aesthetics (she's also a Dutch* Vogue* contributor). Mixing high-end items, thrifted bits and bobs that she’s adapted, interior design and beauty tips, Ivania’s USP is minimalism to the max.
Although there are accents of black and grey, the majority of Ivania’s posts feature pure white everything – something that here at The Debrief we can find, well, nerve-wracking, considering there’s definitely one ominous stain on everything we own. But we’ve seen dozens of great streetstyle white-outs (a ‘thing’ ever since Celine did it for AW13) and it was all over the catwalks at 3.1 Philip Lim and Victoria Beckham... so we thought it was about time we grilled a pro. We called up Ivania to see how she makes it work.
Lesson 1: Discover the Fifty Shades Of White
‘In the first drafts of clothes, the pattern is always made in a cream-coloured canvas fabric, and to be honest, I love to see clothes at that stage, before the colours and prints are added,’ explains Ivania of her love of white (with a sprinkling of black and grey). Take note of the endless hues – like cream trousers with an ivory white bomber – and mix them up as you would colours.
Lesson 2. White on white works best in a sporty silhouette
‘White, grey and black feel fresh, new and like a clean slate every single time, no matter how often they are worn,’ explains Ivania of her monochrome mantra. ‘I don’t live my life by a set of rules. I don’t buy anything coloured, because I don't like it.’ Kind of refreshing, no? Especially when she gives us an excuse to wear our Nike leggings as workwear. Ivania shows how cool they look as slick trousers with a white mesh crop and ice-white draped coat.
Lesson 3: Mix up the proportions
If you think life in B&W’s boring, think again. Ivania works white-on-white with a variety of silhouettes – tailored versus unstructured – and tons of texture. ‘Tailoring, form, fit, material and technical aspects are what interests me the most in fashion. With non colors like white and black all the attention goes to these aspects of the garment,’ she says of her desire to keep a clean slate.
Lesson 4: Pair sheer with the opaque, to keep white-on-white interesting
Sheer is a great way to lighten the mood. ‘Covering a perfectly tailored jacket with a crazy print or sequins takes away attention from the garment,’ explains Ivania. So why not invest in a transparent macintosh like Ivania's – which also means you can show off your brand-new sweater. Neat.
Lesson 5: Let your hair do the talking
A white column dress (made by Ivania herself) worn with a pair of ice-white Nike Air Max may send two-fingers up to the colour wheel, but her hair? That's another story. ‘My hair is quite a lot of work,’ the aesthete admits. ‘I dye it every week. Yes, I do like to change colors now and then, but I always stay on the cool side of the color wheel; lavender, blue, grey, mint.’ Try Fudge Urban hair chalk for a non-permanent version.
Lesson 6: Don't be OCD about it
So the, er, multi-million dollar question: how does she keep the white life clean? ‘A bib! No, just joking,’ laughs Ivania. ‘Nothing special, a washing machine and sometimes a pair of scissors. It’s just clothes, it really doesn't matter if I get a stain.’ So red wine’s not out, then? ‘I prefer white over red wine... but that has more to do with taste than with its aesthetics.’ And what about her black cat? ‘I love our Lucifer, he’s so cuddly! We didn’t get him as a piece of furniture to match our house, but he does look good in pictures... Luckily, he doesn’t really leave much fur behind.’ So, there you go.
Follow Hanna on Twitter @hannahanra
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.