This is part two of our interview with Instagram fashionista Miss K Michael. Read part one here.
In one of your YouTube videos, you said you always wanted to be a comedian. How does your sense of humor come out in your fashion?
I don’t think anything about me is really that serious in general. I like to pair things in a funny way. Sometimes I look really grandma’d up. The other day I wore a peach outfit and my husband said, “You look like Mrs. Doubtfire.” I loved it. That just fueled me even more. He thinks I dress really ridiculously; [I’d say] I’m more just carefree. If this looks funny, I’m good with looking funny. You can’t care, to an extent. It makes me happy, and if someone else doesn’t like it, I’m glad it’s not on your body, and it’s on mine. I do whatever makes me happy, and sometimes it looks weird. I’m okay with looking weird.
I know you made a YouTube video about body shaming and body positivity. When you face comments on Instagram that are negative or shaming about your body or outfits, how do you deal with that? How has your response evolved over time?
Like anybody, at first you take things to heart. Working with the public and with people, I’ve learned if someone says something like that…I hate to say that it’s jealousy, cause that’s the answer everybody goes to first and that’s not always the case. I think it’s probably somebody’s insecurities about themselves. It has nothing to do with me. It’s whoever’s making that comment and how they feel about it.
My attitude is, if you don’t like it, whatever, but I feel good in this, I like it. I think it’s important with body image—I may not be at my goal weight right now, but it’s important to feel good about yourself no matter what weight you’re at. In high school, I was like, “I’m so fat. Why are my thighs spread out on the seat like that?” Now I’m like, “I look so good.” I have no idea what I’ll look like five years from now.
When you think about how you looked in high school, remember you really did look good and remember you feel good right now. You’re never going to be in this part of your life ever again.
Out of all your outfits, do you have a few that are favorites or special to you?
I have so many different pieces that are favorites for different reasons. My closet is really colorful. I’m really into yellow and Crayola crayon colors, true really bright colors. I love flowy things, long dresses. I don’t know how you could not feel beautiful wearing a floor-length gown.
I have this 70’s zip-up maxi dress with white and blue and lime green and pink flowers all over it. That’s one of my favorites and it’s really unique. I doubt anyone anywhere else will have it. That’s my favorite stuff to get, the kind I will never see on anyone else. I like to be the only person with it, with everything I wear.
Why is that?
I want to be as unique as possible. I want someone to be like, “Wow. I’ve never seen that before.” Even if it looks ridiculous—and a lot of my stuff looks ridiculous. I feel like I can find a way to make it good and everybody’s like, “I don’t think I could ever wear that, but you wear it really well.” And that fuels me to keep doing it. Can I make this cool? Can I make this weird top look good?
Do you have any other favorites?
I have this other skirt I really love. It’s another sixties style—I’m really into sixties recently. It’s so colorful and the prints are absolutely nuts. I have this other maxi skirt I wore with an orange top and I super love that one too.
I know you wore our Hey, Arnold! Shirt. You had this whole retro look and you tagged it #modernclassic. What does modern classic mean to you? Do you find it a challenge to pair more modern pieces with that retro image?
I feel like pairing both things together is one of my favorite things to do. Take something that someone would maybe wear super casually and dress it up or put a different spin on it to make it unique, like of course I do with everything. I got the Reptar shirt too; I bought them at the same time. I loved it because it’s a classic button up, which is really easy to do a lot of things with.
It’s really about how you do your makeup. The easiest way to make something classic is to put a wing liner on and a red lip. It puts a different twist to it. I wore red shorts with it. I’ve worn it a few different times. Most recently, I wore it with blue hair and a little bowler hat. I try to wear it differently every time.
The easiest way to change it up is to vary how you wear your makeup, what kind of bottoms you wear with it, all the accessories.
Would you say that coordination is instinctive for you?
I think it’s very instinctive. People ask me, “How do you come up with this stuff?” I just see this color and I’m like, “Okay, I have this and I have this.” It’s really easy for me. I do it on a whim because it just comes to me. I’m a very creative, colorful person. It’s just easy.
How long does it take you…let’s say tomorrow morning you decide, I’m going to wear this, how long does it take you to put together the rest of your outfit?
Maybe two minutes. I know my inventory of what I have. I’m a natural at it. Style is my thing, so I put it together just like that. I go with it and it ends up looking good most of the time.
What do you think has been the key to you being successful on Instagram and continuing to gain followers?
Consistency, for sure. Posting often. Sometimes I feel like I post too much. That’s a fine line with Instagram finding that balance of how much to post. My thing with that is I can’t have a full page of pictures of me. With a lot of accounts, every single picture is—I hate the word selfie, a self-portrait sounds nicer. I like to throw in different pictures of something that correlates to something I wore that day so there’s a pretty flow to my page. I’m so particular about everything.
Some people only post black and white pictures. My page is colorful; my theme would be color. Keeping up with that colorfulness has kept people engaged in my page because that’s what they know they’re going to see. Being consistent with any sort of theme you want to go with.
Do you have any other advice you’d give to someone starting out who wants to be a social media success that you’ve learned along the way?
Be yourself. People like genuineness. Look like you’re having fun. If you look like you’re having fun, people will have fun. Stay true to yourself. I could do pinup or post a picture of myself every day, and I’m sure I’d have more followers, but I want to stay true to me and that’s not what I want to do. If I have less followers because I’m doing what I feel like is best, that’s important. Some people are all about being successful and doing whatever it takes to get there.
I understand that, but I want to have fun with it. Me posting what I want and doing it the way I want to do it is important. Life is short. Have a good time. Don’t worry about what other people are doing for success if it doesn’t work for you.
You said you’re really into the sixties and you’re also into the seventies. Are there certain eras that you’re more interested in? Are there eras that you don’t care about the fashion from?
I love a little bit of every single era. Forties is absolutely beautiful style wise, but it’s not very colorful, and I love some dark stuff too. Forties and fifties have similar silhouettes and shapes but fifties is typically brighter. Sixties is crazy colorful, so I love the sixties and borderline seventies. In the early sixties, the whole mod thing was going on, which doesn’t look good on my body. The straight line dresses…those look good if you look like Twiggy, and I don’t look like Twiggy.
I really favor the eighties a whole lot. Eighties, a lot of it was taken from the style of the fifties, but a little bit different. I love eighties does fifties. Luckily, from Goodwill there’s a lot of eighties stuff people think is absolutely atrocious and I’ll buy it and make it look cool.
I have a heart for the nineties as well, because that’s when I was a child. I think the only era that I don’t think I could do a whole lot of is twenties, as weird as that sounds. The silhouette of the twenties is not flattering. Their makeup is interesting. I’ve done a few twenties things, but I favor eighties, sixties and fifties.
Who are your fashion idols or role models, if you have any?
I’ve thought about this. I’ve never looked up to an individual. I’ve been inspired by myself or the clothes I see, not necessarily inspired by someone. Is that weird? I feel like I can’t say a single person because I’ve been inspired by the clothing itself, as opposed to someone’s style.
Do you have any other stories about relationships with people you’ve met through your Instagram page? Does that come naturally, moving from Instagram to being friends with someone?
It’s always interesting to meet someone in real life. I always ask them if I look the same in real life. They say yes and I’m like, Thank gosh.
My best friend right now I met through Instagram. Her name is craftykates and she has pink hair and I have blue hair; we’re both pastel princesses right now. We started talking at the beginning of the year.
My last question is, you live in Connecticut. When you’re out and about on a typical day, do people comment on your outfits?
I stood out in Jacksonville too. I was used to people commenting. There was a guy at my local Goodwill who said, “Oh, blue hair.” The younger generation, it doesn’t faze them, but all of the older generation, they’ve had nothing but good things to say. It’s been pretty incredible. They say, “You really stand out.” I like the attention a little bit. I’ve had awesome responses, but I definitely stand out here.
Do you like standing out?
I’ve always enjoyed standing out, to an extent. I like being noticed.
