The Camera Never Lies… What BeReal Selfies Taught Me About My Clothing Choices | Jess CartnerMorley

The BeReal social media platform, where users take a photo for a random two-minute period each day, is not an obvious place to look for style inspiration . Unlike Instagram, which is full of selfies taken specifically to show off a new coat, a good hair day, or a flattering mirror, BeReal shows everyone at their most mundane. If Instagram is a compilation of sunny days and glossy holidays, Be Real is a blooper of life's tea-bath-bed days.

If you're on the app, you get a notification to take a photo of what you're doing at a random time of day - and the rear view camera takes a selfie while you're doing it. That means you're much more likely to be out in the park in your dog-walking coat or sitting at your laptop in an old hoodie than you're dolled up.

Thing is, it turns out that despite the lack of impeccably curated outfits, there are some useful style lessons to learn on BeReal. In fact, forget it: it turns out that specifically because of the lack of impeccably curated outfits, there are some useful style lessons to be learned on the app.

< p class="dcr-1b64dqh ">BeReal showed me, for example, both that I wear more gray than any other color and that gray really doesn't suit me at all. At the end of the year, you see, BeReal offers you a montage of your photos of the year. Kind of like Spotify Wrapped, but instead of categorizing your favorite songs and artists, it gives the definitive answer as to your favorite sweater and whether or not you should wash your hair more often.

Now I already knew I had a thing for pencil gray and charcoal knitwear, but until I saw my edit I hadn't realized how much these made up my uniform by default. Plus, because BeReal is used to sending its notification on my commute to work, when the only makeup left on my face is mascara under my eyes, selfies are a brutally honest guide to what colors work. naturally on me and which do me no favors. It turns out that when I'm wearing gray, my skin tone takes on a tone that could be described as "the second week of the flu", whereas I look much brighter in photos when I'm wearing a bright color.

Have you ever noticed that the days you get compliments often don't match the days you thought you looked good? I'll hang out in some random old thing and people will be super nice about it, and the other days I think I've absolutely nailed my look, it's tumbleweed in the comment department. I don't know if that counts or not. I really don't think we should dress according to what's flattering or not. What wearing orange does for your mood is more important than what it does for your eye bags. But if one t-shirt shade brings out your eye color and brighter smile, and another makes you look dull and tired, it can have a ripple effect on your day, so maybe being that you shouldn't sniff it.< /p>

You don't have to be on BeReal to know if the clothes you like to wear are what you think. Just click through your selfie album on your phone – and be prepared to not scroll through all the photos you've taken by accident – ​​the ones taken under your chin, where you have your grumpy face resting on a mug of wood. Take a look at what you're wearing on ordinary or garden days as well as dressy days - and if it suits you. Turns out seeing yourself in unflattering light can be enlightening.

I always love gray sweaters. Even if they don't like me back.

< p class="dcr-1b64dqh">Model: Hanna at Milk. Hair and makeup: Sophie Higginson using GHD and Suzanne Kaufmann. Gray polo shirt: M&S. Dress: jigsaw. Earrings: missoma