Cultivating Taste in a World That Wants You Passive

My Substack is called The Search for a reason. I’ve accepted that I am in a constant search, for what, exactly? For anything that makes me feel awake, alive, attuned.
But instead of obsessing over “how to find your hobbies,” I want you to ask yourself a different question:

Do you trust yourself enough to follow your taste?
And if not, how do you develop it?

The answer isn’t mysterious. Taste is simply the accumulation of what you notice, what you seek, what you return to. It’s built through intention, attention, and a willingness to explore without waiting for an algorithm to spoon‑feed your interests.

• Do the work. Choose curiosity over passive consumption. Log off and go look for things yourself.

• Practise presence. Train your eye to find beauty in the unremarkable.

• Expose yourself to art. Films, literature, cultures. The eye needs to travel, even if the body doesn’t.

• Follow rabbit holes. Self‑discovery happens when you let yourself become obsessed.

• Archive. Collect. Curate. Keep what resonates. Let it shape you.

here are the things that have been inspiring my creativity:

I’ve been collecting CDs for years, and I always return to them for sensory inspiration. There’s something grounding about the ritual: choosing a CD, admiring the cover art, listening to an album as a complete, intentional piece rather than letting an algorithm interrupt with noise. No ads, no distractions, just me and the art. It sets the tone for my whole day. Here are some CDs I have been listening to the most:

I recently picked up my developed film from Thailand and felt a wave of inspiration. Lately I’ve been obsessed with Hiromix and her way of capturing girlhood, soft, intimate, unfiltered. My own photography has focused mostly on travel encounters, but Hiromix has nudged me toward documenting everyday life. The mundane suddenly feels worth capturing.

I’m obsessed with scent, almost to the point of becoming the main character from Perfume, minus the murder. Perfume satisfies all my senses at once: the intricacy of glasswork, the design, the typography, the stories tucked into each bottle. They’re tiny sculptures, tiny narratives. They make my creativity feel multi‑sensory.

I don’t smoke, but Asian cigarette packaging captivates me, the colours, the typefaces, the design choices. I want to buy them just to look at them, like small pieces of graphic art. In a way, they remind me of Wong Kar Wei movies.

The pacing of French cinema is what draws me in: the slow scenes, the willingness to sit in silence without forcing emotion or drama. Hollywood treats silence like empty space, it’s so refreshing to sit in calmness, I also think they capture the human condition perfectly. Betty Blue is based on a book as well, and it might be the only time I will say that a movie exceeded the book. I rewatch the following movies on a yearly basis, studying the scenes instead of rushing to get to the end.

For some reason, I keep returning to this Chloe runway show. The colours, the light, the softness, the models look like human orchids. There’s a tenderness to the whole aesthetic that I can’t stop thinking about.

What has been inspiring you lately?

Thank you for reading The Search.