From eccentric to outlandish, the media has been using a lot of colorful adjectives to describe Myra Magdalen's style. But lately, it's the fashion designer's home that's been producing a lot of buzz.
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You see, Magdalen, who is from Huntsville, Alabama, has been uploading video tours, and her living spaces are pretty... eye-catching. From keyboard walls to framed pictures of nail clippers, it seems that everyone has an opinion on her design choices and wants to share it.
Meet Myra Magdalen, a fashion designer and content creator with a "maximalist" aesthetic
She recently followed the Red Flags in My Room trend and made a video tour of her home
Which has people raising their eyebrows all over the internet
Image credits: myramagdalen
"This is my keyboard wall, and my other keyboard wall"
Image credits: myramagdalen
"This is my ocean-themed bedroom area. I have my horse sheets on right now so it's kind of giving Mojo Dojo Casa House, also that's my cat Stevie"
Image credits: myramagdalen
"This is my office area with my worm wall"
Image credits: myramagdalen
"And then this is my picture frame collection"
"It's all pictures of nail clippers except Walter White, and it's to match my calendar. And then this is my carousel nail clipper music box that opens and closes and is full of nail clippers."
Image credits: myramagdalen
Image credits: myramagdalen
"And then this is my inside dirt"
"It's just dirt that I have inside to play with. And then in the middle of it I have this candy machine that I thrifted. I didn't want to fill it with candy, so I filled it with a bunch of tiny images of Jimmy Neutron's dad. That's the one I got. There's a bunch in there so you can collect them all."
Image credits: myramagdalen
Image credits: myramagdalen
"If you want to play in the dirt and you get to the bottom, the bottom is completely custom-lined with images of Jimmy Neutron's dad to match. Alright, I can't exactly clear out the whole thing. But there's one spot. But yeah, those are some of the hues, aka Jimmy Neutron's dad."
Image credits: myramagdalen
Maximalism is rooted in the notion that more is more
In recent years, a growing number of designers and homeowners have turned to striking colors, patterns, and textural juxtapositions. Bold, expressive, and extravagant, this maximalism is, in many ways, the antithesis of the clean lines and muted color palettes that have dominated much of contemporary home decor.
The term emerged in reaction to minimalism, but it has roots in the decorative styles of the 17th and 18th centuries, when Baroque and Rococo flourished in Europe.
Often associated with the very wealthy — just remember Louis XIV's Palace of Versailles — the aesthetic of excess has come in and out of fashion, resurfacing in the Victorian era and later being entwined with movements like Art Nouveau and Postmodernism.
Perhaps inspired by the rise of social media and a backlash against recession-era frugality, the style appears to be enjoying a resurgence once again.
Interior designer Matthew Williamson, whose Mallorca home was featured in the new book Living to the Max: Opulent Homes and Maximalist Interiors, believes he's always been a maximalist at heart.
"I've been forever drawn to things which have a pattern, patina, interesting texture or color, and items which seem to tell a story," Williamson said. "Ultimately our homes are, or can be, a reflection of our personalities and our tastes."
While minimalism requires one to adhere to a strict way of living, maximalism's lovers say it allows for no chaos or deviation, and your home is the place where you should feel the freest to express yourself. That's why, they believe, maximalism works so well and will always be relevant at least to some.
Magdalen's videos have been receiving a lot of different reactions
Image credits: sadarlo1
Image credits: Earth_On_Tala
Image credits: sayurineth
Image credits: DaeshawnBallard
Magdalen herself doesn't have a specific name for her sense of style
The 26-year-old's followers have also tried to categorize her work into movements like maximalism, camp, or sculpturalism, but for Magdalen herself, creative expression is less about fitting into a particular genre and more about trusting her intuition.
"How do I make this the most 'me' that it can be?" she commented on her thought process for Bustle. "How do I deconstruct this, and then rebuild it in a way [that], at the end, I'm like, 'That is so me?'"
When she started experimenting with TikTok in March 2020, Magdalen made outfit-of-the-day videos without voiceover, using more mainstream clothing, with the occasional funky detail mixed in, but the woman found her crowd after she started to create fashion content that she actually liked herself. "I started talking in videos and thought, 'I'm just going to do whatever,' but that's when I found an audience."
Magdalen thrifts a lot of her items or find them secondhand. "[My inspiration] comes from a couple of things. One, I was lucky to grow up in a household [in which] my mom was really eccentric, and we always had a bunch of weird stuff around. My mom has always had a funky style, so [my fashion sense] comes from that. The lines between stuff I like and stuff I wear are a little bit blurred."
Image credits: Steph Wilson (not the actual photo)
For her, it's all about remaining authentic
"When I see something at a thrift store and think, 'Oh, that's so me,' like when I saw the giant catfish stuffed animal, I want to bring it home with me. I'm going to wear it. It's one thing to have something sit in your apartment, [but] sometimes that's not enough."
If you're also interested in dabbling in maximalism, Magdalen believes you can start by thinking of two things that you really like, which have nothing to do with each other, and trying to find the middle ground.
"[For example,] I really like bugs and I really like technology. Or someone could say, 'I really like naturalism, but I also really like Western, so I'm going to do an outfit that incorporates both of those.' Maximalism is great because you can't mess up. You can't do it wrong if nobody knows what you're doing."
But everyone seems to have an opinion on her design choices
