Getting Ready With: Ava Williams

The photographer shares her insights on red lipstick, dependable outfits and always being on the search.

Sep 08, 2023

If you’re looking for Ava Williams — she might find you first. The 26-year-old photgrapher, retoucher and self-dubbed “anti-influencer” has a way of seeing things others may overlook. Whether she’s creating delicious moodboards, making imaginative TikToks or writing unique style disections for her newsletter, Ava is always urging you to look up. I spoke to her about her go-to products, daily rituals, personal style philosphies and more.

🌞[ Ava’s pump-up song ] 🌝 [ Ava’s wind-down song ]

Where to find Ava: TikTok, Instagram, Landing, Substack: From The Search Bar

Q: What inspires you?

AW: I feel like I’m constantly inspired by everything. I frequently go on walks to just visually see things. I live in New York City so there's a ton of ads everywhere. Everything is inspiring to me to the point where I feel like I should be overstimulated constantly, but I'm not. I enjoy it. And it sounds so silly, but I enjoy seeing.
Even now, looking at the way my blanket is laid out on my bed is very visually appealing to me. And I feel like I am constantly in the state of seeing things that give me that sort of satisfaction of when you see a really good image that you like.

Q: Any quotes, daily mantras or lyrics that you think about at the beginning of the day?

AW: When it comes to like quotes, I don't necessarily write things down. But they just sort of linger in my head. I feel like I'm constantly in this space of thinking about stuff Anthony Bourdain has said. I think my biggest saying that I tell myself every single day is really about how I try to put in the effort of not just looking for the good, but actually truly finding it. So my quote is just “search for it”.
I remember, I graduated college the year Harry Styles came out with his album, Fine Line. And the first single he had came out was during the summer I had left school. And I remember being very, like: “Where am I going?" What am I doing?” And the first song on his album had a lyric that was something like, “Do you know who you are?” And I remember, I first heard it at midnight. And the existential crisis it sent me into I was like, I don't know who I am. It’s really just about me connecting the good parts of my life and the bad parts of my life and seeing how things come and go, you know, we continue to move through life.

Q: What’s on your vanity?

AW: I have a dresser and a desk which holds essentially my whole life. But on my vanity [area] there's definitely a ton of chapsticks and lipsticks. I'm obsessed with lipstick. I feel like the color of my lips can be very pale and like, ash-colored. So I really love putting lipstick on — it’s one of my few luxuries.
But I think the biggest thing on my nightstand that I can't live without are my quadrillion Aquaphors. If I was stranded on a desert island and could only bring a couple things, I would definitely bring Aquaphor. And then I would definitely bring a red lipstick. I think the Gucci one that I bought a while ago is my prized possession. But I'm like obsessed with buying red tinted lipsticks. I truly don't buy any other color, I don't branch out. I’m definitely a woman of habit.

Q: What is your outfit building process like?

AW: One of the main points I always make is that I never look at inspiration. When it comes to my day to day life, I usually don't even open my closet or look at anything until I asked myself: “What's going to make me feel the most me today?” And that's really important for me. I get very frustrated when people don't listen to that inner intuition.
I think it really has to go back to being an identical twin. Not that there's really any harm with copying someone's outfit. But I think for me, it feels like “Oh my gosh, I've spent my whole life being someone else, whether I like it or not.” And I think that plays a big role in me getting dressed. I've always done this — I've never looked at inspo. It causes too much stress and anxiety. It makes you think about all the things you don't have instead all the things that you do.
And then another one of my rules of thumb is to never wear an outfit that you have to adjust. I essentially wear outfits that are like, the outfit version of a slicked-back bun. I do not want to feel like I'm constantly adjusting anything. As long as I don’t feel like i have to constantly like, fix a button-up shirt or something, I’m all set. I essentially wear outfits that are like, the outfit version of a slicked-back bun.

Q: What’s a piece of clothing you’re always reaching for?

AW: There’s this one miniskirt I bought from, of all places, Forever 21, like centuries ago. I actually see women on the street wearing it all the time. It's very cute. It's a houndstooth yellow skirt. I wear it like three seasons out of the year. I wear it all the time. It was like, a $20 purchase that has transcended time.
The first time I ever had love at first sight was with a navy sweater. I was walking into Target. I was five and it was part of a sweater collection. I wasn’t purchasing it because it was for people who were going to a uniform-based school and I went to public school. And it became one of the most “Ava” stories in the world because along with striped shirts, I'm constantly looking at navy sweaters to this day.
I feel like that was the first memory I have of really falling in love with something and it has transcended time. I have two navy sweaters that I wear all the time. It’s almost like my kryptonite, I can't help but humor the idea of buying a navy sweater when I see one. I think growing up, I ended up wanting to go to a uniform school so badly simply just to wear one.

Q: What is your process for getting unready and unwinding?

AW: One of the few luxuries in life is I love wearing tried and true, real pajamas. And not in a way of like “Oh, I'm going to wear pajamas as clothes,” no, I mean, I love wearing pajamas as real pajamas. I have a pair of Muji pajamas that are bright blue, and they're buttoned up and I feel properly like I'm in a Christmas store or something. But I absolutely love them. They're my favorite thing to wear. So I continue that luxury of wearing things like wearing like a good outfit, essentially to bed. So that when I wake up in the morning, I'm waking up on the right side of the bed.