Today is a very special day: Sara is in Love with… is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

Five years of excitement, self-doubts and learning a lot of new things. Five years and I am still on my way to realizing that I am not the average fashion blogger and I can’t decide if that is my luck or my curse, maybe it’s just both.

You see all outfits of this year above and an animation with looks from my five years of blogging below. I went through all outfit pictures ever taken creating it, and it was very emotional. Some old pictures made me doubt if I am still as good as I used to be, others made me blush and wanna delete them immediately. But what is a blog if not a journey? Every travel needs ups and downs, and maybe especially the bad things happening are necessary for finding the right way.

During the last five years, I felt very proud of what I achieved with my blog but was thinking about giving up very often too. I asked myself if I have enough to tell to keep this blog alive. I don’t want to do the same pictures, same poses and write the same hollow words to go with them again and again. I am not the most vivid writer nor a gorgeous model, so can I give you enough? What is it that brings you here exactly and so many of you?

There is a lot of pressure in the blogging scene, a lot of comparing and jealousy. Often I end up feeling hurt when certain agencies and brands seem to ignore me. Am I not good enough for them? In theory, I know that confidence is the key, but I still stumble again and again. But a kind reminder from myself to me: Sara you have been interviewed by your favourite shoe brand Melissa this year, you had a whole page feature in a major newspaper, and you met one of the world’s biggest artists (only to name a few exciting things), this all means something. It might not change the world, but at least bring a little bit of colour into it.

I often feel like there are certain specific categories of bloggers and I fit none of them: I am neither “That vintage blogger” nor “this plus size blogger” or “that blogging model.” But this is who I am, and authenticity has always been paramount for me: I am Sara, I love to dress, and I am inspired by many things from avant-garde fashion to pop culture, art, Asian street style and Barbie. I am a shopaholic, and I dream of shoes and handbags. When I grow old, I would like to have a museum-worth collection of clothes, just like Isabella Blow or Iris Apfel. I know I am galaxies away, but just give me time, and I keep going. This is what I love and what I wanna share.

If I imagine a life without this blog, it feels like a massive hole is opening up in my heart. I put a lot of my love, energy, and passion into every pixel you see here, and after five years I can barely imagine living without my baby. Like any child, it’s not perfect, but it’s learning and growing.

Thank you for being here, for all your comments and lovely emails and for believing in me when I sometimes don’t. Thank you for all the exciting opportunities and things you brought in my life. I never dreamt of my parents having a collection of magazine clippings with me on it, giving interviews and meeting labels and designers I love.

Life is great! Let’s get ready for the next five years!

Highlight 1/5: My full page newspaper feature in the NZZ Stil (picture by Jeroen van Roojien)

Highlight 2/5: Being part of the colour walk at Spitalfields Market in (picture by Hanna Miles)

Highlight 3/5: Shooting at London gallery Nelly Duff for Valery Demure

Highlight 4/5: An interview on the page of my fav shoe label ever Melissa

Highlight 5/5: Hitting tons of newspapers with artist Pipilotti Rist and her completely pink tram

Time to celebrate: Happy Birthday “Sara is in Love with…”! Exactly four years ago I published the first post on this page. It feels like that was only yesterday. I can’t imagine a life without this blog (Oh my, so much free time what would I do with it? Going back being a hardcore gamer? 😉 ). Even if year four found me moaning now and then about not reaching my goals, it was a good year with a few little dreams coming true. Like the year before, this blog didn’t save the world, but maybe it inspired a few of you.

During my year four of blogging I was able to wear clothes I dreamed about and survived the death of my precious MacBook (every bloggers nightmare). I got more involved in the blogger scene and made new contacts with a lot of PR agencies. I was quite surprised about this happening because it’s something I had troubles with the past three years and I was already convinced that business and quirkiness don’t go very well together.  I am still very grateful I don’t have to make a living from blogging because this puts me in the comfortable position to stay true to myself and not to feel the need to do something just because it’s profitable.

If I compare my current style to the first looks, there is certainly more daringness and my hunger for bold accessories evolved. I love to challenge myself and it feels like the journey has just started. You can be curious about what’s to come… Maybe even bigger changes than ever before? Just keep me company and let me surprise you! Thank you all very much for reading this blog, without you, it would be a sad, lonely island.

A few numbers about year four:
Number of Outfits: 26
Most Worn Colour: Pink
Outfits with Skirts: 25
Never Worn Colours: Brown, Beige, White
Outfits with Trousers: Only 1
Outfits featuring Headwear: 12
Outfits featuring Sunglasses: 22

Most Popular Outfit: My Crazy Pineapple and Flamingo Look

Freezing in the cold while having my picture taken: At least ten times
Being angry about the weather interfering with my shooting plans: Very often
Being afraid of not being good enough: 1 000 000 times
Being excited about this blog: 10 000 000 000 times

Pictures: Overview of all outfits of year four.
If you wanna go further back with the time machine:
The Looks of Year 3      The Looks of Year 2     The Looks of Year 1

Wow, today it is exactly three years since I had the crazy idea somebody out there might be interested to see what I wear and started my blog. This day is almost more significant than my birthday.

I have very mixed feelings about my third year of blogging: I was deeply touched by your messages, but sometimes frustrated about my posts ending up in a deep, meaningless void. A few times I couldn’t grasp why certain brands I dream of working with prefer other bloggers. “Is my best not enough,” I started to ask myself. Other times I couldn’t believe my luck when the most amazing designers and labels from all over the world contacted me.

It is lovely to have goals, but things often turn out a different way than imagined. Sometimes better, sometimes less glamourous. I am still the quirky outsider in the Swiss blogger scene, but proud of my very international readership. During my three years of blogging, I never had a break from blogging – not even for a week – and I still don’t need one. I just love my blog. Nearly every free minute I have, I spend working on posts. I am stubborn to continue, gather an army of quirky girls around me, ready to colour the world!

Time to walk with one’s head raised into year four of blogging: Finally, this blog deserves a top-level domain and this will happen during the next days. As well I have a secret list of designers and labels I wish to collaborate with (feel free to step forward if you have the feeling your name is written there…). Year four, please be a good one and I will be good to you.

Pictures: Overview of all the outfits during the third year of “Sara is in Love with…”.

All looks of year one here and of year two here.

This is the first birthday of “Sara is in Love with….” One year full of quirky, colourful fashion. When I started this blog, I didn’t know a lot about blogging and during the year I made a lot of new experiences. First, I started to write in German, but changed to English after a few posts, because I feel more comfortable this way and to connect the blog with international readers is very important to me. At the moment, this blog has nearly 200 followers on Facebook and 170 on Google Friend Connect. I want to say a big, big thank you to every single one of you. A few of you write lots of charming comments and have become something like good friends even if we never met. Others are silently following and I just know their name from the blog list. Whoever you are, all of you are very welcome and I hope to bring a little bit of joy into your life with my posts. I received mails from lovely readers telling me, that my blog cheers them up when they are sad and inspires them to wear more colours. To hear things like this makes me very, very happy, because it’s exactly what I wish to. If just one of you gets a little bit happier by reading or seeing one of my posts, it was worth the time writing it.

One of my biggest goal is to stay true to the style of fashion I really love from the bottom of my heart. Everything I show here is truly what “Sara is in Love with…” and nothing else will ever make it to this blog. This is my promise to you and I think what makes this blog unique.

An increase of the number of readers means as well that I am confronted more often with offers from labels who want me to show something from their range. This is exciting, but it also means for me to make decisions. I already had to refuse a few offers which didn’t fit in, but I also got amazing opportunities. I wanna say thank you again to the fantastic labels and shops I collaborated with in the first year of “Sara is in Love with…”: Pearls & Swine, Collectif, Yiddish Chutzpah and Mirapodo, I loved to show your amazing fashion and hope we will have the chance do work together again.

I am very excited, what year two will bring for Sara is in Love with…” and hope this blog will grow and evolve. I can’t say where the journey will lead, but I assure you, it will be a journey on a rainbow, full of fancy fashion in all the colours of the world. Thank you all so very much for supporting this blog and I am happy to have such wonderful readers as you!

Sara is in Love with all of you!

Pictures: This is an overview of all the outfits I showed you during the first year of “Sara is in Love with…”. Do you have any favorites?