I always say, live first, create second. That’s how I’m building Trendie.
I quit my first job three months out of university to be a chalet girl. I didn’t have a plan. I just knew I couldn’t sit at a desk watching my life pass by without feeling like I was actually in it. I made the decision, found a job on a random Facebook group, handed in my notice, moved to the Alps, all within a week. I didn’t have time to overthink it.
Since then, I’ve travelled to more than sixteen countries, lived in four on my own, started my own agency at 22, and built a brand and a life that is my own. But I didn’t do any of it recklessly. It wasn’t chaos for the sake of the story. It was intentional. It was chosen. It was fun, yes, but it had depth. It had direction. Even when I didn’t know where I was heading, I knew I was moving with purpose.
That way of living is what I call Tasteful Hedonism.
Not because it sounds nice. Because it’s how I’ve lived my life without ever having the words for it.
What it is
Tasteful Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure with discernment.
It starts with hedonism. The belief that pleasure is a good thing. Not something to earn, postpone, or apologise for. Pleasure is not the opposite of ambition. It’s not the reward at the end. It’s the texture of a life being lived well.
Then it adds taste. Not taste as aesthetics or status. Taste as the ability to filter. To know what genuinely enriches you versus what just looks like it should. To notice the difference between something that fills you and something that just fills time.
Put them together and you get a way of living that is both expansive and edited. You say yes to more than most people. But you also say no with more clarity. You go for things. You taste everything. And then you let go of what isn’t yours.
What it isn’t
It’s not excess. Excess is hedonism without the taste. It’s doing everything, going everywhere, saying yes to anything because you can. That’s not living fully. That’s just consuming more.
It’s not restraint either. Restraint is taste without the hedonism. It’s knowing what’s good but never letting yourself have it. Holding back out of guilt or discipline or the belief that pleasure has to be justified first.
Tasteful Hedonism sits between the two. It’s the Wednesday night bottle of wine that was never expensive but the ritual always was. It’s booking the trip because it felt right, not because you needed to prove you deserved it. It’s staying out late on a Tuesday and still showing up the next morning. It’s a long dinner that makes you forget what day it is.
It’s pleasure that you’re present for. Not numbing. Not escaping. Actually in it.
How you know when you’re in it
You stop scanning for what’s next. You order without second guessing. You sit down at the table you chose and you actually enjoy it. The evening doesn’t need to be documented to feel real. The meal doesn’t need to be impressive to feel good. You’re not performing your life. You’re in it.
You can hold ambition and enjoyment at the same time without one cancelling the other out. You’re building something and it doesn’t require you to abandon everything that makes you feel alive.
You trust your own taste. Not someone else’s algorithm, not the list everyone’s been sharing, not the place that looks good on Instagram. Yours. And that trust came from trying things, getting it wrong, noticing what landed and what didn’t, and slowly filtering until what’s left is genuinely yours.
How you know when you’ve drifted
You start justifying your choices to other people. You start explaining why you deserve the dinner, the trip, the afternoon off. Enjoyment starts feeling like something you have to earn rather than something you’re allowed to live inside.
Or the other direction. You stop noticing. Everything blurs. You’re doing a lot but none of it is landing. You’re chasing the next thing before the current thing has had a chance to settle. The appetite is still there but the taste has gone quiet.
Both are signs you’ve moved away from the middle. Both are fixable. You just have to notice.
Why it matters now
We live in a world that constantly pulls us toward extremes. Hustle or escape. Optimise or check out. Perform or disappear. There is very little language for the space in between.
Tasteful Hedonism is that language. It’s not a brand or an aesthetic. It’s a life strategy. A way of moving through the world that lets you build and enjoy at the same time. A filter for deciding what’s worth your time, your energy, your attention.
I didn’t invent it. I just lived it before I had the words for it. And now, through Trendie, I want to give it a home.
If this resonates with you, you’re probably already living some version of it. Maybe you’ve just never had a name for it.
So here it is.
Tasteful Hedonism. The art of living fully without losing yourself.
Stay Trendie x