Finding Your Style Series Part III: Defining Your Style
Look at you go! You’ve completed the Closet Audit! You’ve examined your Relationship with Clothing! Now what’s next!
Ah yes, building a wardrobe requires you to buy clothing. Remember! You only want to buy items that speak to you. (Okay I’m sorry, I could barely get that out with a straight face). Let’s get real, how does one actually define their own style!?
I have said this many times across many platforms: You already have a sense of style. What you need to do is examine it and it will evolve.
Are you a chef? But you know if you like spicy food or not. Are you an architect? I bet you know if you’d rather live in a log cabin in Vermont vs a penthouse in Manhattan. Are you a film director? If i put a black and white foreign film or 13 going on 30 in front of you, which one would you grab?
Your style, is what you are attracted too, what speaks to you, what carries through to other parts of your life. Have you ever walked into someones home, and it looked like the decor was the embodiment of your friend? Yeah…its starting to make sense.
*Now what happens when you love something but you can’t pull it off? Simple. I call bullshit. That is an excuse. Because even if you love your friends apartment with the record player, vinyl set up, and plants, you hate their taste in music, so you get the record player but swap Modest Mouse for Elvis, you ditch the cactus for an Ivy and you don’t mount the records because you actually want to play them.
Maybe you dig people in hats, but you can’t pull off a hat. You can, but maybe you’re not there yet. Can you cook? Maybe you love your moms chicken pot pie but you’re one person and can’t pull it off, but one day you will have the skills and opportunity.
If you cant explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough - Albert Einstein
All this to say: here are a few practical ways to understand your style as it exists now, and a few ways to develop it over time.
Now:
Remember the piece of paper you used for your Closet Audit? Lets add too it
Take a look at your living quarters, how would you describe it? What adjectives, what is the aesthetic, what is the vibe, what is the feeling, what do people say about it?
More importantly, how accurate is the vibe to what you want to feel, how accurate are other peoples feelings to what you want them to feel?
Think of the music you listen too, the food you eat, the activities you do
Describe them, are they comfort, fun, active, sharp, wholesome, bass heavy, rap, chill, i listen to anything (don’t be that person)
Think of people who have style you admire
Your friends, celebrities, fictional characters, historical figures, what do you like about them? What did you like that they represented and how did their style play a part?
Think of a time you admire
California in the 60’s, New York in the 40’s, England in the 1100’s (even though finding clothing for that era might be tough)
How to Develop Your Syle
Remember in the 90’s covering our walls with stuff we liked? Oh yeah…that. But you can do it digitally now.
On Instagram: you can save posts and create folders. I spend most of my time on IG so this is crucial. I have a folder for “Outfits” one for “Cinema” one for “My Vibe” one for “My Style” and anything I like goes in here. - When I’m feeling the urge to buy something, I consult these folders and it forces me to truly assess if the item fits into my style?
On Pinterest: You can do the same, but better. Build homes of your dreams, build the life you want, keep it as a reminder.
Figure out ways to get your style IN FRONT OF YOU, maybe its books, dvds, pictures, actually cutting out magazine clippings, save pictures to your phone, start to define what it is that you’re attracted too.
Don’t limit this to clothing, create folders for architecture, quotes, food pics, aesthetic, everything. Your clothing is one part of your style, that’s the secret. Don’t tell anyone I told you that.
The Goal here is not to have an exact recipe to create your perfect look. It is to get some loose guidelines and force you to examine the style that exists within you.
Keep in mind that not everything goes in the pros, in the yes, in the thats me pile. The converse side is JUST as important: well that is certainly NOT me, I hate that, thats dumb, I like it but I’d never wear it. You need the entirety of this mindset to have a sense of style.
