How to Find Your Own Style in Fashion

How to find your per­son­al style l find­ing your style l find your own per­son­al style

You like to look good, and you want to be your­self, so how do you cre­ate and main­tain your fash­ion style? You need some­thing that suits your phys­i­cal appear­ance and stature, your per­son­al­i­ty, the sea­son and cli­mate and your par­tic­u­lar stage in life. Fur­ther­more, you need cloth­ing which will help take you to the next stage in life. With all of this in mind, cre­at­ing a style that is ‘you’ can seem daunt­ing, but there are a few prac­ti­cal steps you can take to devel­op a wardrobe that is per­fect for you.

- Why?

The way you dress and groom makes a state­ment about who you are—a state­ment to the world and a state­ment to your­self. You need to be con­tent and con­fi­dent with the way you present your­self to the world, and hap­py that your look helps define you as a per­son. Ulti­mate­ly, you need to be sat­is­fied that your wardrobe is right for you. As you set out on this jour­ney, remem­ber one thing: Be authen­tic!

- Size and Body Type

How to find your personal style l finding your style l find your own personal style

Dress for your body type, not for some­one else’s type, or some­one else’s ide­al­ized type. Your wardrobe has to work for you and must be appro­pri­ate for your wants and needs. Con­fi­dence can make any­one look good in any­thing, so ignore the size tag on a piece of cloth­ing and stop try­ing to squeeze into clothes that are too small, just because you wish you were that size. Search for style items that com­ple­ment both your size and your body shape, and be con­fi­dent in your skin! Remem­ber also that cer­tain fash­ion items will bet­ter suit cer­tain body types, so con­sid­er a vari­ety of clothes, shoes and acces­sories when putting togeth­er an ensemble.

- Be inspired

Do your research. Scroll through social media and the inter­net to find peo­ple whose look and style you admire. Turn these peo­ple into your style icons. You might like the sim­ple, min­i­mal­ist look of one celebri­ty, you might admire the viva­cious, eclec­tic and colour­ful attire of anoth­er, and you might find anoth­er celebri­ty or media per­son­al­i­ty who always makes fan­tas­tic groom­ing choic­es. Fol­low one, or com­bine a num­ber of these looks, and make a note of what you like about each. Mak­ing a list or a cat­a­logue of your icon’s fash­ion choic­es will help you dis­cov­er the core ele­ments of a great wardrobe. Make a ‘mood board’ with images of your fig­ures. Once you’ve decid­ed upon why you like an icon’s style, you can nar­row down your par­tic­u­lar likes and moti­va­tions, which then become the foun­da­tion for your style. This is what I like, this is why I like it, and this will inform how I build my wardrobe in the future.

- Closet clearance

How to find your personal style l finding your style l find your own personal style

Do I need this? How long since I wore it? Do I like it? These are the ques­tions you need to ask the next time you stand in your clos­et. Clear­ing out your wardrobe can help you offload items you no longer like or wear for what­ev­er rea­son, and can also help you to clear your mind and sharp­en your true indi­vid­ual style. Go through your wardrobe with con­vic­tion, and cre­ate piles such as keep, donate and sell. If you can tru­ly say that you like and wear a piece of cloth­ing, keep it. If it hasn’t seen the light of day for a long time or reflects a dif­fer­ent phase in your life to which you will nev­er return, donate it. Final­ly, you’re like­ly to find some qual­i­ty items that you sim­ply don’t want to take with you on the next phase of your fash­ion jour­ney, and these can be sold. Sell­ing some of your unworn items gives you some­thing else – mon­ey to buy more clothes and items which define who you are. Clear­ing out the clos­et can be cathar­tic, and per­haps even fun. If you can find a friend to help you with the process, you can look back on the clothes which took you on crazy adven­tures or dis­as­trous dates. You might even find your­self asking, “Did I wear this?” One tip for this step: Be ruth­less!

How to find your personal style l finding your style l find your own personal style

- Savvy Shopping

A sim­ple rule for shop­ping. Once you have com­plet­ed the clos­et cleanout, only fill the hole in your wardrobe. Yes, only buy what you need. This can be a chal­lenge. Let’s face it; we all love and suc­cumb to impulse buy­ing. How­ev­er, if you want to save mon­ey and have enough to update your wardrobe in the future, then fol­low this advice and only buy what you need to com­plete your wardrobe. Pur­chase cloth­ing via dis­count stores, many of which offer qual­i­ty gar­ments. Make a list of what you need, and stick to this list, whether you are shop­ping instore or online. You can make this list after find­ing your inspi­ra­tion and com­plet­ing the ‘mood board’ which defines your style. Learn to mix and match and get the most out of the clothes you already have and con­sid­er your footwear when mak­ing these decisions.

- Basic instincts

Trust your instincts. You are cre­at­ing a style that defines you. Decide upon what you like, and who you want to be, and abide by that. No one knows you bet­ter than your­self, and even though you must dress in spe­cif­ic ways for cer­tain con­texts, remem­ber that this jour­ney is ded­i­cat­ed to express­ing who you are as a person. Of course, one must dress for the cli­mate and the par­tic­u­lar con­text in which you live. Assem­bling out­fits for the dif­fer­ent sea­sons can be fun, espe­cial­ly if you’re able to stretch one piece of cloth­ing or acces­so­ry across all four sea­sons. Where you live also has a great influ­ence on your lifestyle – do you live near the beach or the moun­tains, are you sur­round­ed by nightlife or peace and qui­et? These fac­tors will influ­ence how you dress.

- Accessorise

How to find your personal style l finding your style l find your own personal style

A bold neck­lace can turn jeans and a white t‑shirt into a state­ment. Lay­ered, del­i­cate jew­el­ry offers a more fem­i­nine aes­thet­ic, and edgy ankle booties, a bright clutch or pearls can sharp­en any outfit. The con­clu­sion is that acces­sories can add anoth­er dimen­sion to any out­fit and trans­form it from casu­al, to chic, to for­mal, to smart or to any look you are aim­ing to cre­ate. Con­sid­er your favourite colours and designs, look again at the clothes in your wardrobe, then search for acces­sories that can main­tain your style.

- A friend in need

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. True friends know you well. They know your per­son­al­i­ty and your ambi­tions, and they know what looks good on you. They should also be able to tell you what doesn’t look good on you, so seek and heed their advice. Bet­ter still, seek help and advice from pro­fes­sion­als. Enlist the help of a per­son­al styl­ist. Yes, it will cost mon­ey ini­tial­ly but will set you on the path to strong fash­ion choic­es in the future. Anoth­er advan­tage of a styl­ist is that they can help find gar­ments that are on-trend and right for you. Anoth­er worth­while stop is to vis­it a tai­lor so that the clothes you wear fit you per­fect­ly. Some­thing you may have noticed is how celebri­ties, includ­ing your style icons, look great in ANYTHING. Why, because their clothes fit them per­fect­ly. You could enjoy the same advantage.

How to find your personal style l finding your style l find your own personal style

- Signature

Do you have a sig­na­ture gar­ment? One pair of jeans, a scarf, jack­et or shirt that you are con­tent to wear on any occa­sion, in which you feel com­fort­able and happy. Maybe you pre­fer V‑neck shirts or fad­ed jeans. Per­haps you have mas­tered lay­er­ing to look good or can enliv­en any out­fit with noth­ing more than a scarf. Any of these times could be con­sid­ered a sig­na­ture gar­ment, and know­ing what your sig­na­ture gar­ment is can help you to find your spe­cif­ic style. Con­sid­er this gar­ment and start to build your wardrobe around it.

How to find your personal style l finding your style l find your own personal style

- Where are you going?

What are your goals in life? What are your per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al dreams, and how will your wardrobe fit into those dreams? When cre­at­ing your style, be sure to devel­op a per­son­al­i­ty that is yours. If you have lofty career ambi­tions, assem­ble clothes that reflect that ambi­tion and suit your occu­pa­tion and future career goals. Where are you now and where do you want to be five or ten years from now? Exam­ine your wardrobe and your style choic­es, and deter­mine whether your clothes accu­rate­ly reflect who you are now and who you want to be in the future? Your style is with­in reach. You know what it is and just need to dis­cov­er and cre­ate it. Do your research, clear out your clos­et, con­sult a friend or a pro­fes­sion­al and start build­ing your wardrobe. Gath­er some beau­ti­ful acces­sories, decide where you are in life and hit the shops. Before you know it, you will have cre­at­ed your style, and you will be on the way to where you want to be 🙂