How To Find Your Personal Style
3 Steps to a Better Wardrobe from a Personal Stylist
Your Perfect, Intentional Outfit
Whether it was your big sister growing up, a friend from college, or a current colleague, we all have that one person who sticks out in our minds—the person who seems to have it all together.
They can throw on any hat, accessory, or even a plain T-shirt, and somehow, it just looks right on them in the way that a celebrity or Blair Waldorf just looks right in her enviable collection.
Finding your personal style is your opportunity to develop that same feeling, but for yourself in your everyday life.
What’s more, personal style is the throughline in your wardrobe. When you get dressed with an underlying style, your wardrobe naturally creates a system of complementary items that help you feel confident in every room you walk into.
What's in this blog closet?
What is personal style? <link>
The benefits of a dialed personal style
But first, your fit, texture, and colors
Use a personal style word bank
3 steps to finding your personal style
Questions about building your personal style
What is personal style?
Personal style is the way you feel most comfortable getting dressed, combined with an aspirational style.
But here’s the twist. Aesthetics often don’t feel connected enough to who you are as a person, so we need to include an element of your personality into the mix. That way, no matter what style you’re wearing, you always feel like the best version of yourself.
Personal style can serve as a guide and a checklist. It’s a guide that directs you towards the look that best interprets who you are, and it's also a checklist that you can refer back to any time you get dressed.
The Benefits of a Dialed Personal Style
What are the benefits of a personal style?
Getting dressed feels effortless.
When you have a personal style, your outfits always feel like they are put together in an effortless manner. When you have your style descriptors clearly defined, matching an outfit that connects to those words becomes less of a mystery and more of a science.
Your closet feels perfectly aligned.
You are only shopping for items that align with who you are. No more shirts hanging in your closet with the tags still on. Everytime you bring something new home you know exactly how to wear it.
Cleaning and decluttering feels easier.
When your clothes match your personal style, you don’t worry about parting with clothes that no longer serve you. There’s no longer the guilt that’s associated with an item “going out of style,” and instead, you can recognize that those pieces you’ve had for a long time and don’t wear anymore simply don’t align with the person you’ve become today.
But First, Your Fit, Texture, and Colours
Before we dive into how to find your personal style, it’s important to talk about some of the essential wardrobe elements you’ll refer back to as you develop your overall style.
The Fit
“The fit” refers to the way you wear your clothing, either close to the body or relaxed. Often, a classic style leans more toward a tighter fit, whereas a relaxed fit tends to be more youthful. “The fit” you’re comfortable in says a lot about your relationship with your body. We want to honor this by paying attention to how we actually feel when a piece of clothing is close to the body versus when it's relaxed.
The Texture
“The texture” refers to how soft, stiff, fuzzy, sheer, or smooth your clothes are. You’re either leaning towards organic textures that are soft but also tend to wrinkle more (you’re okay with this), or you like fabrics that have a more polished feel.
The Colors
Most people are on a spectrum from neutrals all the way to bright colors. This often depends on either your personality or simply your comfort level.
Your World, Your Wardrobe
Personal style isn’t meant to box you in but instead open up possibilities for your dream wardrobe. You will fall off the trajectory, but that’s okay. It’s not meant to be rigid, as personal style is meant to be that 90%, where there’s still 10% room for play while keeping the integrity of your style identity.