Five Tips to Help You Find Your Personal Style

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“Fashion is a trend. Style lives within a person” ~ Oscar De La Renta

People often think that occupying yourself with what you wear and with your style is superficial, causing us to feel uncomfortable about it. Hara Estroff Marano writes that those who believe this confuse fashion with style. Fashion is in the clothes. Style is in the wearer. Moreover, my experience has taught me that a conscious process of defining and building a personal style can affect our self-perception and beliefs.

What is personal style?

Your personal style is the way you choose to express yourself through your clothes. It is about self-acceptance and the ability to feel comfortable in your own skin. When it comes to sustainability, understanding your personal style will help you stay focused and be less distracted by trends and advertisements. Therefore, it can help you build a smart wardrobe from fewer items that will serve you in the long run.

After discussing the importance of defining your personal style, I would like to introduce you to the five tools that helped my clients and myself build their personal style.

Define your lifestyle and what are you dressing for

Defining your personal style is strongly linked to your lifestyle, as well as your personal taste. You need to ask yourself: Where do you dress for every day? Do you work from home or in an office? (Since COVID-19, this question has become more relevant than ever). Are you a mom who spends her afternoons with the kids? What are your hobbies? And so on. Your personal style and your wardrobe should reflect your lifestyle. There is no point in a closet full of items that fit the life you would like to have or a style that does not fit your lifestyle today.

Sometimes there can be a gap between your lifestyle and your desired style. In this case, I suggest trying to combine the two. You can use accessories, a color palette, or individual items from the desired style. For example: If you work from home but like a more classic style, try incorporating smart, tailored items in your everyday wardrobes, such as an oversized blouse or tailored trousers with an elastic waist. You can also select everyday items in a more neutral color palette. Alternatively, you can add accessories like oxfords or a smooth leather belt.

Find out what your wardrobe favorites are

As in every process of building a wardrobe, you should start with decluttering your closet. A closet overloaded with clothes prevents you from understanding which items you actually wear. It, therefore, interrupts your process of defining your personal style. Every three months, between seasons, go through the closet and remove irrelevant items. Do this also for items that don’t match your personal style.

After organizing your closet, try out this exercise I saw in a Useless DK video:

1. Choose 6-8 tops from your closet that you love and wear most of the time, like T-Shirts, knitwear and blouses.
2. Choose 3-4 bottoms you love and wear most of the time, like Trousers, dresses and skirts.
3. Look at the items you chose and try to understand what they’ve got in common: Is it the color palette? Their shape? The level of comfort they provide? The way you feel when you wear them?
4. Create a list of the common features you found. This will help you to better understand your personal style characteristics.

Know what flatters your body

If you search on Pinterest for the term ‘body shape’, you will find various options and theories to define your body shape. In fact, these are just patterns that can help you figure out how to create a more symmetrical look when, for most of us, our body shape is asymmetrical. Of course, there is no need to create symmetry if it’s not something you feel good about.

The most important thing is not to see your body shape as a limitation but rather as a strength. When you understand your body shape and what you like about your body, you can emphasize the parts you love and balance the outfit according to it.

For example: If your shoulder area is wider than the thigh area. In this case, you can balance the two out by creating an optical illusion of widening in the thigh area or wearing items that create an illusion of narrowing in the shoulder area. It’s important to understand that body shape is not related to weight. It also remains constant throughout most of our life. In my styling sessions, I always explain that there are no ‘forbidden’ items to wear because of a certain body shape. That’s because there are many ways to balance your outfit according to it.

Find your inspiration

Style inspiration can be found everywhere: in other women you meet, in magazines, in nature, and on social media. For me, I find inspiration primarily on Instagram and Pinterest. Pinterest is one of my favorite options. The app allows you to build virtual imageboards in different themes of your choice. When looking for style inspiration, you don’t necessarily have to stick to clothing items. You can also look for color palettes, a certain style or design, and so on. When you pin an image on a board, ask yourself: What did you like about this image? Is it a specific item? Is it a feeling the style conveys? The best way to use this inspiration is to get ideas on being creative with your wardrobe. It is not a shopping recommendation for items to create the desired style.

Stay true to your style

Building a personal style is a process of staying focused and making choices. I find this the most challenging part of the process – staying true to your style. When you see an item you like, ask yourself if it suits your personal style. If the answer is ‘no,’ then don’t buy it. We are constantly overloaded with trends and beautiful items we see on social media. The trick is to know what will serve you in your wardrobe. Other items can stay beautiful on others. Defining your style and staying true to it makes your everyday dressing process easier. It also helps you make better choices when you shop.

In conclusion, remember that building your personal style is a process. Like any other process, it takes time. I started mine three years ago, yet I feel that it is only now that my wardrobe finally begins to reflect my style. My personal recommendation is to give yourself time. In addition, avoid buying a whole new wardrobe once you figure out your personal style. You can read here about how to make better use of your existing wardrobe.

Do you feel like you already know your personal style? Let me know in the comments below 🙂

If you want to learn more about your personal style, download my Personal Style Guide! In this guide, you’ll find tips and exercises you can easily implement into your wardrobe.

Click Here to Download The Guide!