The comments to my politics of fashion post are so inspiring and encouraging and intelligent. I’m feeling much more confident that I have permission to spend some time working on my style. I know that sounds weird – “permission” – and I don’t mean outside permission. I’m talking inner permission.
If the guilt pops up again in the future I can say to myself, “Thanks for the reminder that I care about others, but here are the bazillion reasons why this is actually okay.”
As is usual with me, I got so caught up with an idea that I missed an important detail.
I’m talking about my theory on the colours that suit me and the belief that it would solve all my style problems. That I would get my new wardrobe and it would be perfect and never change for the next ten years.
Knowing your style is like knowing yourself: it’s a journey. So I’m still going to make mistakes. And that’s okay.
That said, I still think that knowing my colours has been really crucial in working out my personal style. I still want to create a minimal wardrobe in my colours. I just probably won’t get to the ‘I adore and wear every single piece’ stage for longer than I expected.
I’m reading a book from the library called I Love Your Style: How to Define and Refine Your Personal Style by Amanda Brooks. The author comes from a high fashion kind of background, but it’s still accessible for people like me, who couldn’t care less about designer labels.
“Personal style is a look that is all your own. It’s a way of putting yourself together that allows your own combination of tastes, desires, interests, inspirations, aspirations, lifestyle, and history to shine through. Many people today… can no longer get dressed without the advice of advertising, celebrities, magazines, stylists, and designers. As a result, everyone looks the same! This book will give you the confidence to have fun with those trends that suit you without blindly buying into a cookie-cutter look that doesn’t.”
I also liked this quote in the book from Miuccia Prada:
People ask me how can I be stylish, how can I be elegant and what can I wear? My only answer is study! You have to learn.
One of Brooks’ suggestions to find your style is to put together a collection of images you like that you’d like to express in your clothing. Not just clothes, but textiles, “scenes that evoke a certain era or feeling”, colour combos, whatever floats your boat. If you keep editing it over time, you can weed out the things you don’t like anymore – the fads – and the stuff that’s left is your style.
I joined a website called we heart it, which is an online album where you can bookmark and collect inspiring images from around the web.
I’m going to use mine as a style workbook, adding images that clearly portray me, and deleting ones I thought were me, but, on reflection, didn’t really click.
I tend to prefer paper for this kind of thing, but the choice of images online is much vaster than my meager magazine collection, it’s easier, and I don’t need to use up any glue or paper. Woohoo technology.
Here’s my “heart” (we heart it page) if you’d like to connect with me on there.
Hi Hayley
Oh I just joined we heart it last week with the same intention! I’ve also got a folder on my computer with images mainly found on the sartorialist but also from other places.
One of the things I’m finding tricky is that what I’m drawn to is so eclectic – there’s no thread or theme, at least I don’t see one yet. For example I love Victoriana but I also adore super-futuristic shapes so I’m working on combining that in a cool way.
And I definitely agree with the Amanda Brooks – a lot of ‘stylish’ Brit girls look the same because their inspiration comes from the same place – Elle magazine, Kate Moss, pop star of the moment etc
Truly stylish people do make it look so effortless but as Donatella said it’s something they’ve really paid attention to.
Nats’s last blog ..Creativity + Community = Divine buZZy feelings!
Yay we heart it!
Victoriana + futuristic proportions sounds like it has the potential to be awesomely unique.
By the end of that book, Brooks kind of lost me with her attention paid to trends (she says have fun with them while keeping true to yourself. I say poo to trends, do it your own way), with her love of fur, and with her suggestion that you should haggle with charity shops. Among other things. I still got some good insights out of the book, though.