Define your personal style
Supplement your colors and styles with distinctive pieces of clothing and finally create your personal style!
This guide will be a bit longer, so I’ve added navigation. First, we’ll go back to colors and shapes for a moment and what role they play in your style. Then we’ll start adding the other things you’re missing so far. We’ll take inspiration from already existing styles and you’ll choose some elements of the ones you like. You’ll take notes, create examples, and start a Pinterest board – all so you’re really clear on what to look for when shopping for your wardrobe and creating outfits.
We’ll go through your preferences and make sure your new style reflects what’s important to you. It should be comfortable, practical and respect your lifestyle. Finally, we’ll take a moment to look at mixing and matching, accessories and other ways to make your style even more distinctive. But the shopping itself is something we’ll talk about in the wardrobe guide, not here. We’ll demonstrate the whole process of creating a style on a fictional person – let’s call her Kate. Ready to get started?
Base your style on the right shapes and colors
Previous guides have covered how to find your colors and shapes. It’s important to go through them first, as colors and shapes are an important foundation for style, without which we won’t move forward. Hopefully, you already have that covered, so let’s take a look at what colors and cuts work for our fictional persona Kate.
The colors she’s wearing in the picture are (except for the black pants) basically the right ones. The pure white is too bright for her, she needs a more muted yellow. Warm, muted, rather light colors suit her. You can also see that the lines of her body – although she probably doesn’t have much difference between her waist and hips – are rounded. Arms, legs, face… everywhere we see slightly rounded curves rather than straight lines. So she needs to wear clothes made of softer materials, slightly feminine elements and dresses that allow for some roundness, but are not overly feminine. If I were to follow Kibbe’s typology, I would say Kate is elegant/classic – maybe leaning towards romantic (soft classic).
I chose softer fabrics in the right colors for her, with a slightly looser cut that emphasizes her softness but doesn’t hug her figure too much – since she doesn’t have a noticeably narrow waist there’s no need to emphasize it so much (which is why a more or less straight thin jacket works well on her). The v-neck is also fine – it’s not a sharp v-neck, but slightly rounded, which matches the curves of Kate ‘s face. So far I’ve chosen clothes that are rather neutral in style, very simple. And to go with it, round, slightly feminine accessories and soft shoes and a handbag.
Although these are things that would suit Kate in terms of colors and fit, this sample of clothes is not yet her style. In fact, I think Kate is actually a classic or even an aristocratic lady. In fact, on a closer look, I can see that the turtleneck suits her not only in shape, but also in style; she has a certain elegance about her by nature. You can see it in her rather sleek hairstyle, which I’m guessing isn’t purely for a photo shoot. And the balanced – neither too rounded nor too straight – curves and round face matches the classic style even in Kibbe’s typology.
If it weren’t for the fact that she has a hole in her pants (which is not very elegant), she would be wearing an almost English, elegant countryside style. I think she’s partly already dressed as she should be, but it’s still missing something. One has to look longer to see her elegance, at first glance she looks rather ordinary in a similar (sporty-natural) model.
So we’ll take a look at how she can further enhance her style and bring out her personality even more – and at the same time, how you can do the same. But first, let’s recap what Kate already knows about her style (and what you might know about yours):
She knows her colors. They are warm, rather light shades of brown, green, yellow and pink, or blue and grey. She will only wear her colors. Combinations of colors will then be best tone-on-tone or make great use of neutrals and only occasionally add bolder colors. In fact, most of her colors are neutrals and she herself does not naturally have significant color contrast in her features.
She understands that she needs to wear rather soft materials. They can be thick, because her body structure is rounded, but not very fragile. Chiffons and similar overly light materials will look out of place on her. On the other hand, too stiff, solid fabrics that form sharper shapes and do not adapt to the body as much will not suit her. The ideal fabrics are wool, thicker knits, cotton canvas, fleece, corduroy, suede, flannel, faux fur, various quilted fabrics, … Fabrics with a stronger texture, such as the turtleneck in the picture, are also suitable. In addition to too fine materials, she should avoid shiny ones, they do not suit her natural composure. E.g. velvet she can wear, but matt.
Since everything about her is rather balanced and neutral, she should stick to neutral and subtle patterns as well, preferring rather monochromatic clothes without patterns. She can wear melange, tweed, plaid, herringbone, tiny polka dots, … generally patterns that belong to the classic style.
I understand that you’re probably surprised at how much I can tell just from the photo, the colors and the shapes. I don’t expect you to gather as much… although it would be great if you did 🙂 That’s why I’m planning articles where I’ll look more at how to choose patterns and materials and what can be deduced from Kibbe’s types – I’ll add links later on.
Get inspired by the right fashion styles
Here you will find a gallery of different clothing styles. It’s not a complete list (it’s impossible to make one), but there are enough of them to find one or two to be inspired by. The question is – how to find your own in such a variety of styles? Of course, you can go through them, make a list of the ones that catch your eye, go through their Pinterest boards and figure out what speaks to you, what to adopt and what to leave alone. But I would recommend building on what you already know – and that’s colors and shapes.
It’s not a rule, but often people who have naturally darker color palettes and more dramatic facial features tend to look good in darker styles. And those with shades of green and brown in their palette tend to have a bit of a natural style in return. The main thing, though, is your features – if you have softer facial features, rounder curves, etc., look for styles that have matching clothing styles. In the case of curves romantic, seductive, girlish, … for more balanced shapes, elegant, noble, natural or sporty, … and the edgier types include rock, dramatic, creative or minimalist styles. Or at least some elements of these styles.
Ideally, you should go through the styles and choose the ones that are most likely to suit you with their shapes and colors, and then the ones that speak to you more in terms of the vibe and that you just really like. Then it’s a good idea to write those styles down and think about WHAT it is, what speaks to you, what you like about them, what you can imagine yourself wearing. A little analysis of your taste. If you find a common line, like two styles you like that are practical or incorporate pieces of clothing you already wear, great! It’s not about adopting a style, it’s about using parts you like, suit you and describe your personality.
If you haven’t already, get a notebook or open a similar program on your computer/phone and start writing down your “style rules”. The colors you paln to use (Which ones do you like best? Which ones are neutral, aka go with everything else? And which ones do you see often in stores and would be easy to buy something in?). Your shapes, patterns and materials. Now add to that what you like about the styles you’ve chosen, and what you want in yours, whether it’s elegance, practicality and overall feel (e.g. luxury) or specific little touches like an animal motif, a ruffle, a cross at the neck or a combination of high boots and a short skirt. Whatever looks cool to you, include it in your list. We’ll come back to it later and polish it up a bit.
P.S. Feel free to write down what you definitely don’t want to wear and won’t wear. In a way, the absence of something is also part of personal style 🙂
Pinterest - one of the best tools for your style journey
It’s time to introduce you to Pinterest. Personally, I’m not a big fan of various apps and a lot of technology simply misses me, but I can’t imagine my life (and style) without this web app anymore. If you have an account and know how to use it (including the browser button), great, you can skip ahead. If not, I’ll tell you why you need it.
Pinterest is a great free online style tool. It allows you to upload images from anywhere on the internet, so for example, e-shops, but also from your computer. You sort your images into “folders” – boards. You can create as many as you want and name them according to the topics. Boards can be public or secret. You don’t have to show your findings to anyone, but you can. You can also pin pictures from other users’ boards (there are thousands of people who upload clothes and have boards of different styles). It’s just great.
You simply sign up for pinterest.com like any other website. Once you’re logged in, you’ll see your profile icon at the top and it takes you to your profile. On your profile, you can create a board – for example, “my style”.Or break it down into multiple boards – inspiration, shopping list, … For the clothing board I personally prefer to create sections within one board – and divide it into coats, dresses, skirts, tops, etc. Then it’s a good idea to install a Pinterest button in your browser that makes it easy to save anything anywhere on the site. For example, on your favourite e-shop, you either click on the button on the bar or directly on the button that appears next to the picture, put save and you’re done – not only will you see all the clothes you’re eyeing in one place, you can also click on the picture at any time to return to the page. Best saving of e-shop links I know. I use it to shop for everything 🙂
Now that you have a board, all you have to do is start saving pieces of clothing, outfits and other stuff that catch your eye. Call this board something like “style inspiration” and put whatever you want on it. It doesn’t need to be super organized yet, it’s just about seeing everything in one place. See the previous point – go through my boards of the styles you’re interested in and borrow whatever you want from them. I don’t mind 🙂
My personal style board – now it only includes things that really suit me.
Fine-tune your style down to details
Now that you’ve got a board, let’s get back to the fashion styles that caught your eye. Go through their boards and save what speaks to you. You can also search for other inspiration on Pinterest and elsewhere on the internet. If you really want to “venture out”, browse through the e-shops too and save anything that appeals to you. The purpose is to see all the clothes that appeal to you in one place. Or that fit you color-wise.
This exercise is about quantity not quality, just collect what you want, the range is limitless. But if you’re short on time and/or worried that you wouldn’t want to scroll through that many pictures again, try to keep the board under 50-100 pictures. Because in the next step, we’ll do the opposite of what we’ve been doing. Either you’re going to clear your board so that only the best, the most necessary, what you’re absolutely thrilled about remains… or you start a second board where you pin it again – that way you keep both, the inspiration and the core.
Your second board will be subject to strict rules. Only what you’re absolutely thrilled about will go on there, and be careful, you have to know exactly what it is about the outfit that thrills you. Why is it right for you? Only what you can justify will go there. But your reasons can only be about you. Reasons like “it’s super trendy” and “my friend would look good in it” and “my boyfriend would compliment it” are forbidden. Why do you like it? Would it look good on you? How will it make you feel?
Once you’ve put together 15 to 30 things, you can start writing down your reasons. Especially the ones that came up repeatedly. Think of them as the first signs, the first characteristics of your style. What colors come up most often? Which patterns? What details? Once you know a little bit, the very best thing to do is to go through the e-shops, find the clothes that most closely match your guidelines and make a collage where you describe what is typical of your style and why. I showed a similar collage in a previous tutorial on shapes. Of course, you can add these basically ideal pieces of clothing to your current “final” board too.
I’d like to describe the process better, but you need to try it out, spend time going over it, digging and thinking before you start to see patterns – clues, common characteristics of things that are right for you. If you can work with a graphics program, it also helps to try to create outfits from the things you have chosen. They should fit together in style and color. If every piece is a different kettle of fish, there’s reason to wonder what’s wrong. Are you always getting influenced by your surroundings, trends, inappropriate styles or use wrong colors, …?
The resulting board should look harmonious, include things that seem to fit together logically and share the same characteristics. See my Pinterest boards, especially mine (because there it’s a specific style combination, in other styles where I try to keep it general, I mix multiple subtypes of a given style).
Finally, once your style makes sense to you, you can not only write down all the known guidelines (what to wear, what to avoid), but also give your style a name and find images for inspiration that describe it. It doesn’t even have to be clothing related this time, it’s more about the overall impression, the aesthetic. For example, a style like “forest nymph” can be matched with pictures of animals in the deep forest 🙂 But this is an optional step, not everyone has to see a certain “artistic theme” in their style.
Kate and her style
For a better idea, I will now demonstrate the previous steps on Kate. Let’s say she was interested in the following styles:
Natural because she has natural colors in her palette, she likes the styles she’s seen on the style board, and she finds it comfortable.
Aristocratic because she would like to look like a noble lady and wear nice jewelry sometimes.
Countryside because it resembles the natural style and clothes she is currently wearing. Plus, she grew up in a rural area.
Classic because she likes neutral colors and simple elegance and could wear classic pieces.
The girl next door because she is used to wearing jeans and jackets and feels comfortable in them.
So she created a Pinterest board where she put everything that interested her.
While creating and browsing the board, she noticed a few things. First, she thinks the aristocratic style looks great on others, but she doesn’t see herself much in examples of this style and can’t imagine actually wearing it. So in the end, she saved almost nothing from it. Similarly, the countryside style appealed to her in theory with its sweaters, naturalism, and comfort, but after going through the examples, she found that she couldn’t see herself in its overall look. The elegant style, especially the typical tight dresses and skirts and pumps, didn’t suit her either, she wanted more freedom of movement. The themes that appear and are often repeated on her board are:
- brown jackets and double-breasted coats made of soft, warm materials, with lapels
- mainly neutral, straight to narrow trousers and, if skirts, looser A-line styles
- coarse sweaters and turtlenecks or cardigans
- neutral tops and blouses
- comfortable ankle boots or boots
- plaid scarves, occasionally a belt or a hat
- layering
- suede
So she was mainly inspired by autumn fashion and English style. Choosing an outfit for summer will be a bit more challenging for her, but if she draws on elements she likes, she’s bound to find something – like a plaid A-line skirt and short-sleeved blouse.
As a next step, Kate went through the e-shops with her newfound knowledge and saved the items she thought matched her style on a separate part of the board – so she could see them all together. Even a quick glance can give you a bit of an idea of whether the items really go together. She saw she could put together matching outfits. An extra step she could take at this point would be to go through the stores and try on similar items to see which ones really fit and feel good on her and which ones only look good on paper (namely, on a board).
Such a small “shopping” trip can help a lot with clarifying your style. But it’s okay if it’s not 100% right from the start. I’ll talk more about this in the section on building a wardrobe, but I know from experience that it wasn’t until I started shopping and wearing my style that I realized things that weren’t clear to me before. Like, I don’t like cardigans that much, especially not long ones, and I need more of an over-the-head sweater or short, dressier cardigans. Or which colors are really the best ones, the ones that fit me best and I like to wear the most. Even my taste in jewelry has evolved. There’s just nothing like experience.
Don’t expect to know everything right away. With each good (and bad) purchase, you’ll get clarity and be one step closer to your dream wardrobe. Buy mainly the things you’re confident in (the core), and then buy the ones that will complete your style. For example, a skirt that is typically your style and a neutral T-shirt together make a totally wearable outfit 🙂
To show you how the core of Kate’s style and her future outfits could look like:
So by the end of this guide, you ideally know what colors and styles suit you, what materials work for you, how you want to feel in your style, what details you’re drawn to, what your typical pieces of clothing are (i.e. the ones that are sure to be top picks and are often repeated on your boards – and ideally you’ve even tried them on in the store), and maybe even what styles you’re inspired by and what you can call your style. That’s enough for now. Put together your top 10 items that just go with your style, and you can start building your wardrobe. I’ll show you how in the next guide.
Still feeling lost?
Email me at info@yourfashionself.com or through the contact form and I’ll see what I can do for you.