Personal Style: What It Is and How To Achieve It

We’ve all been watching TV or leafing through a magazine and seen someone wearing a particularly bold outfit and had the same reaction. “How do they make that work?”, we wonder, and many of us will wish we had the confidence to pull off such an outfit. The truth of the matter is that often, it’s something of a virtuous circle. Wearing a standout outfit can actually induce confidence, encouraging you to experiment more with your look, and find more things that work this way. This is what we might call “personal style”, and finding yours can take some trial and error, but it’s worth doing.

Personal style is hard to pin down as a concept. It’s not about always wearing the same thing, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a common thread that unites your favourite fits. It’s about wearing what you want to wear and having the chutzpah to pull it off. And if you’re looking to define your own, then the tips below are worth leaning into.

Find your colours

There’s not a person in this world who looks equally amazing in everything. One of the keys to styling is accentuating what you have, and one of the initial elements of this is your complexion and hair colour. Some people will look great in pastels, while the same outfits may make someone else look washed-out. It’s easier to pair a top with a clashing scarf than it is to pair any garment with skin that doesn’t suit it. It’s worth picking up some colour swatches and placing them next to your skin to see which ones have the most pleasing contrasts.

 

Work with your body shape

We’re all made differently, and when it comes to personal style, it is worth remembering this and dressing to make the most of how we’re made. Waist-fitted shirts will look too short on a taller woman, while most of the fashionable trousers out there seem to have been designed without curvy figures in mind. The fashion industry isn’t going to change and neither is gravity, so it is about working with what you’ve got. If you’re shorter and petite, then jackets for teenage girl shapes can come into play, and there are plenty of options available. If you’re curvier, then an outfit that sculpts those curves will work best. If you’re having confidence issues because of your body, it could also be worth discussing that with a therapist or plastic surgeon – a little procedure could be the right option for you, to help you move forward.

 

Be deliberate when shopping

Disposable fashion has got a lot of us taking a swing and seeing what we like and don’t like. But for so many reasons, you should be giving that a swerve, and personal style is all about being more selective and deliberate when you’re shopping for clothes. Train yourself out of impulse buying altogether, and ask yourself if you really love a garment. You’ll gain an instinct for what looks tempting in the moment and what you can see yourself wearing again and again. This focuses the mind on picking outfits that really do suit you and helps define a framework within which you can shop going forward.

 

Have some neutral pieces

As individual as personal style is, it should be noted that not every garment should make a screaming statement. Pretty much nobody can make an outfit work when each individual part of it is clamouring for attention. It’s important to have some pieces in your wardrobe that simply allow the other parts to shine. A basic, neutral vest top over which you can put a stylish jacket or open blouse, for example. Black trousers and/or skirts that offer contrast to a brightly-coloured top would be another option. And remember that accessories are a huge part of personal style. Hair slides, earrings, bracelets, and other items that can coordinate with the rest of the outfit will help immensely.

 

Go shopping, but don’t buy anything

Not permanently, but a little bit of window shopping is a good idea, whether it is online or in-person. Personal style should be considered, not reactive. If you’re trying to create your look, then your first shopping trip should be a dry run. The purpose is to get an idea of what you want without letting impulse take the wheel; by all means earmark some items for your next shopping trip, but then give them a chance to percolate in your mind while you wait. You’ll benefit by doing this; you’ll make fewer dud purchases, saving money and increasing the proportion of sure-fire hit outfits in your wardrobe.

Arriving at your own personal style will take time, but in many ways that’s the point. Once you’ve hit on your signature look, you’ll have the confidence to pull off any outfit that takes your fancy.