Creating Your Own Fashion Style: 4 Golden Rules to Stand Out from the Trends
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At first glance, dressing up might seem easy. With the of trends emerging from the fashion market each year, one might think that creating your own fashion style is a piece of cake.
After all, all it takes is reading the latest fashion article, checking your Instagram feed, or following your favorite fashion influencer to stay updated on the latest trendy outfit.
But when you take a closer look at this phenomenon, you realize that to have your own fashion style, you need to detach yourself from trends.
Stylistic trends oppress us. By closely following fashion, fashion influencers, and other icons of the fashion sphere, we tend to copy what already exists, completely losing our artistic sense and our personality.
So, how can we turn the situation around? How can we have fun with clothes so that they become an extension of your personality? How can we succeed in creating our own fashion style: a style that is independent, unique, and reflective of us?
That’s what we’ll try to dissect in this article. By applying these 4 golden rules to your stylistic daily life, you should succeed in having fun with your clothes to find your own style; the one that resembles you.
Golden rule number 1: dress for yourself and not for others
A trend exists because it’s popular. And when we talk about trend, we talk about market trends, fashion effects, those that disappear before blooming, those that are created by trend offices, and which are designed solely with the purpose of selling to flood the fashion market.
From these trends are born improbable styles that last no more than a season and which are taken up by fashion icons or fashionistas, making these looks new standards.
But this poses a problem: it’s because fashion is standardized that it pushes consumers to dress like others. As a result, we dress not for ourselves anymore, but to imitate the group or to fit into the norm.
And that’s the great paradox: if you want to dress like others, you will move away from yourself. If you try to copy trends, you will never succeed in finding your fashion style.
Hence the golden rule number 1: forget about what others think. Become an actor of your style, and not a spectator who is imposed a way of dressing.
While it may seem easy, the exercise is not so obvious when we are used to being told how to dress. Dressing for oneself requires centering on oneself, one’s desires, needs, and personality. We drop the masks and expectations others have of us to reconnect with what we want to express, to communicate.
Golden rule number 2: keep an eye out for inspiration and create your fashion style
The key to finding your fashion style is inspiration. Real inspiration, not the one that’s just a click away on Pinterest or Instagram, but the one that lies in every little detail of daily life. The one that transports us, gives us emotion, marks us, moves us, sensitizes us.
And it’s everywhere.
In a movie, a song, in a photo album, in archives, in stories, at a café terrace, in the movement of passing people, etc.
Because if we start from the principle that trends kill fashion, and thus by ricochet quench everyone’s style, then it is counterproductive to refer to them. The idea is rather to detach from them. And for that, you need to look where they are not found, that is in real life. In the colors of nature, for example, in raw materials, in thrift stores, in grandmothers’ wardrobes, in attics, in architecture, in landscapes, etc.
By keeping an eye open in your daily life for what can help build the foundation or details of your own fashion style, you force yourself to open your mind, but most importantly, to compose with your own affinities. And this constitutes the basis of a look that resembles you.
Golden rule number 3: think of your fashion style as a whole
Fashion images tend to show us looks that are not suitable for the reality of everyday life. A crop top in the middle of winter, clogs as shoes for spring, patchwork on your summer dress, etc.
Except not everyone has the same daily life, and depending on our lifestyle, we do not approach our days in the same way. For example, you might ride your bike to work every day. In that case, forget about wearing an evening dress during the day. Conversely, your activity or desires might require you to wear an elegant or classic outfit. At that time, adopting the XXL trend with loose cuts and clothes with streetwear influences is probably not the most appropriate.
The weather also plays an important role. You might not wear your little lace top when it’s -10 outside because it’s the trend of the moment. Just as wearing a wool coat when it’s pouring rain is not the most practical.
In short, there are many criteria to consider, but what you need to remember is that it’s important to adapt your style to your day, your activities, your habits.
Think of practicality before aesthetics. You will always feel better in a “functional” outfit than a fashionable one, because it has a big advantage. You can upgrade it.
Compose your outfits for your everyday life, even if it may seem basic, simple, or even boring to you. But think that you can always improve it, pimp it, take it to the next level. How? With accessories, and with the right choice of colors. Jewelry, belts, caps, hats, glasses, pins, scarves… Think of all these little details that can enhance, illuminate or energize your outfit. Well chosen, they will make the difference, because they have the advantage of offering relief, but most importantly, personality to your outfit.
And that’s what we want!
Golden rule number 4: become the explorer of your own aesthetics
If market trends don’t help anyone define their own style, they do have one merit. They can serve as a guide.
There’s no point in denying them since they exist. But you can make them your own. See them as beacons guiding you through your own stylistic quest.
Because it’s clear that your style will go through several phases, stages, and attempts. And that’s perfectly fine. The idea here to successfully create a fashion style that reflects your image is to think like an explorer.
Try, explore, test, experiment, match, combine… In short, allow yourself the freedom to express what you want, regardless of what others think, what trends, brands, or magazines may show you. Take several elements from current trends or from decades like the 2000s or the Seventies, and mix them. See how you feel.
After all, it’s just a game, so have fun exploring. Push your own style limits to go beyond what you know. It’s an exercise that requires a certain letting go, but once you engage in it, it becomes exhilarating and fun.
And it’s by pushing the doors of exploration that you will learn. You will go through fashion faux pas, but also through beautiful discoveries. This is what will gradually bring you closer to your style, the one that resembles you.
But don’t forget that it will not be fixed, just like you. This style, this look, this swag, it will change as you evolve. You will then have to explore again, try, discover. Ultimately, just like an explorer would.
If we had to conclude, creating your fashion style is the right balance between inspiration, listening to oneself and one’s needs, and experimentation. And by thinking of your style as an extension of who you are, you have everything to gain: better self-confidence, a new perspective on your wardrobe, more responsible consumption, and increased creativity.
💡And to understand how some people manage to appropriate stylistic codes, discover our article on Next In Fashion, the most trendy fashion contest of the moment!
Image en une : © Sandra Semburg
