Photo by Eugenio Recuenco

This is first article in my two-part style series! 

What is it that distinguishes a ‘fashion follower’ from someone who is inherently stylish? How do you create an inimitable personal style? I’ll details my thoughts on the topic below, and would love for you to share your opinion in the comments! Let your voices be heard loud and clear! Tell me what style means to you. Do you love or loathe trends and all they represent? Illuminate, enamour and enlighten us with your insights! OK, now, to begin with, I think…

Your style should be as unique as your handwriting!

I think cultivating your personal style (as opposed to slavishly adhering to disposable fashion trends) is all about setting yourself apart and sourcing your ideas from within. To me, style is synergy. Simply put, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  It’s like this: when it comes to fashion, you may have the seasons’ hottest shoes, an ‘It’ bag, a dress that blows your mind, and accessories du jour, but lay these items on a table, and all you really have is a bunch of beautiful ‘things.’

However — combine these with creative flair, an unmistakable air of confidence, a piquant dash of self-awareness, and a willingness to experiment — and it is then that you discover what it really means to be quintessentially stylish. It’s not about religiously following trends. It’s about embracing individualism and creating a look that is all your own; an extension of your personality. It’s the easiest and most obvious way of proudly telling the world “Hey! This is me!”

Fundamentally, style is something that transcends time. Where fashions come and go with the seasons, style is perennial and requires vision and an understanding of self. Personal style is rooted in originality and innovation. Rather than letting the trends ‘wear you’, style is about mixing designer, vintage and chain store/high street pieces and making your own rules! It’s about disengaging slightly from the pull of “What’s hot & What’s not” type messages, and wearing things you like, rather than what you think you should like.

There are no shortcuts to style. People who fanatically follow fashion, and deck themselves out in the latest looks season after season, tend to follow a number of strategies that give them the sense that they have achieved ‘style’. These strategies are things like copying the looks of others, following fashion ‘rules’ dictated by the media, emulating the ways celebrities dress, and so on.  Unfortunately, when it comes to creating personal style, all these shortcuts are ineffective, because they are based on duplicating a pre-existing style developed by someone else. If you merely copy someone else’s style, you begin to negate your own personality… which, of course, entirely defeats the purpose!

Try as they might, people who attempt to copy someone like Chloe Sevigny or French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld, for example, will always fall short of the mark. Sure, they might kit themselves out in identical threads and think they have pulled it off, but the fact is, there are so many other elements at play that it just won’t have the same effect! Besides, the world already has a Miss Sevigny and a Mademoiselle Roitfeld — why try to be someone else when there is no other person on this planet just like YOU? It’s time to appreciate how unique and amazing you are, because essentially, developing your personal style involves translating your vision of who you are into a message you want to send the world.  Through the way you present yourself, you take your ideas and turn them into something that others can see — and in this sense, your style is the closest rendition of your vision of yourself. 

Don’t get me wrong — I know all this may sound like I am fashion-bashing, but that’s not my intention at all! I enjoy observing trends as much as the next person and I like to buy fashionable pieces if I (a) genuinely like them, and (b) know they suit me. When looking for new looks to incorporate into our wardrobes, fashion provides ample inspiration and allows us to experiment until we find things that are right for us. I’m definitely not saying that you have to ignore trends completely to consider yourself  ‘stylish.’ We live in a progressive culture, and as with the cyclical nature of fashion, our style preferences are constantly changing and evolving — life would be pretty boring otherwise! For those with a strong personal aesthetic, fashion also plays very important role in that it acts as a yardstick against which they can measure themselves. Without it, there is no distinction — nothing that says that they are doing something different than the rest of the pack. 

But, what I am trying to say though, is that as we become more aware of who we are and the statement we wish to make to the world, we learn that looking like every other girl or boy on the block starts to lose its relevance. We learn to observe the trends, to honestly distinguish what looks good on us, and mix the new with the old in a creative, inspired manner. It comes back to discernment. It’s looking at trends like, say, the resurgence of neon not so long ago, and asking yourself, “Would I have worn a knee length fluorescent green t-shirt with hot pink leggings a year before it became “fashionable” again, just because I happen to like it?”

If the answer is yes, then I salute you! Keep up the good work! But if your response is a little less positive, then tune in tomorrow for my article on ‘Creating Your Personal Style’, which will be filled to the brim with useful advice and visual examples to help you on your way to cultivating a style that is all YOU! 

May we all live stylishly ever after! 

Rach xxx