Own It! Defining Your Personal Style

Personal style is an outward expression of your personality through fashion. For most women, it’s not until we reach our late twenties and early thirties that we finally determine our personal style. We discover what works and doesn’t work for us. We stop trying to look good for others and strive to look and feel good for ourselves. This is something that just comes with age and maturity. I think I speak for most women when I say that at age 30, I know my best features, my favorite pieces of clothing, what looks good on me, what I should never wear, and what pieces make me feel amazing! These discoveries are a result of determining my personal style. Below, I have listed some tips that helped me on the journey to discovering my personal style.

Choose pieces that accentuate your best features and assets. Every woman is beautiful inside and out. But we all have certain physical features that allow us to stand out from the rest in the most beautiful way. My legs are my best feature (in my opinion). So I tend to wear pieces that show off my legs. Some pieces that you will most likely see me in are midi/mini dresses, pencil skirts, shorts, and skinny jeans. So what if your best feature is your toned arms? Then you would want more sleeveless tops and sleeveless dresses. If your derriere is your best feature, you would go for fitted pieces like body-con dresses and fitted jeans. Now for those parts of your body that you like the least, you can find pieces that downplay those areas as well. Check out this site that describes ways to dress up your favorite and least favorite features here. When you highlight your best features, it minimalizes your least favorite bits.

Pay attention to how you feel when you wear certain clothes. You want to feel good in what you’re wearing. My motto, is if it doesn’t feel good, don’t wear it. So when discovering your personal style, go for those pieces that make you feel confident, sexy, comfortable, put-together, attractive, happy, etc. Those are the pieces that you want to incorporate into your personal style. The opposite applies as well. Get rid of the pieces that make you feel exposed, confined, uncomfortable, self-conscious, or frumpy. Style and fashion are about expressing the best version of yourself.

Consider the activities you do the most. How do you dress for them? Pieces that align with your daily activities should be in your closet. 5 days a week, I spend about 8 hours a day at a desk. The kind of pieces that I wear is going to be different from someone who is on the move throughout the day. I’m sitting; So, I may be able to incorporate more pairs of high heels in my closet. On the other hand, a businesswoman who spends more time on her feet throughout the day may have more pairs of shorter heels or flats. Your day to day activities determines whether you’ll have more dresses, pants, jewelry, bright colors, makeup, etc as a part of your personal style.

Determine pieces in your closet that sit and sit. If there are pieces in your closet that you have not worn in years, months, or seasons, those are pieces that you probably don’t like (unless they’re special occasion pieces) and won’t wear much. Get rid of them. That’s usually an indication that they are not anything that you are interested in wearing and therefore not a part of your personal style.

My suggestion would be to go through all of those pieces, try them out one last time, and if you still feel that they are not anything that you’re going to wear, get rid of them. Sell them and go buy some things that you actually like. Then go back into your closet and pay more attention to the pieces that you do love and decide what it is that you love about those pieces. Is it the shape? Is it the design? Is it the colors? Is it how you feel when you wear it? Those are the pieces that you want to get more of.

Find style inspiration from a celebrity or anyone whose style you love. For example, one of my style icons is Tracee Ellis Ross. Her style is very classy, original, fun, bold, and chic. She has a lot of wild, mixed prints and textured pieces. But my favorite pieces from her are usually the simple, monochrome, streamlined pieces. Those represent my style well. And I’m quick to find a less expensive version of it. My advice is to look to someone with a similar body type as yours. Look at the pieces that they’re wearing because most likely if those pieces look good on them, they will look great on you as well.

Because women are very complex, most times our style can be defined in multiple ways. For example, I have my style for when I want to be chic and a little sexy and flirty. I also have my style for when I want to look professional. Then I have my casual, dressed down style which is usually jeans with a nice blouse and a pair of high heels! But you will always see similarities between my looks no matter what. And these looks will always accentuate my best features.

Make sure you’re exuding the best version of you when determining your personal style. And own it!

How do you define your personal style?