Before we dive into how to find your personal style and create a curated closet full of items you love, let’s address some basic ideas about style and how we should dress.
Your Body is perfect; and you are more than a geometric shape or a fruit
First and foremost, your body is good as it is. Your body is good, and you can start finding outfits you love right now. You don’t need to wait until something has changed to find your style and create a curated closet you love.
When I started to take a deep dive into this topic, I always thought of style as being defined as a geometric shape or a fruit. While figuring out your body shape can help you to figure out why some things might not work for you as they work on others, your personal style is something completely different. Style rules designed for your body shape are centered to fit your body best. I personally think of style as the details that are on a garment. Is it a classic style, does it have feminine details, or more natural accents. E.g. you can have a white V-neck T-shirt that has little flowers stitched in, or is opaque and looser fitting, or a traditional cut. All of them though will have the V-neck T-shirt shape.
While I have gotten a lot out of those rules, and I recommend being aware of your body shape, I don’t follow all of them, and neither should you. Wear what you like, we don’t have to dress in 3rds, or highlight the slimmest point at our body, etc. I enjoyed exploring the rules to help me figure out what I like and what I don’t like. It was a great starting point to figure out my personal style and a mood board. More on that later. If you don’t like certain rules don’t worry about it and do what you like!
You don’t have to follow trends
Trends are another aspect that can keep us from wearing what we like. Just know, you don’t have to follow trends! Right now, there is a huge debate about skinny jeans. Should we still wear them? That is up to you. If they suit your body, and they’re comfortable and practical, keep wearing them. Might it be harder to find certain items that are not a current trend? Yes, that might be the case, yet it isn’t impossible. There are lots of options and luckily in today’s times we can find most things at any time. Give yourself permission to wait for the perfect item to come along. Don’t go for the quick fix if it doesn’t align with your style preferences.
Being stylish can mean many things
If you’re not following trends, do you risk not being stylish? I think you can still be stylish even if you don’t follow trends. And most importantly, you don’t have to be stylish or what we understand as being stylish. How we define stylish also changes over time and what we think off as stylish now, would have been unacceptable in the 60s. I love the freedom we have today, yet often we can still feel we are not stylish if our outfit isn’t fashionably elegant and sophisticated. Know that if you show up with a lounge wear to a playdate and the mom who shows up in a cute top and jeans you just chose different styles. Don’t feel less stylish, you simply enjoy dressing differently.
How to Find your Style and create a Fabulous Closet
Let’s dive in on how to find your style and create a curated wardrobe that you love. I have done quite a bit of research and these steps really helped me in the process. The most helpful resource is the book “The Curated Closet” by Anuschka Rees.
1. analyze your current wardrobe
If you have time, take 2 weeks and report your outfits and what events you wear them too. Then analyze your looks and ask yourself questions to figure out what you like. Find some example questions below:
Analyze your current wardrobe:
- What was your favorite look and why?
- What was your least favorite look?
- Did your outfits meet your needs? Were they comfortable & practical for your activities?
- Do you already have outfit formulas that you follow?
- How do you usually style your outfits? E.g. do you like to tuck your tops? Roll your sleeves? Add accessories? Wear belts?
- How well do your clothes/outfits fit? By this I don’t mean size, but more shape and style
Analyze your closet needs:
- Do you prefer to be overdressed or underdressed?
- How many seasons do you have to dress for?
- How many occasions do you have to dress for and how well does your closet serve you to dress for each?
You & your closet:
- Do you enjoy styling your outfits? What is your main motivation for to spend time on your outfits? Is it a creative outlet? Does it help you express your values? Give you confidence?
- To what extend is what you wear influenced by people in your life?
- Reflect on your answers and define your style goals – these are the most important questions to ask.
- Why do you want to change your wardrobe?
- What do you like about your current wardrobe?
- Which aspects need to change to serve you better?
2. Create a vision board to find your style preferences
At the same time, create a Pinterest or vision board where you save outfits that catch your interest. Look for items and outfits you would wear in real life. This can be whole outfits, part of outfits, or single items. Don’t forget to include accessories and shoes.
What speaks to you on the whole board, what jumps out at you? Is it the cut of an item? The color? The texture? Or is it the vibe of the whole outfit? What kind of silhouettes are you drawn to? Pay attention to the styling. Simple tricks can add interest to the simplest outfit. Cut anything from your vision board that doesn’t appeal to you, doesn’t suit your needs, or is redundant.
From your closet analysis and vision board identify patterns and come up with style words or descriptions. This is unique to you and only you need to understand it. Forget what certain words mean to the general public, use words that to you regardless of their associations. Be as specific as you can.
3. Now it’s time to experiment to finetune your personal style
Try on Styles that you identified from your closet and vision board. If you’re drawn to style uniforms, create outfit formulas that work for your style and speak to you. This will help you when you get dress and when you bring in new items into your closet. This can be very helpful to decide if a new item can should have a permanent spot in your closet. Use your style words to get creative with your outfits. Edit your style words and descriptions as much as needed. Be a researcher and conduct style experiments. I also find it helpful to come up with words that don’t work for me – this helps to eliminate certain looks and items. Use your words to create your own rules. Evaluate these regularly and refine as needed.
Time to start creating your curated closet filled with items you love
Now that you have defined your style it is time to create your curated closet filled with items you love. Time to do a closet cleanout. Read this post for some tips on how to tackle a successful closet cleanout. Take your time with this process and keep up seasonally to edit your wardrobe. You can find tips and tricks on how to update your wardrobe in this post. Once you own only items you love wearing, you’ll want to take care of them. How you wash your clothes has a big impact on how long your clothes will last. There are also a few tools that I consider a necessity to properly care for your clothes. Find more on how to wash your clothes properly in this post, and here you can find my favorite tools to care for your clothes.
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