How do you feel about the clothes you wear and the look you project daily? For some people, nailing tiger style is effortless. They have an eye for what looks good, they can interpret fashion and beauty trends to bring them to life in their own way, and they can appear to make wearing a trash bag look like it's high fashion.
But for others, there needs to be a lot more thought and patience put into what they wear and how they wear it. If you're unsure of your fashion choices or you can't pin down your style to take you through seasons regardless of what is in fashion, then these tips can be of use to you.
Find Your Inspiration
Firstly, you need to pin down your inspiration. Whose style do you covet? What do you want to emulate, and what exactly do you like about it? It isn’t likely to be one particular style or person, and for most, it's about a collection of different inspiration sources they collate into their look.
Start by putting together a Pinterest board of things that inspire you fashion-wise and people whose style you like. It can be your favorite fashion influencers, celebrities, someone you know, or a brand you like. Then pair these sources with what you actually like to wear and see how you can incorporate these elements together visually via mood boards.
Evaluate Your Choices
Once you have found your fashion inspiration, you need to look at why you like them and what it is about them that grabbed your attention. This will help you to pair these choices with items you already own to help you get a better sense of what you like to wear, how you can integrate your desired style into your current wardrobe, and what you feel comfortable in.
It can be dissecting the materials or cuts off pieces in the more dominant style you prefer, looking at how someone's makeup style can work for you; i.e., can you pull off fake freckles or learn to contour, or can you play around with your eye makeup to find a color that makes your eyes pop or even change your hairstyle if you wish.
Remember, the aim here is not to copy someone else's style but to determine how that style would work for you. Do you own anything similar you could experiment or is there anything you have tried in the past you didn't like on you as much as others? You need to pull elements you really like and put them together to help you find a style that works for you, and this means looking in depth at the inspiration you chose and how you can interpret it.
Check Your Closet
Now you know a bit about what you do and don't like, you can apply these choices to your current wardrobe. Take some time to go through your clothes and accessories and look at the items you have and how they can fit into the style you can create.
Get rid of anything you don't want or doesn't make you feel good in. This will make it easier to develop your style. Next, you can look at creating outfits with the pieces you want to keep to help you create your chosen style. It's not about investing in a completely new wardrobe but instead building on what you already like to wear to help you find the sweet spot between comfort and style. Starting with what you already own means you can style up different pieces accordingly and see what does and doesn't work well together before investing in new clothes.
Try picking something you like that you already wear or want to style up and then taking this shopping with you to help you find an outfit that works with it.
Try It
Next, you need to put what you have learned into practice. It doesn't matter how drastic the changes are at first, but more that you feel confident in your picks and are happy to wear them out. Choose a style you really love, and then craft your outfit based on this and see how you feel. Do you feel good about it? Are you self-conscious? What did or didn't work for you that you need to change?
Do this for all of your inspiration picks and new styles you want to try to help you assess their suitability for your personality and lifestyle. This can be massively beneficial in helping you see how practical an outfit or style is for your everyday life, which can further assist you in narrowing down what your perfect wardrobe needs to contain.
Take Pictures
Once you have some clear favorite styles or outfits in mind, snap a picture of yourself wearing these outfits for you to refer back to them. This will also give you a better idea of how everything looks, and you can make any further changes if you feel they need it. It will also help you to create this style with other items you won or change it up with various accessories to help you alter the look slightly.
Pick A Signature Piece
Once you have found your style, this will come naturally. After you have put the hard work in, you need to determine your signature item. This is the piece that helps you to pull your style together and is instrumental in most things you will be wearing. It can be a statement necklace or watch, for example, an oversized gold hoop earrings, or it can be a leather jacket or a blazer that you wear with every outfit. This is something that will be instantly recognizable to you and others as something you wear, quickly becoming your style. But don't just pick any item; it needs to flow and be in context with your style and work well with the majority of our wardrobe to hope you craft that effortless style.
Finding your personal style is something a lot of people struggle with. It isn't enough to point to something you like someone else wearing and replicate it bit by bit. You need to inject who you are into what you wear, find the styles that sit nicely on your body, match your personality, and that you enjoy wearing.
