6 Tips to Find Your Personal Style

Have you ever struggled to find a personal style? Need help to begin your journey in fashion? Do you have a closet full of items that you never really wear? 

Fashion is never just about appearance - it’s also about how it makes you feel. You should feel good in what you wear! Finding a personal style that suits you can freshen up your looks AND your daily life.

But first, what exactly is a personal style? 

Table of Contents

1. What does personal style mean?
2. Find your style icons
3. Write down what you like!
4. Experiment with different outfits
5. Evaluate your lifestyle
6. Start looking into what you have
7. Ask yourself a few questions

What does personal style mean?

Personal style means something other than following fashion trends or simply putting on popular fashion items. As literal as the term says, it is personal. Your style should correlate with how you live and reflect who you are.  

Picture this - you are a minimalist, and you bought the trendiest bright-coloured hoodie with dazzling patterns from a famous brand. This hoodie will most likely get buried in the deepest corner of your wardrobe. Why? Because every time you put it on, you don’t feel comfortable. Then you take it off and go for your favourite black hoodie. Trust me, we have all been there.

Once you combine fashion styles and items to suit your lifestyle and personality, your unique style comes together effortlessly.

So, here are six tips for you to start defining and building your personal style!

Tip #1: Find Your Style Icons 

Many people go to social media for styling inspirations - start from there! With flooding content on social media platforms, countless individuals share their outfit combinations with different styles. Save the content or take screen captures of outfits you like on social media, and use them to curate your mood board of style inspiration. Image source: Pinterest

Image Source: Pinterest

You can also look for similar outfits from people with fashion styles that catch your eye, start from there and eventually learn to mix and match your own outfits.

Another key is to find people who share a similar body type as you. If your inspiration comes from someone as tall as you are with a similar body shape, their style will look flattering on you too.

Tip #2: Write Down What You like

It can be overwhelming with all the ideas in mind, so write them down. It can be adjectives, terms, or names of a specific fashion item - list out whatever you can think of that you like about the styles or outfits. 

To push it further, find a connection between the things you listed. Is there a common colour theme or aesthetic? Do you spot any similarity in the styles you’re attracted to, e.g. are they mostly athleisure or streetwear? The answers help construct an idea of what you should look for when building your personal style. 

Tip #3: Experiment with Different Outfits

If you never try, you never know! Outfits could look incredible on someone else but look like a mess on you (yes, I’ve failed too many times…). Before buying fashion pieces, experiment with outfit combinations using different items. Here are some tricks to make it easier:

Start bold. Try putting on bold colours, like a neon top. Or mix and match various styles and textures. If it excites you, that means you are comfortable with bold styles and can play with different colours and designs.Products: GO OFF Fire Logo T-shirt, GO OFF Multi Pockets Shorts

If it feels too much for you, minimize the portion of bright colours and use accessories to add that pop of colour instead, like a pair of socks or a hat.

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What if it still feels awkward to you? It’s ok. Fashion doesn’t mean always putting on bright colours and big prints. Go for minimalist styles with the basic black and white or earth tones.

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Here are two more tricks to finding your perfect personal style. First, learn how to dress for your body type. Try on pieces with different fittings, and see what looks the most flattering on you! Here are two articles from RealMenRealStyle and Goop to learn more about dressing for body types.

The second trick is adding accessories to accentuate your style. If bold accessories are not for you, try something simple and go with silver instead of gold - it can make a remarkable difference in the overall vibe. Product: GO OFF Logo Ear Studs

Tip #4: Evaluate Your Lifestyle

What you wear should cater to your daily routine. Imagine someone working in the creative industry, who’s always attending events and social gatherings, but has a wardrobe full of t-shirts and sweatpants. That does not sound practical for their lifestyle, does it? It also does not reflect who they are! 

So think about what you usually do in a day. What are the occasions? Do you move around a lot and need something more casual and flexible? Every item you have will be your favourite when you build your wardrobe around this. Because they are practical for your daily life and you actually wear them.

Tip #5: Start Looking Into What You Have

“I have nothing to wear.” Does that sound familiar? I am indeed guilty of saying this too much. The fact is, many people might have a closet with half the items they seldom wear. So here is your sign: dig out every item in your closet and evaluate them. You got those items because you liked them. Find a pattern within, and understand what you want. 

Then, move on to the items you seldom wear (or even forget having them!) and ask, “Why?”. Is it because they do not look good on you? Or are they not practical for most occasions? Your answers give you an idea of what to avoid when rebuilding your wardrobe.

An extra important thing is, the more chaotic your wardrobe gets, the more confused you are about what to wear. If your closet is impractical or messy, you might have a pattern of overbuying things. Learn more about how to stop overbuying and start shopping rationally from Next Advisor.

Tip #6: Ask Yourself a Few Questions

Figuring out the image or presence you want to show through your style is very important. Even if you’ve pinned down the type of styles you like, that might not be the answer for presenting yourself in the way you want. 

Try answering these questions:

• Do you have a certain way you want to look, e.g. professional, trendy, bold?
• Is there a specific culture/idea you want to present through your style?
• Do you feel comfortable physically and mentally in the outfits?
• Do you feel like yourself in these styles, or do you feel like you are just pretending to be someone you are not?

The answers set a standard to evaluate whether your style can help you achieve that. You can then mix and match styles to present yourself uniquely.There is no one-style-fits-all, and you are too good to be limited by one fashion style. The key to finding your personal style is understanding yourself, mixing and matching different outfits, and eventually curating a unique style that makes you feel good. Now, with these six tips, start your journey and go off🔥