6 Tips to Determine Your Personal Style

One would think that determining one’s personal style is simple.

After all, who knows your style desires better than yourself?

But with all of the fashion “noise” that is bombarded at us 24/7, it’s pretty difficult to sort through all the trends, must-haves and end-of-season clearances to determine what truly is your personal style.

 Hey. I get it. I’ve struggled with it too.

And if you’ve read my own personal style journey, you’ll see that I wished I had discovered my “style-self” sooner.

So, with that being said, I’ve provided for you 6 tips in determining your personal style.

FIND WHAT INSPIRES YOU

What are you drawn to when it comes to clothes?

Everything? You have no idea?

All common answers.

My tip for you is to pay a little visit to Pinterest and start pinning your little heart out with outfits that you like or pieces you would love to add to your wardrobe collection.

(If you don’t have Pinterest, good ol’fashion cutting pictures out of magazines works just as well!)

Then, go through all of these images and note what common themes you see. Any particular silhouette? Color? Fabric? Write them down and keep a note of these items on your phone or in your purse for easy reference when shopping.

IGNORE THE RULES

When it comes to rules, more often than not they are put in place to protect us.

Not when it comes to fashion and style.

There are many rules that we may of heard of which guided outfit coordination traditionally, but these days it’s all about making your own path. No one is going to arrest you for mixing prints.

If you notice you like to wear white all year round even after Labor Day (shriek!) Then by all means, wear white all year round!

If you like to pair blue and black together, do it and wear this “rule breaker” with pride.

And for goodness sakes, if you hate wearing heels, don’t let the “rules” force you out of an amazing pair of flats for a fancy evening!

DON’T BE GUIDED BY TRENDS ONLY

I think this is so important. Not only does going after every trend cause our closets to bulge with a massive amount of unworn clothes – but I believe it also causes us to loose sight of what we really love as we get distracted chasing what everyone else tells us to buy. Don’t let trends have the last say in determining your purchases!

GO WITH YOUR GUT

When trying something on ask yourself: “Do I love this?”

What is your first reaction – before all those self criticizing doubts sneak in?

It’s a yes?

Great. Get it girl.

BE CONFIDENT (AND BRAVE)

As you begin to figure out who you are when it comes to style, don’t let your fears of not being accepted or looked at a little different scare you into not dressing like yourself.

On my 30th birthday, I set some goals for myself for my next decade of life. One of them was to stop caring what other people think of me.

When you determine who you are when it comes to fashion, embrace it, and put other people’s opinions of you off to the side where they belong.

PUT YOUR BLINDERS ON

As your personal style begins to make itself more present, put on your blinders when you shop!

If you don’t have tunnel-vision toward your personal style, it is so easy to get sucked back in to all of the trends screaming for your attention and you’ll find yourself down a rabbit hole of fashion-self-confusion once again.

So there you have it – my tips to help determine your personal style.

If you take nothing else away from this blog post, hear this.

Personal style can be a mix of different things – it does not have to be defined by a single word. 

The only word it should always be defined is, is “You”.