In this ever-changing age filled with micro-trends, everyone wants to stand out, but most lack the personality to make it happen.
People think their obscure references are unique to them, a treasure they found after hours of searching in a sea of social media posts, when they look like a post 50,000 other people also liked.
When you try to dress like someone on your Pinterest board or Instagram feed, it’s just an outfit. Style can’t be adopted or transferred. Style is entirely personalized through experimentation and self-discovery.
Every time you dress, you are choosing a certain way to represent yourself, whether that be intentional or not.
As fashion economist Alice Janssens once said to Fashion Magazine “We can always trace fashion as a manifestation of a sentiment.”
Psychologists from the University of the Arts London found in recent research that personal style holds symbolic meaning that reflects your behavior, personality and self-concept.
Having style is more than predicting trends and learning how to dress for your body type. It’s about becoming aware of the underlying choices that shape the way you dress.
Earlier this year, trend-chasers craved to adopt John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette’ style because of their effortless class and minimalism after a new show exposed their lives. The pair became style icons, with their online searches growing by more than 9,100% within a month of the show first airing.
On social media platforms, the same products Bessette used from the New York French pharmacy were sold out, while men hosted JFK Jr. lookalike contests in Central Park, all wearing ill fitting suits or carrying an unused bike as he did.
Bessette was intentional about her stylistic choices, making a statement about the world that scrutinized her. That’s what made her stand out.
What admirers don’t realize is that what they want isn’t their plain outfits and quaint accessories. They want to be them.
Even if you are not passionate about fashion or the specificities that come with it, you are still telling the world about yourself.
People who are unapologetically about themselves, those who fight daily conformities, live by their own terms and wear what they want, are the ones that turn heads.
We try so hard to fit in with trends or the environment around us, making sure we like the way we will be perceived. But it is by understanding yourself and experimenting with clothes that you find yourself.
Become someone people admire because of the same pair of vintage shoes your mom gave you and jewelry you found on a spontaneous trip across the world that you’d rather die than let go of.
