Making a Personal Style Statement

Personal Style and Trends

By: Emma Dhupar

With so much media around, we’re constantly being influenced by new trends and fashion cycles. With us constantly seeing all of these new items and the trend cycle speeding up it can be hard to tell what truly speaks to you and what is just a trend that you’ll drop in a couple of months.

A trendy soft girl inspired outfit The definition of a trend is “what’s popular at a certain time”. When talking about fashion, this generally refers to the clothing, styles, or accessories that are most often seen in media at that moment. These trends tend to change over time, and they have been changing much more frequently recently especially due to social media and the rise of influencers. Generally, trends will last for a season before the decline of the trend begins and people start wearing it less and less.

What is the decline of a trend referring to and what determines if trends are in and out? Trends are generally introduced by leading fashion houses like Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel as well as major fashion publications like Vogue. After these trends are introduced however, it’s up to the people and influencers which trends stick and which are dropped.

All trends go through something called a trend cycle. A trend cycle is the process that determines the lifespan of a trend. Trend cycles are generally divided into 5 stages: introduction, rise, peak, decline, and obsolescence. When a trend starts, it goes through the introduction stage. This is when the look is first seen on the runway or worn by an influencer. Then the trend starts to rise when more and more influencers wear the trend and more publications and fashion houses start to take notice of it. Then, as the trend starts to be worn by more and more people and is seen in stores of all standing and value, the trend reaches its peak. With all the people wearing it, the trend starts to oversaturate and it starts its decline. After the trend declines to an extent, it becomes obsolete, and hardly anyone wears it anymore.

In previous time periods, trends

A look cultivated to capture a feel of luxury and maturity

had lasted up to 10 years but nowadays, some micro trends only last months. Trends also used to come back every 20 years, and now they come back as early as 7-10 years. This is due to the use of media and increased oversaturation of the trend cycle. Influencers and trend hopping also significantly contribute to this.

Trend hopping can be very harmful to our personal style and our environment. While it’s not bad to participate in trends, if you buy into every trend then you’ll never be able to build your personal style. This can also be very harmful to the environment since people tend to buy into trends using fast fashion and throw them away immediately after the trend is over. This contributes to massive amounts of waste which severely harms our habitat over time.

Not only is trend hopping harmful to the environment, but it is also very harmful to our sense of style and self. Our style is a huge part of the way we present ourselves to the world as well as the way we feel about ourselves. Your style should connect you to yourself and be an expression of who you are on the inside. When people trend hop and constantly mirror what they see others wearing rather than finding out what they like, they can feel very uncomfortable in their skin and lack a true understanding of themselves. Elizabeth Elias from Elizabeth Elias Consulting is a personal stylist based in Austin, Texas. She works with her clients to ensure they “build a wardrobe that’s true to themselves”. Elizabeth believes fashion is a way for you to express yourself. “I do feel like it is a big part of how you communicate to the world. It’s how people perceive you. So if your style is not aligned with who you are on the inside, I think that you could be misunderstood”, she says. Personal style is an expression of who we are and how we present ourselves to the world. It is meant to be authentic and unique to you. It should be based on items, patterns and colors that you enjoy and that make you feel like yourself. Personal style should feel timeless to you, even if it includes pieces that aren’t traditionally considered “timeless”. Instead of buying into every trend, we should focus more on building our personal style and finding pieces that are timeless to us. We can do this by buying fewer, quality pieces that are true to us personally instead of many, low quality trends that will fall apart soon or that you won’t like in a couple of months. So how do you start building your personal style? Building a strong personal style takes a long time but it’s also very rewarding. For starters, you will feel much more confident and comfortable in your clothing and your wardrobe will last you seasons while still being of quality, comfort and in style. You will also save money and be able to express yourself properly to the world.

“I do feel like it is a big part of Your style should how you communicate to the also cater to you and your body personworld. It’s how people perceive ally. An important part of ensuring this you. So if your style is not is color theory and aligned with who you are on the body types. Dressing according to your inside, I think that you could be body’s shape and skin tone can help you feel misunderstood” more comfortable - Elizabeth Elias and look better. These can serve as valuable guides for your personal style and dressing sense and will ensure you stand out. In order to identify these, it’s important to understand the science behind these concepts. Elizabeth Wooderson from House of Color is a personal stylist who specializes in color theory and body types in terms of skintone and personal style. She works with clients to ensure that their clothing helps them look and feel their best. She is especially experienced in the history and science behind these

Figuring out your body type is so important because “if you are able to identify the architecture of your body and the shapes that make up your body, and then find the clothing that fits your silhouette, you’ll feel most at home in your clothes’’, as Meredith says. Every body is different, but each body can be classified into 5 different categories or body types.

There is a sharp, straight body where the shoulders are the widest and the body resembles an upside down triangle. This body needs a lot of structure because their body has a lot of straight angles. There’s a straight body, where the body is very symmetrical. There’s a soft straight body that has a touch of curve and is also known as an oblong. This body type looks best with unstructured clothing, and is actually the only body type that looks well with this style of clothing. There’s a soft curve where the body has slight curves but the curves are very soft. Finally, there’s a full curve where the hips and shoulders/bust are fuller and more defined.

The most common way to identify your body shape is taking a picture of your body in skintight black clothing and comparing it to diagrams and descriptions of each body type. After figuring out your body type, you should do more research into the type of clothing that looks best on you, as I touched on in the previous paragraph. A good place to start when researching your body type is talking to personal stylists, taking measurements and reading articles for this topic. A downtown girl inspired outfit featuring baggy jeans, a fitted striped shirt, doc martens and chunky jewlery

it comes to building a wardrobe for your body. Finding your colors is dependent on undertones and color palettes. Undertones are the color that the layer of tissue under your skin is toned. This layer is tinted either yellow or blue/purple which sets your skin tone as either cool or warm. Based on this information, we can identify which color palettes will make you glow and which ones will wash you out. tone by looking at the veins on your wrist. If your veins are green, then your skin tone is warm, if it’s blue or purple, it’s cool and if it’s both or neither, then your skin tone is neutral. You can confirm this with multiple other tests as well. After identifying your skin tone, you can research and identify your color palette. This color palette will

include the colors that will make you look your best and are a good base for building your wardrobe.

It’s good practice to keep your wardrobe inside your color scheme but that being said it isn’t necessary, nor is it meant to be restrictive. Your color palette is meant to guide you but don’t let it limit you or stop you from wearing the colors you truly love and feel comfortable in.

After you identify these elements, a good starting place to find and develop your style is a wardrobe cleanout. Begin by going through your closet and finding the pieces you really enjoy wearing. Notice any similarities and repeating patterns, colors, and silhouettes in each of these pieces. Also, notice what types of pieces tend to repeat themselves in your wardrobe more often. After making note of that, make sure to get rid of the pieces you don’t like and make note of why you don’t like them.

Next, find inspiration for styles

This outfit has grunge roots and a darker color scheme that you want to emulate. Good places to look for these are influencers, friends and family, and social media like Pinterest and Instagram. Notice again if there are any recurring pieces or elements in your inspirations and if there are any noticeable styles that constantly show up.

Another thing to keep in mind is, while it’s okay to have a style that you feel comfortable in, you don’t need to stick to one style. Branching out and combining multiple styles and pieces that you enjoy is what makes your style personal and unique.

After you have your inspiration, combine it all into a board with outfits and clothing that you really enjoy and feel most comfortable in. Here is where you can make a physical list of any recurring items and any obvious styles and patterns, colors, or pieces that you see. This mood board and the list are what you’re going to use to find the pieces you want while shopping.

Now that you have a general idea of what you’re looking for, it’s time to go buy some new pieces. It’s important to be careful while doing this though because style is built over time and if you splurge and buy everything in one day, you will waste money and likely not be satisfied with your results.

The first time you shop, focus on finding quality pieces that are repeated on your board and list and are easier to style with other pieces. While it’s important to be unique and not limit yourself to basics just because they’re “easier” when starting out, basics are an important part of a strong wardrobe. As Erin

Ritter, a personal stylist from White House Black Market in Austin says, “you need basics in your wardrobe everyday to keep your trendy ones covered. So if they’re trendy, they’re gonna go out of style faster, and you want to not spend as much money on the trendy you want to spend more money on your basics.” Erin works to help style people so that they’re comfortable, fashionable and true to themselves. She believes that after you have quality basics, then you can look for pieces that are unique and harder to style. This way your wardrobe will be more cohesive and you’ll have an easier time picking out outfits everyday.

After you have a personal wardrobe at least started, you can start to branch out and experiment. The pieces you buy from here should be unique and showcase your style and personality. Don’t be afraid to branch out and try different things. If you feel uncomfortable with this, you can start with smaller pieces, like accessories, and work your way up. Despite the impacts, participating in trends is not inherently bad, as long as you do it consciously. There are multiple ways to participate in trends while being conscious of the environment and maintaining your personal style. You can buy into trends sustainably, buy into accessories or more basic/easy to style trends, and only buy into trends that you know suits your personal style. Just make sure to avoid trend hopping and only buy into trends that speak to you.

If done right, trends can be interpreted into your personal style as well. Small trends or parts of trends can be bought into and utilized in the wardrobe that you already have. This way, you can participate in trends while being conscious of the environment, true to yourself, and not looking dated.

Finally, remember that your style is constantly changing and evolving so don’t expect to like the same things forever. Make sure to constantly update your mood board and wardrobe to fit your current interests and lifestyle.

“You need basics in your wardrobe to keep your trendy ones covered.” - Erin Ritter

This outfit consists of a neutral color scheme and simpler pieces