Are you someone who greatly admires the unique style of others but has no idea how to have your own personal style? Maybe you’ve played around with the coming and going trends but have never really felt like they were “you”. If you want to learn how to develop your own personal style, keep reading because we're going to have some fun here!
Three years ago, I became certified as a Style Coach because I had the dream of seeing every woman confident and comfortable in their own skin. While I knew that confidence comes from our identity, I also knew, first hand, how much our internal and external affect each other. We can’t ignore the fact that our external bodies are also a part of who we are. Our bodies are created by God with intentionality, love, care, and great attention to detail. How we see ourselves on the outside affects how we feel about ourselves on the inside. And how we feel about ourselves on the inside, in turn, affects how we see ourselves on the outside. That’s why, today, I want to spend some time talking about personal style.
First though, I want to make sure we understand the difference between “style” and “fashion”. Fashion is all about the trends and following what everyone else is doing. It’s about blending in to whatever is currently trending. On the opposite side from fashion, we have personal style. Personal style does not come and go. Personal style is an outward expression of who you are as a unique individual. It’s not about blending in and looking like everyone else. It’s about standing out as the unique individual that God made you to be. Many people tend to use those words interchangeably, but as you can see, they are very different terms!
Style is about expressing yourself. Personal style may be something you love and care about deeply. Or it may be something you’ve never really put much effort into. But we all express something to those around us by what we wear, whether it’s intentional or not. Why not be intentional with your style so that you can express to the world who you really are? Don’t be afraid to be unique. There’s only one you!
So now that we understand what personal style is and why it’s important, how do we create it? I’m going to get you started by giving you three steps you can start working on right away!
Step one: The first step in developing personal style is knowing what it is about yourself that you want to let others know. What personality traits did God place inside you that you want to express through your personal style? Also think about what you are passionate about. What has God placed on your heart? What do you value? What are you good at? Are you loud and fun? Are you gentle and caring? Do you love sports? Prefer ballet and all things girly?
Write down some of your favorite attributes that make up who you are as a person. You can ask others that are close to you what they think as well if you are having a hard time coming up with them yourself. Once you have a list, narrow the list down to your top three. These are the three things you believe are most important for you to communicate about who you are. Use these to define your style. For example, your attributes might be: I am strong. I love creating art. I am approachable. Your personal style could be called, “Strong, Artsy, Approachable” And just like that, you have created your own unique style!
Step two: Now that you have the name and direction for your personal style, you’re going to want to take some time to think about your external body characteristics. While you want to express who you are as a person, you also want to highlight the way God made you unique on the outside as well! This is part of who you are as a unique individual too! There’s no such thing as a perfect body shape. We all have unique shapes when it comes to our bodies down to the little details of the bend in our noses, or the unique shape of our eyes, or the length of our legs. Which characteristics of your body are your favorite? Which characteristics make you most unique? Make a list. Sometimes, we think our unique characteristics are “flaws”. It’s time to reframe how we see ourselves. Let’s learn to love our uniqueness and stop seeing them as flaws. Let’s stop hiding what makes us stand out and let’s highlight them instead! There’s only one you!
Step three: Now that you have a personal style direction and your external uniqueness you want to highlight, it’s time to start building! Begin a Pinterest board of ideas and ways you can communicate your personal style and highlight your unique physical characteristics that make you stand out. Can you use color to express an emotion or trait? What about pattern? What about shape or cuts? Let your creativity go wild as you come up with ways to express who you are through your personal style! Let go of rules on how to dress so that your own personality and unique features are able to shine.
Let’s summarize how to create personal style:
Step one: Know what you want to say about who you are
Step two: Know which unique external features you want to highlight
Step three: Look online or in stores and come up with creative ways to express who you are through your style.
What do you feel like your current style says about you? What would you like to express through your style? Leave me a comment, I’d love to know!
I’ve made a quick style quiz that you can download for free and take! It’s a helpful tool to begin to understand your personal style type and how you stand out. You can download it here.
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