How To Cultivate Individuality In Your Style

I promised a couple of week’s ago I’d write a post dedicated to expressing you’re individuality through your clothes. I had scheduled to bring to you last week but got caught up in the Nike Mag hype so had to postpone it until this week. This post came out of the post I wrote about the AW2011 menswear trends being uninspiring. I wanted to focus on the different ways you can look to become a more individual dresser. It may seem as though; dressing in the clothes you like = expressing your individuality. But if your inspiration comes from a limited source and others are getting their inspiration from the same source it soon means you’re no longer individual because everyone is dressing in the same clothes, following the same trends, getting the same inspiration. So how do you cultivate individuality in your style?

 

Think Outside The Box

It may sound cliched but thinking outside the box will help you stay stylish and individual. Seek inspiration outside of your comfort zone. Maybe look at fashion from days gone by and see what you can rework and modernise for yourself, after all this is what the designers often do. Another great example is to look at the current trends in womenswear and see what you can take and work using menswear.

Take Inspiration From Different Cultures

Have a look at pictures of different people around the world, notice how the subtleties of style differ in different cultures. Again see what you can take from different cultures and use in your own style. I’ve recently been looking a lot at fashion in the far east from places like Japan, Korea and Taiwan, I love the creativity I’ve seen in the pieces that they wear. They take classic styles and add their attitude to it. Use the web to have a look at style around the world, there are plenty of street style blogs which will be really useful for this.

Experiment

Again it sounds pretty obvious but how often do you take time out to actually experiment with clothes. You have to be like a chef mixing together different ingredients to see what works and what doesn’t. Take time out once a week or so and just go through your wardrobe experimenting with new outfits. It will also give you the opportunity to see if there are any pieces that you need to update in your wardrobe or acquire to finish off your outfits.

Look Book

I’ve mentioned this a lot recently but keep a look book you can use it to inspire yourself when you feel like you don’t know what to wear or you just want to explore a new look.

Avoid The Masses

In the gift and the curse post I talked about avoiding dressing like a mannequin. I guess this is culmination of all the points above. If you want to have an individual style then go out and inspire yourself, seek new styles and look and the past and different cultures to help you hone your own. If the shops are selling a certain look remember you have a choice, you don’t have to buy into it just because thats what everybody is wearing and they’re telling you to wear.

 

I hope this helps and gives you a few ideas on how you can make your style a little bit more individual.

picture:lacarmina.com