Where’s Your Style?
by Devon Ellington
The magazines and store consultants and everyone who wants to part you from your money by claiming they know how to make you a style icon IF YOU JUST BUY THEIR STUFF talk out of both sides of their mouths: the importance of individual style, but you have to buy their stuff to get it.
What is individual style? Some celebrities or artists have it, even before they can afford stylists. They can swan around wearing fiber art none of the rest of us could get away with it on our best days.
But daily personal style is something different and something much simpler: it’s picking pieces, colors, styles, fabrics that look good on you AND make you feel great. When you feel great, it radiates from you.
Some of my favorite pieces were picked up for about five bucks at a thrift shop, and some of my biggest mistakes were items I was talked into on a boutique’s sales floor.
One of the things you have to learn when putting together a “style” — which evolves as you grow and change — is that you have to learn to look at yourself in the mirror without the type of self-critique you usually use. Instead of looking at the mirror and saying, “I need to lose 20 pounds” or “I hate my thighs” — start looking at the overall picture, as though the garment was on a mannequin — with you being the mannequin. Really, that’s all models are — walking clothes hangers meant to show off the designers’ work, so all this fuss about models never made any sense to me.
When you look at the mirror, start with color. Does the color suit you? It’s often hard to tell under dressing room lights, but hopefully, you picked the garment in a color because you’re drawn to it, not because someone else wore it. If you’re trying a new color, you can always try a smaller, less expensive piece like a tee shirt or a scarf to see if you can live with the color on your person before getting a larger piece. Does the color flatter your skin tone, bring out your eyes, maximize or minimize bits you want to point up or to hide?
What about the cut of a garment? If it hangs off you like a potato sack, and you’re not out shopping for a potato sack, put it back. Yes, you can pay to have it altered (heaven forbid the gender discrimination be eliminated and women’s alterations come with the garment the way men’s do). My yardstick is this: The more I pay for a garment, the less I’m willing to mess with it. If I can find a brilliant piece in a wonderful color and style that needs a few tweaks at 90% off, maybe. If I’m paying full price, it better be perfect to the last stitch. And yes, I turn it inside out and check the stitching. If it’s poorly stitched, I put it back.
The garment should flatter your shape, enhancing your strengths and skimming over the bits on which you’re still working. It shouldn’t be either too tight or too loose — far too many women I know are obsessed with the size number and will stuff themselves into a smaller size just so they can say they fit into that number. And look as though they’re wearing sausage casing. You also don’t want to look like a walking tent. You want to look neat and comfortable.
How does the fabric wear? Natural fabrics, even those that require special care, will last longer and wear better than many synthetics. They’re coming up with some pretty great new synthetics, but naturals will wear better in the long run.
How many different shoes can you wear with it? Yes, we all love the excuse to buy new shoes, but if helps if you can make the piece work with at least one pair of flats and one pair of heels.
Can you dress it up or down? Can you ONLY wear it during the day or ONLY at night? Does it work with a variety of accessories to tweak the look?
And sometimes, you can only answer a single question with: I love this piece and it makes me feel fabulous And then you get it. Because feeling fabulous is the ultimate style choice.
Remember that the spreads in fashion magazines are fantasies. They’re a type of wearable art. They’re flights of imagination between designer and art director and photographer. It’s up to you to have a depth of self-knowledge and the IMAGINATION to pick and choose bits of fantasy and pull it together to form your own reality.
This is my last column for SOLE STRUCK FASHIONS. It’s been a pleasure to spend the 13th of every month with you. Go out there and be FABULOUS!
–Devon Ellington publishes under a half a dozen names in both fiction and non-fiction. She spent over 20 years working in the wardrobe department of theatre, film, and television. Visit her writing blog, Ink in My Coffee.
