How deep are your style "roots"? - YouLookFab Forum

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How deep are your style "roots"?

nemosmom

Veteran

I have been poking around the forum, with special attention to old posts about what influences our style.

I am curious to know how deep you find your own style roots run? Can you trace your style identity to certain people or periods? Do you see those influences reflected in your wardrobe today?

44 replies

Latest reply was from The Cat

Jenn

(website)

Veteran

Interesting question! The "dark academia" thread had me thinking about my mom, who loved that tweed-and-plaid, Oxford professor aesthetic, despite never having really lived outside the Midwest. That (along with the natural romanticism that comes with being an English major) definitely left me with a love of texture and textiles. And I still do love a good tweed.

College in the 90s gave me grunge influences - especially juxtaposition. Flannel with lace. Silk with leather. Masculine with feminine.

After my son was born, I took up tribal-style belly dancing for several years, which brought rich color, over-the-top ruffles, fringe, embroidery, florals, big jewelry, and cultural fusion into my wardrobe.

And finally...minimalism, which seems at odds with all those other things, but led me to work on distilling all my influences down to their essences. My goal now is to have a closet full of favorites that blend style influences and work alone or combined together in interesting ways.

Anonymous

This *is* an interesting question . I can't really parse out the influences on my "work/everyday" clothing and go back to any sort of aha moment. I'm terribly easily influenced through visual stimulation so can be a bit all over the map in that way.

For my casual look though, it's literally built in .I grew up in a professional sport and very skilled amateur sport family and that's ALL we/I did as a young person. Easy/free access to certain sports gear made it easy to dress that way, and my parents had the income to indulge all of that too . Part of being good in sports is being comfortable in your own skin and understanding your body's movement through space, and the sports /gear stuff I wore allowed for that and even enhanced it. It was a no-brainer for me.

Vildy

Veteran

Have you guys seen these - style bloggers challenged to explore their style roots.
Alyssa Bel Tempo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tP9RsoAocc

Audrey Coyne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC974e5s-Og

Helena

Veteran

This is a great question!

From my dad, I got my tendency towards minimalism and uniform dressing.

From my mom, I got my love of a pop of colour, but her style was different from mine. I also got my tendency towards self-doubt, as she tended to compare me unfavourably to other people my age ... looking back I know this was a reflection of her own struggles and, in her way, a desire to help and protect me. And she also gave me my introspective, self-improvement nature, so it's because of her that I am aware of this and hopefully won't repeat it in my own kids.

And the first real "personal style" memory I have is when I was maybe in Grade 4 or so? I had a royal blue skirt and jacket for church, and I think it came with a colourful blouse and shoes, which I replaced with a simple white turtleneck and black flats. So I've been pretty consistent all along

What about you Nemosmom?

Irina

Veteran

Mine are very shallow
My mother never wore pants, blazers or black tops in her life! I have a complete opposite style. The only thing we share is a dislike of color yellow.
My style journey is more about unlearning When I was young, I loved statement pieces and outfits consisting of black pants plus color or print tops. Basic or essential items were not something I was even aware. But I’ve been following fashion and trends since my school years. Sometimes having trendy clothes is important to me, sometimes not so much. More now, when I get older. My personal battle with age. LOL

Cardiff girl

Veteran

Ha!I totally agree with Irina.
Vildy,l love watching those two bloggers you mention,especially as the emphasis is not on constant purchasing to acheive style.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

I don’t feel mine are very deep at all. Maybe because our country is so relatively young? (Founding treaty between Maori and the British Crown was 1840).
My mother and her liking for shoes- she had an uncle who owned a shoe shop in the 1930s and 40s, who as a gift to her and family kept her in shoes while she attended Teachers College- would be an influence on my own love for shoes. I think Mum was probably quite fashionable within her budgetary constraints and she took pride in dressing my sister and I nicely as children. That influenced me.

Anonymous

For some reason I can't get either of those two videos to play, but both of these women look really interesting ! I'll follow both on IG and might try some deep -diving into other of their videos later tonight .

Suz

(website)

Veteran

That's a good question! My mother went through phases. In her youth, she had little money, but loved clothes, and she was fortunate to have a few wealthier friends who often gave her their high quality hand-me-downs, so she learned a lot about tailoring and quality fabric. She sewed for us when I was small -- nothing fancy, but some mother/daughter dresses. In those days, she always looked well put together to me and I knew she loved to shop.

Later, she avoided clothes, didn't bother with fashion -- she went through a period of not feeling she was worth it, I think.

Then, in old age, she returned to her love of nice things and loved it when I bought things for her.

I'm influenced by 60s fashion -- it's just a fashion era I love -- and also 70s, because I was young then. I think I also share my mother's love of the 40s styles -- full pleated trousers, menswear looks.

And my own style has been consistent ever since I first started buying my own clothes with my own earned money, at the age of 14. Constants are (trendy or at least current styles), a blazer, turtlenecks, chelsea boots. Of course I wear other kinds of outfits, but this is the type of outfit I feel most easy and relaxed in.

Anonymous

I grew up in a bland suburban setting, but probably due to the influence of movies I watched, I always felt my spiritual home was NYC. So I've always gravitated toward items that look like they might turn up on the streets of my favorite city. Once in awhile I stray into tropical territory, but I always come home to NY.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Fun question!

How about you, Nemosmom?

My fashion and style conscious late Mum who I was very close to and admired, rubbed off on me big time. Born in 1970 and grew up in British Hong Kong, I loved the stylish '60s and '70s fashion my Mum and her friends wore (and the movies we watched together). Came of age in the '80s.....BEST decade of them all. My love for '60s, '70s and '80s fashion is as strong today.

Have always gravitated to the same bright colours, white, pearls, gold, trendy classics, flats, and outfits that look pretty. Each time I swayed away from that - like in the mid '90s and late '00s - I felt off. But I do come back home and enjoy the journey!

cat2

Veteran

Hmm, three influences:

40s style from my Mom and watching all the old movies — I love the suiting and the trousers.

BCBG and preppy style from being surrounded by it during schools and work and while not loving the elitism loving the willingness to pick well made pieces and wear them into the ground and the lack of label flashiness or overt sexiness.

Western style from growing up in a rural Western community and continuing to spend a lot of time in the country.

In other words in my vernacular looking quietly pulled together, looking like the original J Crew catalog (pre Lyons), and never wearing fashion jeans are goals, not things to be avoided.

cindysmith

Veteran

Rock and roll. 80s punk and hair bands, 90s rock (Rob Zombie best epitomizes that for me), and hard rock/heavy metal.

kkards

Veteran

What i wear evolves with time, but my style is consistent. I’ve always gravitated to more tailored styles, but with a relaxed feel. I grew up in New England and have a deep preppy style that stays with me, even when i go trendy. I’ve always liked to mix high (at least what was high for me) and low.

Greyscale

Veteran

Fascinating question! My first reaction was that my roots are fairly shallow, just the past 10 years of developing my personal style. But then I realized that my family does give me very deep style roots in a way: the freedom to not worry how I look. I grew up without anyone around me wearing makeup, doing their hair in anything but a pragmatic haircut, or paying the least attention to fashion trends. My mother has always worn a practical mix of loose fitting jeans, turtlenecks, and sturdy shoes. My college setting (an engineering school) was similarly unconcerned about fashion, though it had some latent sexism in thinking that women shouldn't put effort into appearance.

I'm excited that I like clothes, myself. I think I've translated my early days (grunge and utilitarian) into a grown-up style that gets noticed and with the freedom to do my own thing. It's heavily influenced by the un-feminine grunge styles of my teen years, the minimalism of the 90s, and the drapey avant garde shapes that were popular 10 years ago when I first started paying attention to fashion.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

I don’t like to be splashy. I’m sure that goes back all the generations my family lived in the Midwest, probably to the Puritains in New England. But I also don’t like to be matchy. That probably goes back to me as a kid, hating expectations that I play by practicing writing with chalk or other quiet things the other girls did. I have been thinking since joining YLF that my style is pretty consistent, feel like the recent re-additions of things I haven’t worn for 10 years bears that out. So I’d say my color preferences and general sillouhettes go back at least that far, and probably more. I’m fortunate never to have worked or lived in a place where what I wore mattered.

MsMaven

Veteran

Anti-style? Reaction against the conventional, but not too much. My Mom tried hard to be lady-like 1950s housewife and worried about us fitting in with our clothes selections. "Wait until school starts and see what the other girls are wearing before spending a lot of money."

Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy. Smooth, simple and elegant, sophisticated until hippie era started. The elegant look too old for me. Confused with peasant dresses and Dress-for-Success.

My roots are confused! I wanted to be elegant as a 25 year-old.

Getting older: advice from fashion magazines. Color analysis. A lot of mistakes came from buying clothes for a life I didn't lead.

I still would like to have an aura of elegance and simplicity. But I want to be warm and cozy. I do like to experiment with new trends.

LaPed

Veteran

Hmm, well, Quaker heritage means no frills, nothing wasteful or OTT. My whole family has that sort of ethos. No make-up, sturdy shoes only, pull out "the good flannel" for holiday dinners, etc. Sounds like Greyscale's mom dresses exactly like mine. My mom is also a fiber artist, so I developed a love for handcrafted textiles early on, especially knits. My grandmother helped run the local benefit shop, so I got good at thrifting too.

I have a strong and inescapable dose of New England preppy like kkards, but the part of New England where I grew up is actually influenced as much by Montreal (closest metro area) and NY (lots of ex-urbanites, like my parents) as it is by Boston. Then I moved to the PNW late teens/early 20s and was immersed in the early '00s indie music scene there, which had a big influence on how I dressed, with light punk and grunge influences. Still have some of my band tees.

I was very outdoorsy as a kid and lived in fleece and hiking boots, then abandoned that look trying for something more a bit more urban in my 20's, and have now come full circle back to the stomping-around-in-the-woods looks of my childhood. Just in time for vintage gear to become trendy!

SarahD8

Veteran

I think it's inescapable that all of us have deep style roots -- going back to childhood in some sense.

I grew up in a family that was financially comfortable but in which fashion, clothing, and grooming were not things on which resources were spent. I do remember a number of favorite clothing items over the years -- some homemade, some thrifted, some bought at discount retailers -- but as discrete, isolated items if that makes sense; I don't feel any connection to any of the fashion eras (70s/80s/90s) in which I grew up. And although I know that what I wore must have reflected what was available at different times, I don't have any sense of having participated in any of those fashion eras/trends/movements.

I'm oversimplifying a little bit, but I don't think I ever had a sense of having a style that could be named and described, or of wanting to achieve a particular consistent look, until about 8 years ago. I went to a swap party at a friend's apartment and picked up a vintage wool Aran cardigan. I put it on and my friend said, "Wow, I have always wanted to wear that but have never felt right in it -- it looks like it was made for you." So, I took it home and somehow it triggered something in me. From Aran knits I branched out to fair isle, Nordic patterns, other folkloric influences, and eventually the whole Modern Land Girl/Girl on the Moors thing took shape. (I don't actually own the sweater anymore; after a while I realized that crewnecks don't really suit me, and the cream/ivory color was too yellowish for my skin tone. It was hard to give away though, because it was such a formative garment!)

Jenava

(website)

Veteran

I loved vintage fashion and color as a kid (I vividly recall arguing with my mom about wearing blue tights and black shoes together when I was in preschool). And I still love those things but now I have a wider array of life experiences to draw on, and lifestyle needs that must be considered.

rachylou

Veteran

Hmm. I shall be mulling on this awhile. There are certain signifiers I cling to, like a Queen Mum purse, but I can’t say my personal style reflects anyone in my family. Everyone else is very prep school. However, I would say my interest in fashion is familial. They’re all classically educated and think complicated thoughts about aesthetics, pay attention to them - art, architecture, music and yes fashion. Lol, I remember my dad giving me a big push into taking an interest by buying me a Vogue... I probably wasn’t caring enough, lol

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

I grew up with mostly examples of what I did not want to do or be, but, looking back, I always had very decided taste and judgment (I did not say good! ). Anyway, I was pretty oblivious to fashion until my early 40s, but made up time quickly since then.

Bijou

Veteran

My style is influenced by my family, friends and career choice.

I have always enjoyed clothes and had my own idea of my style (disastrous at times). In my teens, it was a way to identify friends with similar interests and tastes in music. I was a Finance major who dressed like a wannabe Arts major. Since then, I have embraced working in the Corporate sector, so dress conservatively, but like to add a feminine edge to my clothing and presentation, which I like to think is my Mum's & Grandmother's influence.

slim cat

Veteran

I think I'm still developing my style. I'm uniform dresser and sometimes feel stuck in same repetitive looks.
Spending considerable time in Seattle influenced certain preferences - natural look ( minimal make up, simple hair do ), jeans and shirts with parkas, walkable shoes.
Being a part of a YLF forum really help to develop my style in a more interesting and fun way .

ChristelJ

Veteran

Love this question. My stylish parents were a huge influence. They were quite put-together in a slightly artsy way. Mom sewed her own clothes from gorgeous fabrics, making sure to match her accessories. Dad had quite a collection of interesting printed shirts such as one with tiny Egyptian mummies in subtle shades of olive. I was taken thrifting at an early age, and sewed my first dress at age 11. To this day I love thrifting and patterned fabrics, and recently took up sewing clothing again. Formative decades were the 60s and 70s, and those remain my favorites.

Minaminu

Veteran

what a fun question!

I think I am taking after my grandmother and mum, my dad is hopeless -he relies on my mum to buy his clothes and happily dresses as advised by her.

Both my grandmother and mum had their own fashion uniforms and were not afraid of repeating the same outfit - which is something that I do as well. I remember they used to do a shopping spree in spring and autumn to replace or add new pieces for the entire family and children used to get clothes passed down from other family members. I don't think this is possible nowadays as the quality of garments has reduced since and one has to keep the eyes wide open for good pieces throughout the year!

.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

My first reaction was, eh, not that deep. But I suspect the answer is more complex than that. My grandmother was very stylish when she was young, and was a glove buyer (yes! Gloves were that big!) for a department store 60+ years ago. I have half of a huge collection of vintage gloves for that reason. I wear some of them, but gloves were made to be worn tightly back in those days, so even though my hands are slender, they’re a bit snug for modern use.

My mom loved clothes, and was always impeccably groomed. She was a beautiful woman who took pride in her appearance. And she loved shopping and looking at pretty things. She also loved art and design and had an unfulfilled dream of going to art school and studying fashion design. I know she passed along a lot of her talent and appreciation to both me and my sister (my sister is a hugely talented painter and colored pencil artist; I just point a camera at things, LOL).

So yes, my appreciation for how I dress and style myself deliberately is very much due to those familial roots. My style is very different from my mom’s — a product of being 40 years younger and my environmental norms in high school and college, and beyond. Mom never wore jeans, never. And I rely on them! But we both loved pretty prints, shades of green, black with colors, scarves and jewelry. We used to have great fun shopping together. Those associations still influence my style and habits to this day.

I think I also carry some generational influence as I still love styles from the 70s, the era in which I became aware of style. I have less fondness for 80s and 90s style but still carry on some of the best-for-me influences from those eras.

Liesbeth

Veteran

Interesting question! I have to think on this. I do not know how I got attracted to the simple, tomboy styles and color palettes I favor. My mom dressed in a much more colorful and creative way (and she dressed us, her kids, that way too as long as that worked!). I also don't recall having fashion icons up until my late teens... Not my aunts or older nieces either... I guess I liked the style of some nineties tv icons, at least more than I liked my peers way of dressing, but I didn't try to copy anyone as a child or early teen. Just chose individual items I liked or that I could wear to fit in (looking at all denim :)). I had to learn to observe 'whole looks' when I got more interested in style in my twenties.

Jules

Veteran

Coming of age in the 90s definitely had a huge influence, one I didn't fully understand/recognize until I learned more about fashion and trends here on ylf. For example, for so long black footwear was my default essential in all seasons - now I own literally none, but maybe this is the rebellious phase
Deeper roots are a little harder to identify. Nothing very significant comes to mind.

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