If you look like everybody else... - YouLookFab Forum

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Dressing

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Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

If you look like everybody else...

rachylou

Veteran

Can you be stylish? Just had this thought. I saw this girl in a beautiful navy trench, si française, but standard issue. And I'm certainly not original until I get past the boundaries of my neighborhood. Well, no, I have to take that back. I'm always a little off...;) but you know me and cara and our beanies...

Dressing

47 replies

Latest reply was from rachylou

abc

Veteran

I remember reading somewhere recently how the chic Parisian look is basically the same thing over and over....and how they DO tend to look/dress alike. So I would say yes, you can look like everyone else and still be stylish. You wear the clothes, not the other way around.

rachylou

Veteran

So there's hope...:) I should think it's even harder now to be original when everything is ready to wear too...

Helena

Veteran

Yes, I think you can be stylish - to me, if stylish required being different then it almost becomes an elite title that is by definition not accessible to everyone. To me that's not what stylish is about - it's about an outward expression that leverages often-conventional flattery to honor the individual. Therefore, if the trench looked both flattering and harmonious with the person, it was stylish imo, even if it wasn't overly exciting or original.

Once again, definitions are key So that's mine, fwiw.

Looking different may be a requirement for other descriptors to be true, such as "fashion-forward", which inherently implies comparison (in that it must be ahead of what others are doing).

deb

Veteran

Yes because all body shapes and faces are different. The way we carry ourselves defines stylishness to me, not just the outfit.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

I think you can look stylish but maybe not cool :-).

May

Yes, I think a person is unique and stylish even if she is wearing similar clothes as another person. I know that it's been said so many times but it does need repeating: style isn't about wearing the latest trend or the most expensive item. It's about the fit and the overall look of the person. It's trench coat season here (rain forecast for the next few weeks) and I see a lot of ladies with trench coats but I noticed that some look better than others because of the cut, fit and overall appearance.

abc

Veteran

I think when dressing similarly to anyone else, things like fit and color and most importantly the way you carry yourself start to outweigh the items themselves. I'm learning good fit goes a LONG way toward flattery and quiet, understated confidence is just downright sexy.

crutcher

Veteran

Style is bringing your unique personality to the clothes...Its how you carry yourself, turn your head, smile, etc....You can wear the same clothes but you will never look the same...Your unique stamp is just you...JMO

Mo

(website)

Veteran

In high school didn't we all want to look like everyone else?? Wear the jeans the cool kids had. The right brand shoes. Funny how that changes - for some of us anyway.

Diana

Veteran

Yes, as long as you own it. It's all about attitude.

citygirldc

(website)

Veteran

It all depends on the confidence you have. The same outfit may look completely different on someone else. It depends on how you carry yourself.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

What Diana said. Hair, complexion, colour, accessories, footwear, physically differing features and confidence make the same formula look different on everyone. xo

ironkurtin

Veteran

Yes, of course! Even if you look at lineups of people in coveralls for work, they all have their own style.

rachylou

Veteran

It's sort of interesting to me because I *do* think you can smooth out differences with clothing. Uniforms do that.

Or to put it another way, how do uniforms work to obscure the individual?

Beth Ann

Veteran

Rachy, I think I'd suffer and eventually crack if asked to wear a uniform. I had to wear the same silly tee every day for a week during vacation Bible school, and it almost killed me. As a temp (yes, I as a temp for a while, like every soprano in NYC), I chafed at a name badge. In

My family says I have an inner, hidden hippie.

I do understand the reason for uniforms in some cases, and I know the value of being a team player. Dressing is a creative outlet for me, so I'd miss it!

BTW --- I think stylish and original are overlapping, but not identical circles in a Venn diagram. In my work environment, I try to meet or exceed dress expectation, but not show disregard for them. "Fitting in with panache" can be an art form in itself!

Thistle

Veteran

Sure. Especially if you are in high school!

Isabel

Veteran

RachyLou, what a great question ! I absolutely think that you can. I look at so many young bloggers that wear similar outfits right down to the accessories and I never tire of how they look.

As for me doing it, I have a harder time. It is a bizarre dichotomy for me. I have no qualms being somewhere and having someone else in the same outfit. In fact, I would have no problem at a YLF get together if the other ladies and I were all in similar, Angie approved outfits. Yet at times, I feel oddly uncomfortable pangs of looking or having something like everyone else. For example, I have a Longchamp bag that I LOVE and I bought the same bag, same color in a larger size. I had not had a chance to use the larger one before the Boston get together. In Boston, I saw large Longchamps bags EVERYWHERE. And I saw many, many in my beautiful Billberry color. I decided to come home and return mine because it was everywhere in Boston. I was inexplicably disappointed. But then I needed it for Hawaii and used it daily there. And I did not see one other Longchamp....and I rarely see them where I live, so I decided to keep it. It isn't that I feel less stylish but rather uninspired, I guess.

I also felt this way one day at a mall over the winter. It seemed like every female in there had on skinnies tucked into boots. Most boots were cognac or tan, mine at least were black. But I felt disheartened.

Maybe I am ok in a more intimate situation when I know people or can approach them. But in a large, impersonal crowd in bothers me. HA ! A revelation...now to figure out why in God's name it happens that way....

Helena

Veteran

I went to Catholic school and had a very bland uniform for 5 years. I can assure you, we all still knew who was into what, who would wear what sort of clothes on the weekend, and generally what people were trying to express. Fortunately a uniform appears to be no match for a a bit of individual will

Peri

Veteran

I always thought that was the only way. Still struggling with it...for instance, when there was nothing but skinny and I didn't wear skinny, I was out of style. It was hard to feel stylish when I didn't wear what was in style.

This forum is helping me learn, but I still feel very often that I am "wrong", therefore not stylish.

rachylou

Veteran

Well, Peri, that's an extraordinary point. If you're not wearing what everybody else is wearing, can you be in style and therefore stylish?

I think there must be a magic mix.

Also, Isabel - You know, I start getting depressed seeing everybody looking the same. Even if I'm dressed differently.

Also, torontogirl & Beth Ann - Curiously enough, actual uniforms don't depress me. With the exception of uniforms using t-shirts. Somehow a t-shirt can never a proper uniform make in my mind. My hippie school - we had a class tie-dye. I'm sorry. That's some of mind-melting oxymoron. Hehe.

Mo

(website)

Veteran

I will say it's darn hard to be stylish in a uniform. There is no way to make a collared golf polo 'me'. None. Now, the logo tees in my pub job can be worked with. The polo is just not malleable.

E

Veteran

I like what Beth Ann said about a venn diagram of stylish & original! So I'd say yes you can be stylish even if using a standard formula. I don't worry too much about looking original, as I'm home most of the day, so don't have anyone to compare myself to. I want to look interesting, I think, more than anything else. Like I have good stories to tell.

My own style is out of the norm for my environment, so here I'm unusual, but I suspect if I moved to Portland or some place similar, I'd look a lot more like others. Would that change the stylish quotient of them, even if they're the exact same outfits?

rachylou

Veteran

The polo *is* a tall order. That has to be said.

cciele

Veteran

Weren't we just discussing how hair is one of the key, if not the key, elements of one's style?

We can never look like everybody else, really, because we're all individuals. Unless you are a clone (and that goes into a discussion of whether clones are individuals, but we won't go there).

rachylou

Veteran

Hmm, E. I think that's deep. I, personally, have a hard time separating style and context. I'd wear (new) Lily Pulitzer in FL, but not up here in Northern California.

Mo

(website)

Veteran

Ooh, Cathy - another salient point. No wonder my uniform look is rarely 'me'. I have to put my hair up, too, for work.

rachylou

Veteran

I have to think about the hair, cciele. That's a good point. Uniforms can be extended to hair...

Diana

Veteran

Re: the uniforms with polos. This is a good illustration of what I meant by "owning it". It has to be something that you could conceivably wear in your own style. It has to look like you chose to wear it.

For the record, there's no way I could own the polo. They are not even remotely within my sartorial universe.

Isabel

Veteran

Interesting points about "owning" it.....

Rachylou, your point about being depressed even if you are dressed differently is really interesting to me. Hmmmmmm.....

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