I don't have style descriptors so the hardest thing for me still is finding them. The two biggest obstacles I have to defining my style are lifestyle and body type. I am currently housed in a body that I didn't grow up with or spend most of my twenties with. I'm always concerned with comfort, fit and at least some figure flattery. These three things are difficult to accomplish with my current body. I feel that style choices are less of a priority than comfort, fit and figure flattery. Oh and avoiding the frump!

It's only recently that the body in my mind's eye caught up with reality. So I'm still on the journey of figuring out what looks good on this body.

My lifestyle is also very casual. I am a school teacher. My days are filled with chalk dust and dirty surfaces. I am also a mom to a young daughter so on days off I spend lots of time at home and on the floor.

I'm OK with not having nailed my style descriptors yet. I'm most happy when I have something on that fits well (and doesn't migrate on my body), is suitable for my lifestyle, and is figure flattering. Oh and NOT frumpy

I guess I am one of the dumbest members of this forum when it comes to style descriptors and such: I have been here for almost 4 years here and still don't have a clue. The closest I got to it with a Kibbe exercise i did some years ago and somehow a category of Soft Dramatic really resonated with me and helped me to understand why I am drawn to certain looks and not to others even though I admire them on other people. Later Angie graciously excepted me into Urban Prince domain so here have another descriptor for my style - but again not created by me because I am hopeless at this. The best I could come up on my own was "Simple and Bold' which is not much, right?
It is really interesting because i am a highly logical and analytical person in everything I do - except style. For some reason style analysis eludes me completely. Maybe this is my way of escape from a word of logic?

Hi Alexandra

What a great question and great timing of it for me personally - I've been thinking of this a lot lately. I've been a member of this community for about 4 years and have seen numerous discussions of this sort, yet I never fully participated in them because I always had some stumbling blocks that I felt I had to figure out before talking about them. Firstly, I had to figure out what I liked and didn't like to begin with, then I tried to see some rhyme and reason in my (re)discovered preferences, I also had to accommodate a change in lifestyle and climate which had huge impact on my choices, I had to get over the frustration of severely reduced wardrobe space only to realise it was a blessing, I have also been hit by the realisation how much my style is a medium to express my creative side (when I had no other ways to express myself due to practical restrictions) and now I find myself at the point when I actually probably finally can identify some very distinctive aspects of my style and where I want to take it. I am working on wording it though, but it all dawn on me I know

I have also identified one of the hardest aspects - it's the IMpossibility to wear everything I want / think of / am inspired by. I can't even wear enough everything I owe. I wrote about it some time ago, it's the problem of too much inspiration, and channelling it had helped me a lot at the time, but I'm still overwhelmed by choices and on top to it - by my own style evolution. I figure out I really want very, very little stuff, but great stuff. Great for me. It's about distilling (something I actually wrote about to in my Flavia series round-up post) to the essence of it all, while not feeling I'm missing out on anything. I hope this makes some sense

Well...I haven't figured out my style, so I guess I don't know what the hardest part is yet, ha ha! I do experience difficulty with trying to nail down one particular style for myself. I feel like I may be an eclectic, which would obviously make nailing down "one style" difficult.

Once I find some type of style element that suits me, I also have a hard time getting the ratio of it right in an outfit. For instance, if I wear a boho blouse, pairing with a boho bottom is too much boho; I have to learn to combine it with something else so as not to overdose too much on one style.

I'll have to try Aida's exercise of noting what I like. I have done this mentally, but I never actually sat down and wrote it out.

Honestly, I think the hardest part of determining a personal style may simply be being patient. I think you just have to try on a lot of clothes and buy a lot of clothes and experiment a lot before you can discover what is truly "you"!

Ladies, my apologies for disappearing for a few days - life happened.

Suz, thank you for elaborating on your process. Self-acceptance is key. I wish they'd teach that in schools.

TG, I love "simple cultivated" for you.

Angie, thank you for clarifying that our style descriptors should help us focus rather than box us in. I think that's a very important thing to keep in mind. So interesting that you take pleasure in NOT wearing jewelry. I don't wear much jewelry but I don't think I've ever thought of it in terms of enjoyment of going with only a few select pieces. A very different paradigm, I think.

Aida, thank you for sharing your system. It reminds me of a system I've developed over the years for my sewing projects: favorite fabrics, silhouettes, and details. It sounds like yours works really well for you.

Janet, that's a really good lesson to learn - no wild card purchases in stores without a generous return policy. Thank you for sharing that.

Mander, you said "when I am shopping I am not really looking for new clothes but for a new body" - what an insight, wow! I wonder to what extent that's true for the many women caught in a purchase/purge cycle. Maybe it goes back to what Suz said about self-acceptance being the starting point.

Sveta, I think "simple and bold" is a good description of what you wear (from what I've seen in my short time here on the forum). It's broad enough to allow for variations and yet excludes things you'd never wear. Your analytical skills aren't failing you in the style area.

Ornella, wow, that's a lot of obstacles to overcome. Your style looks very cohesive in your WIWs so I'd say you have it figured out in your head even if the words aren't quite there yet. And yes, too much inspiration can be a problem

Gigi, it's interesting about proportions, isn't it? It's not just lengths, but also styles as you noted, and colors in my experience. I (selfishly) hope that when
you try Aida's exercise, you'll post about your process.

Alexandra, I already forgot about doing Aida's exercise...out of sight, out of mind! Part of my problem is that sometimes I really don't know what I like. I still consider myself somewhat of a fashion newbie. I'm like Suz in that it's easier for me to know what I *don't* like. But I do have certain traits that I look for as a rule now and probably won't change, so I can start there.

Thanks for bringing up the word "cultivated" again, which was in a previous post. That word resonated with me. I must write it down in my fashion notebook!

SUMMER

The hardest thing was that I didn't know what my style was. Someone said in one of my WIWs said my style was classic. So now I know, I guess.