Finding your personal style is a constant journey we go on throughout life. Personal style is how you express yourself and tell the world who you are and oftentimes, what you stand for.

Finding your personal style is important because how you present yourself on a daily basis plays a large role in how you present yourself to the world. It can affect your mood and help you get your next job.

In this post, I will be covering what personal style is, how to find your personal style, and tips for finding your personal style

What is Personal Style, and Why Does it Matter?

Personal style can be defined by what clothes you wear, how you style your hair, how you put pieces together, and what accessories you choose to wear.

Personal style simply is how you express yourself through the things you wear. It is how you communicate what you value about yourself and your personality. It is also how you can help build confidence in who you are and how you are perceived or want to be perceived in your daily life.

Becoming and learning to be comfortable with who you are and feeling good in your own skin so you can be the best version of yourself.

Finding your personal style is important because it allows you to share who you are with the world without having to say a word. It allows you to take what makes you happy and present a piece of you to the world and helps you connect with those around you. 

How to find your Personal Style

1. Shop your Closet

Look in your closet and pull out the pieces you wear often and include jewelry and accessories in this

When shopping your closet ask yourself these questions as you make decision on what pieces you have.

• What makes you feel good?
• Is this comfortable?
• What are the common colors, silhouettes, proportions, etc?
• What are the themes?

2. Track what you are wearing for 2 weeks

• Use apps to track the outfits you are wearing
• Take a photo a day and create an album on your phone
• Review the photos and take note of the themes and things you wear often
• Flip hangers in your closet for pieces you have worn
• Check what is in your hamper and what is left in your closet

3. Find Inspiration

Create a mood board

• Create a personal style board on Pinterest and start pinning clothing you like to this board. Don’t edit yourself just yet. Just spend a few days going through Pinterest and pinning clothing and accessories that you like, and would love to wear or find attractive.
• After the week or few days go through and look at your Pinterest board and start to look at what the themes are. What are you pinning a lot of naturally? What are you not pinning a lot of? What are you naturally drawn to? What are the themes?
• Review old movies, magazines, fashion coffee table books, music videos, old fashion shows, social media…etc, and find inspiration where you look for inspiration
• Don’t spend time comparing yourself to these images but try to just find inspiration for your personal style.

After you have collected all of your images and created your mood board, go back and refine your mood board further and take off anything that doesn’t feel like you

Questions to ask as you’re refining your mood board:

• Is this something I would wear?
• Is this something that fits my personal style?
• Is this the style that I want to present?
• Does this reflect who I am and my personality?
• Does this fit my lifestyle?

4. Declutter the pieces that you don’t wear.

It is important to free yourself from the things that are uncomfortable. The things you don’t feel good in or remind you of something you don’t want to remember. If you don’t feel good wearing it, get rid of it.

PRO TIP: Pack away sentimental items that you don’t actually wear and get them out of your closet. Having these items hanging next to your everyday clothes makes getting dressed so much harder.

5. Go Shopping | Thrifting

• Only buy things that enhance your current wardrobe. Try not to be tempted to buy a whole new wardrobe at this stage. Start out with a few pieces and see how they incorporate into your wardrobe for a few weeks to a few months.
• Try to limit yourself to a few statement pieces and focus on the basics that your wardrobe is missing to fill out your personal style wardrobe
• DIY some pieces if you know how to sew or update your pieces yourself. This is a perfect time to crop that shirt, change the hem, or embellish pieces in our closet that you have had for a while but want to feel new and refreshed.
• Use YouTube to find out easy sewing hacks to update pieces in your wardrobe that you still love but want to update or feel new again

6. Take your time and try things on

Continue to try new outfits and style ideas based on your aesthetic. Fashion takes practice and will always be something that you will change and evolve

Tips and Questions to ask yourself in order to find your personal style

Play dress up

After seeing what you wear often, take those pieces and create outfits with your most worn pieces as a capsule wardrobe.

Don’t get too caught up in your “fantasy self” when it comes to your wardrobe

It is important to buy clothes that feel like you and that you feel good about. I’m not saying don’t buy the trendy pieces, just don’t make it everything in your closet (unless that’s your personal style)

Don’t shop rushed

Take your time in the dressing room and with the shopping process. Rushing to buy a lot of clothes and 

Be confident in your fashion choices.

Don’t let other people’s well-meaning or mean-spirited compliments affect your style choices. Find your community: start a blog, Instagram, Tik Tok, or Youtube where you can express yourself through fashion. Just because someone doesn’t like your outfit doesn’t mean that you should stop wearing what you want and that your outfit is a bad one

Questions to ask yourself to find your personal style:

• How would you describe your style or the style you aspire to have?
• Define your most worn pieces
• What do you feel good wearing?
• figure out what you want from your personal style and what is functional for your life
• Set boundaries on your personal style triggers
• Try out a capsule wardrobe

Your personal style is well…personal. There are no rules you have to live by. Make sure you are wearing clothes that make you feel comfortable and amazing and how you want to feel on a daily basis. 

Don’t box yourself into one style if that’s not your style. It’s okay to combine and identify with a few different style archetypes

How would you define your personal style? Let me know in the comments.