Are we still doing style words? Although I’d worked A LOT with core values and the likes for brands I’ve worked with, I first heard of this concept in personal style through the fabulous
(as I’m sure many of you did too). In Allison’s take on this concept each word has a different purpose for defining your style: a baseline word, an aspirational word and an emotional word. Aka, a word you can easily see when you look at the pieces in your closet, a word that defines what you’re leaning towards in inspo pics etc and a word that describes how you want your clothes to make you feel. Sounds easy enough but when you’re a perfectionist like me, choosing between classic and polished can feel like choosing where to live. For the rest of your life.At around the same time I started getting really into Allison’s insta videos, I also found my way to
and Tibi. Now Amy and the Tibi team describe their customer (and themselves) as the Creative Pragmatist, with the style words chill-modern-classic. The ratio between the words is up to you, but get a good mix of these 3 words in your outfit and you’ve nailed the CP style.So with all of this in mind, I began searching for my own 3 style words. What is in my closet? Well, to be honest a great mix of casual, bohemian, Scandi, minimalist, chill, polished… Okay let’s not get discouraged. What do I see in my inspo pics on Pinterest and so on? A lot of Toteme and The Row, so chic. And sophisticated. But also 00s Sienna Miller, Alexa Chung and Poppy Delevingne - so creative, boho and effortless? Oh and let’s not forget the Danish/Portuguese ladies of TikTok, so colourful. Hm. Moving on to how I want my clothes/outfits to make me feel. Definitely confident. But also comfortable. But like, also a little sensual or feminine? And undone for sure, no buttoning all the way up. So far we have:
Casual
Bohemian
Scandi
Minimalist
Chill
Polished
Chic
Sophisticated
Creative
Effortless
Colourful
Confident
Comfortable
Sensual
Feminine
Undone
Yeah, that’s not 3 words. More like 16.
But a lot of them make sense together and fit in a sort of similar box, like casual-chill-effortless-comfortable-undone. And Scandi-minimalist-polished-chic-sophisticated. And bohemian-creative-colourful-confident-sensual-feminine. Alright — maybe we’re actually getting somewhere! There’s definitely an undone element, a polished element and a creative element. Wait, is this just bringing me back to chill-classic-modern?
I think one of my issues is viewing myself from the outside. I have clothes that I absolutely love but rarely get a chance to wear for different reasons. Then I have clothes like tights and knits that I wear vey frequently for dog walks and study sessions, but I wouldn’t say really define my style. When asking the people around me how they would describe my style in three words the answers were:
“Smart casual, eclectic, scandi minimalistic” - My mum
“Creative, assured, unique. The first one could also be flirty or feminine” - My sister
“Chic/romantic, personal, bohemian” - My colleague turned close friend
“I’ll give you 3 categories, not 3 words: sporty/active/comfy, romantic/feminine/Parisian chic, hippie/boho” - My 100% most fashionable friend
“New York City!” - My boyfriend who, when asked if he wanted to give a more serious answer, said "“Archipelago brunch, big city vacation and mushroom forest”.
I love them all for playing along and providing me with their different takes, which also was a fun exercise in learning a little about how the people closest to you see you. (I’m looking at you, archipelago brunch mushroom forest). It’s also such a compliment when someone says you have unique or personal style, but maybe not the most helpful in actually defining those style words. Even just thinking about labelling my own style as “unique” or even “Parisian chic” makes me wince a little and feel like I’m taking myself waaay too seriously. You know?
So where does that leave me? Let’s examine the evidence and look at outfits I’ve saved over the past couple of months that really made me feel great:
Please excuse the gamer boyfriend, the velcro dog and the general messiness. Moving on. What are we seeing here? Firstly, there’s not a lot of black but we did just come out of summer. There’s something leaning loose/flowy in each outfit. There’s also a few nods to timeless classics like loafers, a leather jacket, blue jeans, a button up, linen trousers, a striped t-shirt… I’m definitely not as minimalist as I pictured, but not eclectic either. Midimalist, as
would say. Are the outfits creative? Not overly so in my opinion, but not really refined either. Remembering how I felt in these outfits, the word comfortable pops up. So does effortless, which might be a little cringe but whatever. Is this feminine? Yeah maybe, in the pinks and the blouses.Alright, the result of this round is something like flowy-classic-midimalist-comfortable-effortless-feminine. An improvement, but still a bit all over the place.
I’m sorry to leave you without a definite answer as to what my style words are or might be. But I hope maybe this will help a few of us sort out which way we might be leaning at least. I definitely now know that I value comfort/effortlessness and that I’m not quite so Scandi-minimalist as I pictured. Which I’m very fine with, honestly. The search for my 3 style words will definitely continue, and I would be more than happy to hear your suggestions in the comments. Help a sister out!
*I will also be having a chat with my boyfriend about what exactly mushroom forest style is and why I fit into that category. To be continued.
It kind of feels better knowing I’m not the only one struggling with my words, so thanks for sharing! Generally speaking, I don’t really use them everyday but rather as a reference to try and understand why when a certain outfit doesn’t feel “right”. Also it takes courage to ask people around you for input, I love it!
Love the idea of asking people around you for thoughts on the three words! Will do that too! xx