What is a style recipe?
It’s the ingredients that go into making up your unique style. It’s also known as a style statement too and I want to help you determine your style recipe by sharing with you some simple steps to work through.
Why should it matter?
What I’ve discovered over the years of being an image consultant, the better we can pin down your personal style, the better buying choices we can make and so you’ll love your wardrobe a whole lot more because the clothes really reflect who you are on the inside – the authentic you.
- When you’re deciding to buy a new item, these are the ingredients you want to run the possible purchase past to see if they will make your style yummier or not so tasty.
- When you’re getting dressed each day if the clothes don’t work for your recipe you’ll feel not quite right, not really you, or even uncomfortable.
- When deciding if you should keep those garments that have been sitting in your wardrobe for some time, if they don’t reflect your current style recipe (and it will change over time), then let them go as they’re taking up valuable space, not only in your wardrobe but also in your brain.
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- Imogen’s Inspiration
How do you come up with your style recipe?
There are a few ways to do this:
- Start by looking at your favourite clothing and figuring out what you LOVE about them and how you’d describe them.
- Find pictures in magazines or online of stuff you LOVE, that really excites you and then seeing which words describe them.
- Look at some of the items you love in your home, from art to furniture, things that make you happy, how would you describe these items?
- Think about a colour you adore, and describe its properties – are these also words that describe you?
- Write down lots of words that represent your personality, also words that relate to how you’d like to be perceived.
Once you have all these words, start discarding the ones that you aren’t really excited about and this will help you come up with your style recipe. From 2 to 6 words is what you’re after.
Here are my style recipe words:
- Unexpected
- Vibrant
- Divine
- Distinctive
- Dynamic
- Exciting
When you look at my picture above – what is it that I love about each of these things in the picture?
- Hot pink is my happy colour – it’s vibrant, dynamic and exciting
- I love the ming vase print on the dress – it’s unexpected and divine.
- Purple and green are one of my favourite colour combinations – unexpected, distinctive and vibrant.
- The melting watch (Salvador Dali inspired) is also unexpected and distinctive.
- The butterfly tail on the dress is distinctive, vibrant, unexpected and divine.
- The zips on the boot are a unexpected.
- The green swan chair is vibrant, dynamic and distinctive.
- The bold collar on the suit is distinctive and unexpected.
- Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s is divine!
So you can see how these pieces go to making up my style recipe, and sure, not everyday do I have every single element covered, but they go into influencing what I’m wearing and the clothes and outfits that make me really happy. Here is an example of my style recipe in action. Vibrant, exciting, dynamic and distinctive colour, unexpected pattern on the kimono, and the kimono drapes in a divine way and is divine to the touch.
What’s your style recipe? I’d love you to share your words – and a link to any picture that reflects your favourite outfit that is a great representation of your style.
Love the topic. I wrote about something along similar lines a month or two ago. Trying to understand my personality helps define my style. I’ve got a long way to go but at least I found the right place to start!
personal style constantly evolves doesn’t it Betsy? I’m not the same person as I was 10 years ago, and so my style has changed too.
Hmm .. not exactly sure how this works, but:
#moderate drama (neither all neutral or wild overpowering colours)
# MY colours (deep pinks, blues, blue greens, purples, a touch of blue-red, greys, navy, some black)
#no beige, never ever
#soft, flowy lines
#flatters my curvy curves
# always feminine, never fussy
#doesn’t require unusual underwear that’s hard to get in my size
#comfortable — I want the clothes to conform to my body, not my body have to conform to the clothes
am I on the right track?
Lynne – with your colours – think about the words they inspire, not just which colours they are – how they make you feel.
When you’re looking at creating a recipe – it’s a list of adjectives that apply to you as a person, not just about describing the clothes.
Simple femininity with flare (that’s your moderate drama) – does this sound like you?
My style recipe:
–Clothing has to be fitted and I prefer items with stretch to them
–Certain items I gravitate towards…V necks, pencil skirts, waist cinching belts, high heels
–I find I seem to buy light blue, lavender, purples and black a lot.
–Although I know what suits my body, I try to keep an open mind about different colors and styles when I’m shopping. I mean, why not try them on in the dressing room just for the heck of it. You have nothing to lose and you might find a different style or color does suit you after all!
Jessica
I’ve thought about this because of your previous posts 🙂 Let’s see, the current list would be:
simple (not busy or fussy), comfortable (for me and those around me), cozy (warm, nothing shiny), with a quirk
Olga – you’re simply twisted!
LOL, perfect motto! Adopted.
Hmm .. thinking about it, the word I come up with is ‘pretty’. Not very sophisticated of me, is it? But it is what I like. I like clothes in lovely colours (according to my personal aesthetic) which make me feel lovely for wearing them. Sure, I’ll do a few neutrals, but always with a scarf or camisole or cardigan in one of my favourite colours to make it feel like me. I choose prints (and I love prints) on the basis of whether they look pretty (there’s that word again!) in and of themselves, as well as on me.
Interestingly, I use the same principle in decorating my house, with soft “real” colours on the walls and every bit of decoration picked out because i loved it individually. It makes a surprisingly harmonious whole.
So yes, my aim in dressing is to look attractive, soft, approachable, feminine, but never ditzy. I’m totally comfortable with your “simple femininity with flare” phrase.
Its strange isn’t it that we live in the same body for years, and the same mind and yet when it comes to defining ourselves we have the greatest difficulty. I could define others (from an outsiders point of view) by seeing what they wear and colours they like and styles they adopt, but when it comes to myself, I am a blank sheet. I know when I feel uncomfortable in something and I know when I am walking in a supermarket thinking, this bag is boring and these shoes are drab, but knowing where to go from there eludes me.
I know I like to be dressed up and not dressed down. Being dressed up, very formally is a great feeling, but my life isn’t in that arena anymore, so its like I am cramped into a role that demands casual and oh I don’t like casual
It can take some time to come up with your style recipe. But if you can start to put into words what you like then you’ll find shopping is easier. Creating a pinterest board of looks you love, then gradually sorting out what it is that you love about it (when you start to see a theme) often makes coming up with the words easier (it’s on someone else not you)
It’s not easy this task but when I try to reply to your questions the words that come to my mind are colorful, bold, simple, comfortable.
I love bold colors that complement my own colors, pure red, cobalt blue, purple, even lemon yellow are colors that speak to me. Then again I like things to be simple – in every aspect of my life. Simple, but also comfortable and practical to every occasion.
Here are some words that came in my searching:
– Practical/Functional/Modest
– Ornate/Intricate < rounded features rather than geometric
– Elegant, Feminine, Gentle, Warm, Trustworthy
– Bold, Organized, Wise, Collaborative
Colors I gravitate to are: Red, Black and Blue. The complementary colors I gravitate to are in these shades Light pink, Burgundy, Dark Gray, Light Gray, White (sparingly), Navy, Sapphire blue, Turquoise. This helped me keep wardrobe minimalistic even in case of accessories with scarves and jewelry. The more I see your posts however the more I get clarity on my style. Thank you!
I think I know myself so well, and then suddenly am stymied about which things matter most to my recipe, and how personality traits translate into style expression. So here’s my 1st stab :
Simple basics w/ overall look distinctive and a bit undone, some yang to my yinish base, made memorable via color/proportion/detail/accessories.
Hair and skin – as glowing and healthy as I can make them. Natural, casually pretty.
Sensual fabric/shape which for me means movement/appealing texture/delicious color
Overall vibe I want to communicate – Intelligent, sensual, subtly surprising
I welcome any attempts at condensing this!