I’ve written about this before – that all style rules are just guidelines. Boundaries you can follow to give you some guidance.
But you can jump the fence. The fence isn’t so high that you can’t get over it, under it or around it!
There are personality styles that much prefer to stick with the rules (the Classic, Relaxed and Feminine) vs the rule breakers (Creative, Dramatic and Rebellious) will enjoy pushing their boundaries (or just plain leaping over them).
As a rule breaker myself, I like to know the rules. The rules help to give me some structure and an understanding of why something does or doesn’t work so well for me.
Sure texture and fur make you look chunkier – but I don’t care as I get cold!
Knowing my rules then allows me to break them in a considered way, so I know the effect my breaking of rules will have. I can choose to do it consciously rather than discovering that what I’m wearing really doesn’t work (which is the kind of thing that used to happen to me when I’d look at photos at a later date and wonder what on earth made me think that I looked any good).
Whether or not you prefer options or procedures may also give you a clue to your love of rules too. Procedures people tend to prefer to stick with rules more frequently. They like the structure and strong boundaries to stick to.
Options people often like to push or bend the boundaries to give them more freedom (and options).
Watch This
Take Action
Learn all about your style rules. The things that really do and don’t work for you. If you want to learn all about what does and doesn’t work for you, plus how your personality influences what you enjoy wearing, then you can choose how to break your rules.
You can start off by downloading your free body shape bible after doing my body shape calculator quiz.
Break some rules. Just give it a try. See how you can push your boundaries. You may find you can push them a long way, or just a little.
Remember that style rules are just guidelines to give you a framework to develop your style not a set of unbreakable rules.
Further Reading
Read up about Options and Procedures so you can figure out which one you are
How to break your style rules like a pro
How to break your style rules and break them again
5 More ways to break the style rules
Forget the Style rules – from Economy of Style
How to make your own style rules from Fake Fabulous
Right on the mark here, Imogen! I agree with you completely. At first, I was skeptical about doing the 7 Steps because I have seen those who follow the rules end up all looking the same. Then, I did the program and understood why my style worked for me. I was able to place what I was doing by intuition on a better foundation and capitalize on it by expanding my style through this study. I knew how many and which rules to break. Even though I approached 7 Steps from a different direction, I understood how many and which rules to break. I learned how to compensate the balance and of my silhouette. Best of all, I was able to define my style and its components from this focused study….what to take with me on my style journey and what to leave behind.
Hi Imogen, I have been following along with these numbered instructions from 1 all the way through to 13. Today you are at 16 but there is no 14 or 15 that I can see. Have I missed something or have you lost count? I love your blog so much that I pay very close attention to everything you say and I don’t want to miss a thing!
Yes there is one of each – https://insideoutstyleblog.com/blog-posts and scroll through all the posts – you will find them in there somewhere!
Sorry Imogen, they sure are all there on your amazing blog! I decided to write the points out from your Instagram and couldn’t find points 14 and 15 there. I stupidly assumed your blog didn’t have them either (even though I would have read them at another time). So sorry to bother you unnecessarily. I hope you are well and you are sticking to your new years resolution word ‘delegate’ in 2016