Turning Your Style Recipe into a Stunning Sartorial Dish

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll have come across the idea of a Style Statement or Style Recipe.

These are words that help you define who you are on the inside and how you want to be perceived by the outside world.

They are an authentic reflection of your inner self, the best version of you that you want to present to those around you, those who come into contact with you whether it’s at work or play.

So how to turn those words which are the ingredients of your recipe into the finished dish.

Think about each word as being part of the flavour. Each word will add an element to your outfit.

Let’s look at some examples to get you thinking.

Style Recipe 1

• Dynamic
• Unexpected
• Friendly
• Successful

Definition

How do you define each word in your recipe? If you break down these ingredients into different elements what are they? Ask yourself what each word means to you:

• Dynamic – colourful, bright, vibrant, exciting
• Unexpected – unusual, unique, edgy, different, individual, creative
• Friendly – approachable, warm, caring
• Successful – professional, credible, confident, knowledgeable

Expressed in Sartorial Form

Now you have the herbs and spices as well as the main ingredients to your sartorial dish, how to you put it together? Well it’s time to consider how to express each of these ingredients in clothing/accessory form.

• Dynamic – bright colours, larger scale accessories, bold pattern or detail
• Unexpected – unusual construction, interesting mixes of colour, pattern mixing, asymmetry, unique accessories
• Friendly – softer fabrics, stretch, texture, touchable fabrics, low to medium contrast, lighter colours, colour rather than lots of dark colours
• Successful – structured or tailored construction, put-together, well groomed, good quality, ironed and polished

Here is an example of how this style recipe could be interpreted in outfits. In the work outfit there is more of the successful, dynamic with the friendly and unexpected. In the play outfit the successful is dialed back so it comes through as more friendly but still being dynamic and with an unexpected element here and there. Remember there are so many ways to interpret every word in your recipe and millions of ways to put them together. A style recipe should not make you feel like you’re stuck wearing the same outfit over and over.

Style Recipe 2

• Warm
• Fun
• Responsible
• Natural

Definition

• Warm – friendly, nurturing, caring, feminine
• Fun – happy, breezy, playful
• Responsible – mature, trustworthy, reliable
• Natural – down to earth, relaxed, informal

In Sartorial Form

• Warm – soft fabrics, stretch fabrics, floaty fabrics, not too structured in design
• Fun – ‘fun’ patterns and prints (Hawaiian, polka dots), multiple colours, light to medium colours
• Responsible – not too much decoration or details, no frills or frou-frou, higher value contrast, symmetrical design and features
• Natural – colours of nature – sky blue, sage green, sand, brown, rust (no black and white!), denim, chambray, looser fit, flat shoes

Here are examples of the 2nd style recipe in action. More responsible for work, more emphasis on fun for play, both still working with the full style recipe and not leaving out any ingredients.

Creating Your Sartorial Dish

Use at least one element from each ingredient in every outfit. If you miss an ingredient, you miss out on your outfit expressing who you are as a whole.

Different occasions will demand different quantities of each ingredient. For example, for work you may want to pump up the “Successful” ingredient if you need to appear more professional or competent, but socially that ingredient may be used in a lower quantity and the “Friendly” ingredient is more prominent.

You always want to add all ingredients to your dish, but you can change the quantities at any time. If you’re too reliant on one ingredient your dish will become unbalanced.

So tell me, what are the ingredients, the herbs and spices for your style recipe and then how do you express them in your outfits?

If you want to work on your style recipe, doing my Evolve Your Style challenge will really help you start to come up with a great list of ingredients as you play each day with a daily focus.

More Tips on Creating Your Style Recipe

The Inspiration You Need to Create Your Style Recipe

Why You Must Have a Style Recipe

How to Build Your Style from Ground Zero

Finding Your Style Recipe