HOW TO TURN YOUR TASTE INTO STYLE!
Psychologically translate who you are into what you wear with a downloadable style exercise
Greetings, my black swans!
Welcome to Phase 1 of psychologically translating who you are into what you wear!
The most overwhelming comment, question, request I receive is how do I translate who I am into what I wear? How do I translate my taste into style?
Here is what were solving for:
Why do I have a closet full of clothes I never wear?
Why do some people look good in certain styles, but I don’t?
Why do I feel like an imposter when I try something new?
How can I look like myself, and not like an algorithm clone?
Stuff a chloroform-soaked washcloth over the voice in your head, and in the words of the totally straight, not-gay-at-all Captain Li Shang from Mulan, lets get down to business.
Let’s start with the very first building block: The difference between your taste and your style.
TASTE is your imagination. Everything you’ve saved, admired, screenshotted, collected, pinned, bought, that lives in your brain.
STYLE is incarnation. The ability to take what lives in your imagination and you bring them to life, in this physical realm, to be seen, witnessed and judged by people around you.
The reason most people have very good taste but incredibly basic style is because most people believe that style is reserved for a special group of people. That there are a unique few who can get away with wearing whatever they want, without social consequence (“I could never pull that off”, “that would never look good on me”, “I could never wear that”) . Because you don’t believe you’re one of these people, you don’t dress the way you want to. You have an entire inner world that lives in your mind that no one can see but you.
This creates a very negative self-fulfilling prophecy: The version of you that other people experience isn’t who you really are, it’s who you think you should be. And because you don’t believe that you’re allowed to be seen the way you truly are, the gap between your taste and style becomes greater and greater. This causes you to feel like you’re split into two separate selves: the person you want to be, and who you think you ought to be.
The negative self-fulfilling prophecy
Style begins when you move things from your taste into your behavior. You translate your inner world, out, and are viewed as a more complete, complex individual.
Essentially, you need to start exposing yourself to the levels of your creativity that are currently collecting dust bunnies in your subconscious. Which is why I have created The Style Prompt, a free downloadable Canva template to organize your aesthetic, and understand your personal style!
Fill in the prompts, collect images that resonate with you, and begin identifying the themes behind your aesthetic. I did it myself, so you can see how easy it is :)
1. Start with the overall aesthetic you want to accomplish.
The idea, the vision. Be as specific and descriptive as you can. I literally got out my thesaurus and started thumbing through.
2. Silhouettes
What shape do you want to take? Are you more feminine, masculine, are you drawn to androgyny? Romantic? Gothic?
3. Texture
When you think of clothes you like the most, what do they feel like? What are the textural elements you enjoy the most? Cashmere, leather, velvet, an old, thick hoodie?
5. Statement pieces
What kind of signature elements strike ya fancy? Think big. Like, Captain Jack Sparrow, big.
6. Patterns!
One of the easiest ways to add the pizzaz. Think of patterns from all over, interior design, runway, nature, mathematical sequencing, etc.
7. Natural Elements
Elements from the natural universe you feel connected to.
8. Character Study
What do the characters you identify with from films, books, theater, what do they have in common? Think about overarching themes for clues to what you admire.
When you MERGE your taste into your behavior, your self-perception expands, creating a positive self-fulfilling prophecy.
The biggest waste of your potential is to spend your one magnificent life trying to look like someone else. If anyone tells you otherwise, fuck em. :)
With great personal aesthetic,
Alexandra Diana, The A List