After my deep dive into colour, I turned my frenzied gaze towards analysing style. I suddenly found myself with a better understanding of the colours that made me look good, but no idea about what styles I should be wearing them in. This felt more nebulous than the colour debacle because there wasn’t going to be a right answer – I actually just needed to decide what I personally liked wearing.

I ended up using the free Seamwork Style Workshop to help guide me through this process, which was an interesting exercise. I didn’t answer all the questions but instead cherry-picked the ones that felt the hardest to answer. I don’t think it taught me anything I didn’t already know but it certainly helped me articulate and crystallise ‘the vibes’.

I also set up a Pinterest board (duh) and started collecting inspiration. Looking down at the blank slate of “My Style” was weirdly intimidating but the more I added, the more I felt confident that I was going down the right path. Interestingly, looking back at that board there is a clear chronological transition from vintage styles to modern styles as I added more pins. Clearly, whilst I still love the vintage look and are drawn to it as a pleasing aesthetic, it’s not really something I aim to emulate in my personal wardrobe anymore. This definitely became more obvious the more I dove into the weeds of what I wanted to wear now (e.g. as the image below demonstrates).

I managed to narrow it down to a fairly concise list, which are copied below (I’ll save you from trying to decipher my messy handwriting)

• Contrasting fits (big pants, little shirts // big shirts, little pants)
• Matching sets
• Well-fitted/tailored items
• Lots of accessories (belts, hats, bags) – need to match/add to the outfit, not detract
• Contrasting fabric textures (silk, velvet, mesh, linen etc.)
• Block colours
• Big, abstract geometric prints (not drawn to small, delicate prints)
• Animal print

Looking at these descriptors all together was a bit of a “shocked but not surprised” moment. Nothing on this list felt surprising at all but at the same time, I was surprised by a) how coherent and concise the list was and b) how much stuff I had in my wardrobe already that fit those descriptors. I was also surprised by how coordinated it all was – looking at that list made it feel like it would be easy to put together outfits and an overall style that touched on of those points in a homogenous way. I honestly think part of me expected to have things in there that directly contradicted each other, which was not the case.

From that point, coming up with a few key phrases to describe the style I was aiming to emulate was fairly straight-forward. I mean, I obviously want to achieve a lot of things with my outfits but in general, I want a style that is:

• Bold (I don’t want to blend in)
• Elegant (but with an effortless aura; I don’t want to feel like I am wearing a costume)
• Timeless (keeping up with trends is not something I feel like doing)

Then, it was time for a wardrobe audit. I honestly don’t have much to say about this part as it’s all a bit blurred now. It was a bit of a hectic time in my life; I’d only just moved in with my first serious partner, I then found out I was going to be moving across the country in two months for a job, I’d just landed my first corporate job (relevant to what I started at uni! Wow!), and I was working casually for the first time in my life (so my schedule was a lot less regular than I was used to). Also, it was late 2020.

Either way, I got rid of bunch of stuff and I started actively trying to add things to my wardrobe within the boundaries I’d set for myself. I was also very conscious of the fact that I was going to be moving with suitcases only and that it would be completely new (and much colder) climate.

All in all, perhaps not the best time for a complete wardrobe overhaul. But in a way, I think the strong sense of change that was permeating all sections of my life allowed me to be less sentimental about items in my wardrobe. I’d been holding on to so much stuff that didn’t fit, or I didn’t like anymore or that would “be perfect for [insert niche party theme]” and knowing that I had more change on the way was the extra incentive I needed. I think I did pretty well – here’s a selection of outfits from that time and looking back at them, I can definitely see where I have implemented learnings from both my colour and style experiments.

Lots of block colours, lots of waist definition, tailored shapes, big prints, textural fabric, accessories, matchy-matchy and some big shirt / tight pants vibes.

Also, whilst it might not have been the most relaxing time to do this, it did allowed me to move to a new place, with limited clothes and a new climate with a clearer idea of my style and how I wanted to present myself to the world than I had ever had before, which was a pretty freeing feeling.