What is Style?

Style, apart from being a Taylor Swift less-than-banger (sorry gal, not my favourite of your work), is a pretty elusive idea. We all know someone with that effortless ability to put together amazing outfits, without seeming like they so much as glanced over what they were pulling out of the wardrobe that morning. You probably hate them, just a little bit. But what is it they possess that you don’t? Style. And what is style? Essentially, whatever the hell you want it to be. The beauty of style, rather than fashion, is that it’s an extension of the self. While fashion tells us what to wear, style tells fashion to do one, because it’s about you, not the wealthy, influential designers that could dress their models in trousers made of toilet roll and magazine’s would completely buy into it.  

I don’t know many people that would consider themselves stylish, and that’s perhaps because it’s such an abstract idea that it’s hard to see it in ourselves. I’ve heard people say before, about certain pieces of clothing or wacky hair colours, ‘I wish I could pull that off’ or ‘that looks good on them but I could never work it’, and whenever I hear these words I just want to slap the mouth they came from, screaming, ‘but you can!’. Just by putting something on you’re saying to everyone else, I can pull this off, because the very fact I’m wearing it means I had the confidence to express my own taste in very visual, and sometimes scary, way.    

Style isn’t vintage jumpers or snapbacks, it’s the desire within us to buy (and wear) them. Being stylish isn’t picking up the latest copy of Look and skipping straight to the Primark/ H&M section (guilty), and buying the exact clothes they suggest. It’s taking inspiration from everything and everyone around you and making it your own. Fashion tells us what to wear and it changes, but style never goes out of fashion.  

It’s a great compliment to hear someone say they like your style, or that you’re stylish, because it’s another individual appreciating a very personal part of you. We may take the piss out certain styles, but usually what we’re judging is people conforming to the dress of a subculture that the clothes represent. It definitely takes a certain level of confidence to dress in a way that not many others do, but if you walk into a shop, see something you like, worry it’s a bit ‘odd’ or doesn’t fit your usual look, frankly f*ck anyone that’s going to judge you for that. After all, with however many billions of people living on the planet, chances are someone out there is sporting the same look as you.

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