Wednesday 11 March 2015

WHAT IS STYLE?


What is style? It is an subject we could discuss all day long, there probably will be no end to it.
It is also a question I've been asking myself for some time now. Several dictionaries define the word as 'a certain way of writing, expressing, composing and building'. I still don't know what style exactly is. It's still very vague.

When I think about what I'm currently wearing, how I chose to wear this and if it would by classified as style, a small smile emerges. This morning I had an early lecture, so I choose my big chunky sweater over my fitted blouse and my Doctor Martens, just because it's comfortable and it was early. That would probably be defined as homeless girl style or is she wearing her own clothes or her dads? Later today I changed in a more fitted sweater, Acne printed trousers and still loyal to my Doctor Martens.

This leads me to a sub question: Can you be comfortable and stylish?
I don't know, maybe? I really think that comfort is priority number one when I'm getting dressed. Comfort is often underrated. I don't think anyone can look sexy or stylish when being uncomfortable. When a skirt is too tight and it's hitching you down, shoes that are massively uncomfortable and make you look like you're walking on a bed of sharp and hot needles or when a coat is too short or too tight, it just will not and cannot look stylish.

Do you need money to be stylish?
Absolutely not. Not when there's so much choice. You've got an incredible high street, markets and thrift stores. The massive consumption of these particular women implies that they're not exactly sure of what their style is. So they have to keep on buying. And I don't think style is the same as having a lot of clothes. Actually, I think that limitation is good for the creative mind, because you go looking for alternatives. So if money is your limitation and you're into a certain Celine skirt, you will be determined to find an alternative version if not creating it yourself.

There isn't a code to dress , and that's liberating. We can be a Chanel gorgeous, a slighlty a-symmetric, we can be whoever we want to be. For some people that's intimidating and that's difficult, because you don't know who you want to be. But at least you have the opportunity to express yourself through clothes. It's all about experimenting.

Is style subjective?
No. If it's not your own style, it can still look amazing on somebody else. But that's only when everything falls into the right place. I could pass someone on the street with a bright, wide, yellow pair of trousers, an intense blue blouse and colorful make-up and still look amazing.

So a definition of style could be: It always is and looks like you. You can be wearing minimalism this day and maximalism the next, but it will always look like you when you incorporate you're own style into the outfit.

Style is a form of self expression. But I think in order to do that you have to have a self to express. You have to know who you are and what your place in the world is. That's why, at the end of the day, style is about evolving as a person. Then you know how to express yourself as a person. And it can change radically. As long as it is you. Then you've got style.

Photo: Le21eme

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