Ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels when it comes to your style? You may have the habits of a stylish person down, but still feel like things are off at times. You currently have a stack of Vogue magazines acting as your coffee table, a small army of summer clothes in your closet with their tags still on, and a flood of style bloggers falling through your Instagram feed by the hour...but you may still feel like you sometimes fall short.
Maybe you have a closet full of great pieces, but you might have trouble with styling them into actual outfits. Or you're able to piece looks together, but they're just not feeling inspired. Maybe you took a risk and dabbled in a trend, but now that you own said trend you're unsure if you can pull off those pair of culottes, or are completely at a loss on how to tie a bandanna the right way. Getting frustrated, it's easy to want to give up and not flex that style muscle.
But don’t do that! Trust me when I say that your style is still very on-point, but you just need to tend a few habits that will help you become more assured in your tastes and style. If you get into a routine of thinking, you'll be able to create outfits more easily and feel more confident with and bold styling choices you come up with. And the more content one looks with their decisions, the more natural and unforced they look with their style. Here are seven habits of fashion-forward people — which one will you be adopting?
1. They Plan Their Outfit The Night Before
You know how you wake up in a panic when your snooze button goes off for the third time that morning? You barely have enough time brush your teeth, let alone put together an amazing outfit. According to Michelle at Fashilluminous, this wouldn’t be the case if you took the time to pick out your outfit the night before, as any self-respecting style-loving person will tell you. Take 15 minutes before you slip into bed to pick through your closet and think of new pairings, allowing yourself to try on the combos before calling it a night. You’ll really enjoy running through the door without feeling flustered.
2. They Follow Other Stylish People For Inspiration
All style and creativity needs some source of inspiration. A fashion-forward person would be hard pressed to think of all of their styling strokes of genius alone — certain elements came from magazine editorials, street style pictures, and catalog snaps that they found interesting. Fashion is a study, and it takes brushing up on and researching to truly get a handle on it. So follow Instagrammers (this list from First Slice is a great start) bloggers, and create style boards on Pinterest that will get you thinking of new wardrobe outfits. You see something that you enjoy, think of your own wardrobe, and begin incorporating a way to pull it off with your own flair.. The more inspiration you seek out, the more ideas you have available to tap into, and the more creative you can get with your wardrobe. It’s as simple as that!
3. They Buy Pieces That Get Better With Age
Trends are fun to play with, but you can’t have a sustainable wardrobe that revolves around them. Trends are supposed to be the fluff — the fun pieces you experiment with, but not your foundation. Stylish people know and keep a sharp eye out for pieces that get better as time wears on, meaning, like blogger Caroline of the Unfancy, they’re constantly on the hunt for classics that’ll help elevate their closet.
This means they’re constantly on the look out for those classic black booties, the perfect white oxford shirt, or a beautifully handcrafted leather bag. They take their time when deciding on purchases and look for designs that haven’t changed all that much through the years. This way they stay looking timeless, polished, and incredibly chic when faster-fashion trends are paired with them.
4. They Always Get Dressed Up
Being stylish is just like any other habit: It takes dedicated consistency to truly stick. Fashion people don’t lounge around their pajamas till mid-afternoon; they get dressed up every single day and, according to bloggers like Nessa of That Chic Fashion blog, there are a lot of reasons why making this effort is important.
They wake up in the morning and head straight to their closet, choosing something clean cut and put-together no matter if it's just them and their cat at home for the whole day. You can lounge in your old high school gym sweatpants, or you can do the same in your favorite midi dress. The decision is yours.
5. Their Size Isn’t Set In Stone
People get too hung up on the number on their clothes’ tags, but, like Samantha Rasmussen of It's My Lipstick On Her Collar, a true fashion person understands that size tags don't matter and that digit is arbitrary. You might be a size four in one store and then a size eight in another, but all that really matters is the fit of the piece once it’s on your body. Don’t be scared to go up — even if it’s way up. That number means nothing; all that matters is how comfortable you feel in the item.
6. They Think Outside The Box When It Comes To Stores
Never thought to stop into Claire’s past age 14? Never cared to stop at the local thrift store over by the church? How about that discount store that’s always going out of business? There are some stores that you might assume you'll leave empty-handed in, but a true fashion lover (like Karla Deras of Karla's Closet) knows that there are gems to be found everywhere, if only you look.
It takes patience and it takes a sharp eye, but you’d be amazed at some of the steals you can unearth if only you look. Sometimes something that looks completely gaudy on the rack can look surprisingly fabulous when paired with your own style.
7. They Don’t Dress For The Sake Of Being Thought Stylish
The most important habit that fashion-forward people have become disciplined in is that they don’t dress for the sake of being stylish. According to HouseOfSarah 14, it's much more important to be comfortable and confident.
They dress for their own tastes, for their own lifestyle, and for their own comforts. This means if you like a style that is no longer in vogue, you still gravitate towards it no matter the style forecast, or if you can’t walk further than three blocks in heels, you don’t have more than two pairs cluttering up your closet. They dress for themselves, and because of it they exude the confidence and certainty it takes to pull off the trendy, impossibly stylish looks.
