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Personal Taste vs. Personal Style
Why not make what you wear as easy as liking - or not liking- pineapple on your pizza?
If you’re struggling to pin point your personal style, consider approaching it from the lens of your personal taste.
The great debate in the getting dressed circles is often fashion versus style. I’m sure you’ve heard the quote: “Fashion you can buy, but style you must possess” (Iris Apfel). As much as I love Iris, (I mean, how can you not?) I have an issue with these choice of words. There’s a subtle implication here that style is something that’s innate, an you’ve-already-got-it factor and if you don’t, oh well. And this is at odds with my belief that style can be taught and getting dressed can be learned.
We’re handed this idea that fashion - or “fashun” - doesn’t equal style. And according to Iris, style must be innate. So what are us normal people do? We throw up our hands and say, “I have no style.”
But you do have something that is innate, internal and unique to you. Taste.
Taste is clear cut. You know, right now as you’re reading this, whether you like tomatoes, or mushrooms, or cilantro, or dark chocolate (or not). You know if you’re a savory, sweet, or salty person (or all!).
The
podcast episode “Why do Clothes Suck Now?” by that connected these two things for me. Amanda Mull, staff writer at The Atlantic and Peterson’s guest, said: “The goal of trend marketing is to pull you further and further away from your personal taste.”I’m pretty sure I was driving at the time, so I one handedly rewound, listened again, and voice noted myself several texts to capture the reactions my brain was spitting out rapid fire. And it all came from that one word - taste.
In the literal sense, we are all into our taste buds. We (generally) like to give them what they want and avoid what they don’t want. We have physical responses to what we like and what we don’t. Sometimes we have reasons and sometimes we just shrug and say: “I don’t like it.”
When it comes to our taste buds - we effortlessly say “More, please” or “No, thanks, I’m good.” And there’s nothing more to it. But when it comes to our personal style, we tend to place a heaviness and seriousness on the clothes we wear. The questions to ourselves are endless: Are we on trend? In season? Is this the right color for us? Do we try this? Do we force it? Do we wear it even if we don’t feel good/comfortable/confidence/happy in it?
What happens when we ignore our personal taste when it comes to our style, is that we start to dress in a version of ourselves that isn’t true to us. We’ve allowed those questions, doubts or uncertainties drive us to a notion of “style” instead of simply going with our personal taste.
Now, you may say, Sydney - of course it’s easier with taste buds! We have a physical reaction - it’s a bodily response! And I would put forth that there is a physical, bodily response to clothes as well. I believe everyone has an instant, gut response to something when you put it on your body. Only - we have gotten so used to not listening to what we truly want, tamping those tastes down, that we don’t recognize the reaction when it happens. We’ve forgotten how to trust ourselves.
Many women have never truly invested the time to cultivate their personal taste based on vibe, body, colors, and silhouettes (the four foundation of creating your structure of style). When we don’t have this knowledge, it’s easy to feel like we’re drowning in fashion or even personal style. It’s easy to ask every else what they think about what’s on our bodies. It’s easy to trust the sales person.
You do have innate personal taste - it may just be underdeveloped.
I believe that style can be taught. Getting dressed can be learned.
And that you can develop, cultivate and learn to listen to your style taste it as easily as you say “Yes” to your favorite dish.
YOUR TURN: If you could describe your style like a taste - what would it be? Mine would be like pho - warm, umami, sometimes a few weird things in there, but it all works.
If you want to explore your personal taste, join us in STYLE LAB!
We start April 1 (no, this is not a joke).
STYLE LAB is a 6 week, self-led style program. You’ll get weekly worksheets with prompts and experiments to work through. You’ll also get access to two group calls with me for support.
You will not focus on trends or purchasing a whole new wardrobe.
In fact, buying things isn’t even the goal of the lab. The focus is on getting into your closet and treating it like a lab! In this process, you’ll learn the structure of your own style through the worksheets (aka: the classroom) and learn how apply them to your closet (aka: the lab).
Program goals:
Learn the four components of your style foundations
Put those components into practice in your closet
Learn more about the program, including dates everything kicks off here.
Cost: $88. Sign up before 3/31/24 with code STYLELAB424 and save 30% - making the program just $61 or $10/week.
PLUS, you’ll get a free annual subscription to Vogue[ish}!
(If you’re already an annual Vogue[ish] subscriber and want to join, email me for your promo code.)