Here are three common personal style myths that I’ve been hearing a lot lately – what they are, why they are not true, and what to consider instead. Have you fallen for any of them?
Personal Style Myth 1: The complete closet purge…
As the season begins to change and back to school is officially underway here, I’ve noticed an uptick in language around doing a complete closet purge. But you don’t have to.
More often than not a closet purge puts you onto the clothing purge-clothing binge cycle. And it’s not the only way to get a clear idea of what’s in your closet.
If your closet is fairly curated, consider a wardrobe inventory instead. If you have a fair amount of build up, you may need a fuller decultter.
Regardless, you will probably find you need to clear some things out of your closet (most of us do), but a closet purge is not necessary.
Personal Style Myth 2: You’re either born with style or not…
That’s like saying you’re either born knowing how to form sentences or you’re not. If I remember correctly sentence structure was very deliberately taught in school. Or sports – some people are more athletically inclined but no one is born knowing the rules of basketball (or any other game).
Just like sentence structure and the rules of sports – design and style can be learned. When you learn how to style an outfit, then you know how to do it.
You can learn intuitively, or you can learn deliberately. (Most people who “have style” do some of both.) But style and design are learned skills.
And finally Myth 3: To update your closet, you have to buy all new clothes…
This is a very convenient myth for clothing stores aiming to sell you new clothes. But it has some very real downsides – both personally and collectively.
Downsides include: jumping on the clothing binge-clothing purge cycle we talked about above, massive waste and the accompanying destruction, and everyone looking oddly similar with surface style distinctions but no genuine ones.
Instead, you can deliberately procure specific pieces unique to you that you know will work with the clothes you already own and enhance your genuine personal style.
If you’ve found yourself falling into any of these style myths and you want to respark and reinvigorate your personal style this fall – consider joining me for your 3 Month Style Catalyst. More details here…