Personal Style vs. Trend

As a young woman who just hit her 30th birthday milestone, I am at a very unique spot in time as far as my style choices are concerned – a spot I must admit that I like.

When you're a teenager you're forced to dress like everyone else to avoid being the butt of a joke; and as an older adult you must be very careful about age appropriateness, (an agreed point) in a different effort to prevent trying too hard not to turn back the hands of time.

At my age, I get to enjoy the happy medium. I get the best of both worlds, being able to mix youthful and vibrant style – with the sophistication of a grown and confident adult.

With all this said, I do think in every stage of the game there is one thing I find extremely important ... and that is personal style. Having your own unique style is a guarantee that what you put on yourself will be timeless, fun, and make you feel like a million dollars regardless of how you are being viewed by others.

'Timeless' and 'Trend' are worlds apart ...

An outfit considered timeless is something that will be looked at in photos many years later with delight, that can be worn again even in a completely different generation of people and new styles. An example of this is realizing recently that the Duchess' dress at the Royal Wedding was an almost exact replica of my mothers, worn almost 35 years ago.

A trend on the other hand, in my eyes focuses on the right now only. A trend is a temporary style that individuals feel as though they need to be suckered into (stores must follow trends to make sales) that will cause you to look back at photos years down the road and wonder, "what was I thinking?" This is how I feel when I look back at photos of high school when my generation thought it was cool to wear articles of clothing 10 times our size.

Humiliating

There is an easy answer to all this: Finding your personal style.

I consider myself a unique combination of many different styles. I blend pinup fashion with glamour and casual items (on a normal day) all into this bizarre combination called ... me.

I am not in one specific category or "type" of anything; yes I have a few major styles that I tend to choose from (my likes that is) and I definitely know what I don't like, but I do not just stick to one zone. I can take items from different styles and put them together and be unique.

I have to enter the trendy stores like everyone else to find a pair of shoes or a shirt, but I do not need the mannequin that the store set up to tell me what to wear; I enter the store with a very deliberate intention of what I'm looking to find, and with my style in mind I create my own look. 

I try not to rely on magazines to tell me what I should wear, and I wear what feels good. This is not necessarily what is considered trendy, but guess what? I very rarely go without an outfit acknowledgement. And what's even more interesting is that I'm never trying to receive one; there is just something said for the confidence you put off when your not afraid to stand out even in taking the risk of looking "different."

I have never idealized any celebrities with stylists (the majority) taking all the credit for looking good when they don't even dress themselves. Dita Von Teese has been one of my very few inspirations for the simple fact that she has admitted to having no stylist, creating her own outfits, doing her own makeup, and looking incredible in doing so.

Now go on and find yours. In doing this I can guarantee that when you look back in photos if yourself in years to come, having fun in your style, feeling good and standing out, you will not feel horrified. Make it fun.

Get to work, and be yourself!

What is your personal style?