Discovering My Personal Style: How I Found It & How You Can Too [Personal Style 2/3]

Introduction

When I started caring about my appearance I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. 

The question “How do I want to be known for looking?” is a heavy one that stressed me out for a long time.

I don’t want you to feel this way - which is why I started this blog and why I’m writing this post.

So, to help you find your Personal Style, I want to talk about how I found my sense of style so you can find yours.

Outline

What is Personal Style

Personal Style Requirements: Creative Direction & Intentional Inspiration

Creative Direction

Intentional Inspiration

Conclusion: Finding Your Personal Style

What is Personal Style? 

To develop a Personal Style you must first know what it is - and it’s more than just a signature color or hairstyle.

Personal Style is a pattern of behavior that aligns with who you want to be and how you want to be perceived.

Personal Style is NOT just one outfit, it’s a consistent way of dressing that is well-informed and well-executed. 

When done correctly Personal Style is instantly recognizable.

For example, Drew Barrymore has a fantastic sense of Personal Style. 

Drew Barrymore wants to be seen as Optimistic, Authentic, and Playful and her clothes are a direct reflection of it. 

She’s associated with bright colors, bold patterns, and minimal makeup (except when wearing bright eyeshadow) - all of which are in line with how she wants to be seen.

Her Personal Style is so strong, that she even had a shade of yellow named after her!

Personal Style Requirements

Personal Style requires 2 things: 

• Creative Direction - To have a style that goes beyond trend, you have to know where you want to go.

• Intentional Inspiration - Once you know who you want to be, you have to find people who are like that person and start understanding how they dress themselves.

In music, I was taught that you must master imitation before you can pursue innovation, but I don’t think that’s the case with fashion. 

I had to understand what I wanted to look like so I knew who to imitate. 

Imagine trying to pack for a vacation if you don’t know where you’re going or when you’re leaving.

Sounds hard right? 

That’s why you have to start with where you’re going - and that’s the job of creative direction.

Creative Direction

Finding your Creative Direction can be scary, but after a while, it’s the most exciting part of getting dressed. 

You don’t have to create a new sense of style from nothing.

Instead, you can lean on the performance of others and find individuality in their combination.

For example, the people who inspire me are popular artists, educators/mentors, and fashion designers/influencers.

My method is to start with who inspires you and then create three creative themes that summarize their style.

So, I always try to dress in a way that could be described using one (or a combination) of the three buckets.

• Fashionable/Timely - Fashion is a core interest of mine, and while I think that trends shouldn't be blindly followed, I'm passionate about them and want to show them off.

• Studious/Scholarly - School is one of my biggest passions and teachers are my greatest idols, so I feel the need to incorporate professor-core or teacher-core styles into my wardrobe.

• Creative/Colorful - I enjoy finding unique combinations of colors, patterns, and fabrics that show off that despite knowing what's trendy I'm not afraid to have fun and try new things.

Having a clear idea of how I want to be perceived is helpful because it allows me to have established grading criteria to figure out what I should wear.

When I try an outfit on, I look in the mirror and ask myself if someone wearing it would be considered fashionable, studious, or creative.

If yes, then I’m good to go.

If not, I try again until I’ve arrived at something that is in at least one of those buckets.

Intentional Inspiration

When figuring out your style it can be easy to get caught trying to be like everyone who’s seen as fashionable. 

My freshman year of high school, I wanted to look like the cool sports guys, my favorite teachers, and my friends who were juniors. 

And that’s excluding influencers and celebrities!

Trying to be like all of these people at once was EXHAUSTING and it left me feeling lost, embarrassed, and with a closet of useless clothes. 

Thankfully, I realized that I needed to start with who I wanted to be like and then use them as a guide to pick who I drew inspiration from.

I started paying attention to people who were seen as my desired traits of being fashionable, studious, and creative and took inspiration from them. 

I no longer chased everyone deemed "cool."

Instead, I took Intentional Inspiration from a select group of people that I wanted to be like which saved me time, money, and stress.

For example, my male teachers always wore patterned socks with an accent color that was complimentary to the main color they were wearing. 

Now, I always do this. 

In short, once I figured out who I wanted to be like, I began looking for patterns in how they dress and implemented those patterns into my wardrobe and outfits.

Conclusion: Finding Your Personal Style

To finish off my three-week series “2025: The Year of Personal Style”, next week I’m going to be posting my next blog post: “Becoming You: A 3 Step Process in Unlocking Your Personal Style.”

In this post, I’ll talk about how you can create a Personal Style that gives you clarity, confidence, and enthusiasm in just three simple steps!

I’m super excited for it, and you should be too. 

If you don’t want to miss it, be sure to sign up for my email list by hitting the orange subscribe button at the bottom of this post.

Until then, I’ll see you next week. 

Thanks for reading!

-JM

P.S. - I've been having so much fun on TikTok. If you aren't already following me, you totally should. I post new videos every day teasing my blog posts a week in advance! It's @__joshuamiller.

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