Simple 5-Step DIY Plan to Personal Style…
The success of fashion lies in differentiation and paving a new way forward. Becoming fashion forward involves an individual vision, continuously transforming yourself and transforming people’s stereotypical perceptions of fashion.
This recipe has proven successful with the likes of early fashion protagonists Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and Paul Poiret. Coco Chanel strived to incorporate the power of personality to her designs by inventing her own way of personal expression. Paul Poiret freed women from the corset and opened the twentieth century with the emancipation of women through fashion.
My womenswear brand ~Eyola‘ is my way of exploring fashion and taking it to new heights by striving to transform the fashion industry (much like Chanel and Poiret) and also aspiring to inspire women to explore their own individual and personal style.
My designs are bold yet feminine and embody a lot of craftwork but are ultimately wearable providing both amateurs and expert self-stylists with a very distinctive starting point to any outfit. I hope my designs encourage women to mix and match and explore unique colours and shapes and looking at fashion from a different angle.
So, I’ve put together a simple 5-step plan for you to take a creative and energetic approach to personal styling.
1) Know your body type- Look in the mirror and see what features you like and don’t like. Instead of covering up what you don’t like, enhance what you like.
2) Create a look book- Compile pictures of different fashion items (from clothing to accessories) from magazines, newspapers and the internet that you really like. Focus more on what you find interesting and don’t shy away from anything you might ~feel’ isn’t you.
3) Invest in yourself- Whether you want to start exercising, meeting new people or try a new hobby take time to get to know yourself better. Trying new things will open your mind and this will help you become more confident and willing to experiment with your personal style.
4) Purge your wardrobe- Stop hanging on to clothes for the sake of it. If it’s been in the wardrobe collecting dust and useful storage space for the last few months or even years chances are it will continue to do so. So get rid of it. Other types of clothing that apply to this rule include faded clothes, clothes that are too small or too big and damaged clothing.
5) Invest in your wardrobe- A great way to do this is to buy an “outfit” every month. By this I mean buy one of each item of an outfit- a cardigan, top, skirt, shoes, accessories throughout the month. Each month concentrate on a type of outfit e.g. casual, smart etc. As you start collecting make sure your look book is handy. It can also double up as a reference book where you can keep a record of all items bought so that you can effectively build a wardrobe that is coherent.
One tip is to invest in a wide spectrum of colour from pastels, block to nudes as this gives you the palette to really put together something unique. If you’re not so brave that’s okay. Try collecting clothes in the same colour family (for example only choose nude colours) as this will slowly help you become confident in matching different shapes and layering and once you master these fundamentals you can build on your experiences and start to diversify your look.
Good luck!