It is quite possible that, on occasion, you’ve seen personal stylists and influencers alike talk about signature style on social media. It can feel like one of those styling concepts that should be familiar or obvious to understand, but in reality, feels a little mysterious. The reason it feels this way in part because there’s no set language around how we define signature style. And when we can’t clearly define something, it often gets left up to random interpretation, or simply tucked away in the back corner of your brain never to be thought of again.
Signature style is something we all have, but it usually means something different to each of us individually. It exists within you and is connected to your personality, your values, your personal philosophies, and your lifestyle. If you’re thinking, “wow, this sounds much deeper than I expected,” you’re right! Style is deep, it goes beyond the superficial trends, beyond the shopping hauls. It’s a direct reflection of who you are. So let’s dig in and get to the bottom of what signature style is and how to embrace yours.
Be True To You
To be abstract for a moment, signature style is first and foremost, a commitment to being true to oneself. When you know who you are and show up as that person every day, you live a life grounded in truth and intention. For example, Audrey feels called to show up as herself no matter the context, wherever she happens to be. She creates a tone of consistency, the “Audrey vibe.” When you put that kind of organized energy out into the world, you attract people who share your interests and your values.
Signature Style is all about
On a more tangible level, signature style is a combination of the personal truths outlined above and the visual representation of your aesthetic preferences. It can look like cohesion across colors, patterns, materials, silhouettes. Having a common thread that ties everything together is what creates your signature style. It becomes recognizable. Signature style is why you can recognize so many brands simply through the visuals they put out into the world (perhaps you could also call that strong visual brand identity, which is the business version of signature style).
What Signature Style is not
While it’s vitally important to define signature style, it’s also worthwhile to talk about what it is not. It does not entail caving to societal pressure to exist a certain way. Following trends for the sake of “being trendy” is arguably not a signature style, but instead, a distraction from (or a rejection of) who you actually are. Trend chasers allow themselves to be defined by other people and brands, who again, are in it for the gold. Signature style also doesn’t inherently mean looking “perfect” or polished 24/7. The beauty of being a human is that we are dynamic and complex.
We’re overwhelmed with noise
We make a point to bring up trends and shopping hauls right off the bat because these are two of the biggest offenders that stand in the way of you finding your style. They are a constant distraction put out into the world to sell to you, plain and simple. And, unfortunately, they are not the only factors that make finding your style feel so hard. We also exist in social media spaces that feel incredibly homogenous these days, where algorithms feed us the same kind of stuff over and over again. No wonder we are losing our sense of individuality!
Women are also often taught that style should be innate. That it should just be a natural sort of thing that all women should have the ability to flawlessly execute. The talking heads of style say, “Be authentically you because you’re unique and you should embrace that!!” (Okay… see paragraph above.) That kind of declaration is great in theory, but when you don’t support it with any amount of substance, it becomes shallow and wholly unhelpful.
Yes, You Do Have A Signature Style
The fact of the matter is, yes, while we believe that we all have our own unique signature style that lives inside of us, most of us were not taught the language of how to define or express it. This is not a sign of failure on our part as individuals, it’s a systematic failure of the society we live in. Fortunately, you don’t have to go at it alone. There is a framework you can use to tap back into the core of who you are, reacquaint yourself with your intuition, and start to define what signature style means to you.
Four Key Building Blocks to Signature Style
There are four key building blocks that support you in building your signature style. They are: identity (your style identity), body architecture, color, and lifestyle realities. Let’s talk about what each of these mean on their own.
Your Style Identity
Your style identity is tied to what we call Style Archetypes. They are tied to your emotional drivers, your internalized self-expression, and manifest how you want to be moving through the world. What kind of energy do you bring to the table? What is your personality like? And ultimately, how do you communicate those things through your appearance?
Your Body Architecture
Your body architecture is more than just knowing what body shape you are (among the 6 standardized choices we get?) It’s about knowing your physical form on a much deeper level and understanding that our modernized way of producing clothing was not designed with bodies in mind, it was designed for mass production. Society doesn’t want us to understand our bodies better, it just wants us to “fix” them. (Again, this is what happens when you live in a capitalist society).
What happens when you actually know and understand your body? You can hone in on exactly what works, and ignore all the rest of the noise. You know what feels good on your body, you know the practical component of choosing garments that you enjoy physically putting on. This component is tied to things that may surprise you, like fabric preferences, patterns, the scale of those patterns, silhouettes, garment construction and details, and so much more.
Color and Signature Style
Color plays a big role in your signature style whether you think of it or not. Perhaps your signature style entails combining bold colors together and you really enjoy expressing yourself in that way. Or maybe it’s a wardrobe full of a specific handful of colors. As it turns out, Shelly has only recently accepted that navy is her “power color” and that having a wardrobe full of blues and navy isn’t boring, it’s her. There was a lot of mental resistance to this for her because, as a creative, she hates the idea of coming across as boring. But now that she’s welcomed navy with open arms (True/Soft Summer blues as a whole, really) is so powerful for her! She plays with interesting and unique silhouettes, textures, and details that are in that color family.
The Reality of Life
Lifestyle reality is an acknowledgement of what your actual, day-to-day, real life requires of you. What kind of environment do you live in? Do you have any “dress codes” that you have to adhere to for work? How do you spend your free time? This component is arguably the one that ties the other three together, bringing it all full circle. Signature style only works when it works in practice.
Proceed With Caution
As professional personal stylists who have built a business centered around helping women discover/rediscover their signature style, these are a few of the common ways we have encountered that aren’t supportive:
- Copy and pasting styles from social media/pinterest. What works on someone may not work for you, just because you like it on them. They may (and likely do) have different style preferences, body architecture, color palette, and lifestyle than you do. You may also like that style on them because you find them attractive or their features desirable (a topic for another day, but, food for thought.)
- Shop before you sort. What we mean is, jumping to spend money before you truly understand what is in your closet, what works, and what doesn’t. This leads to wasting time and money, and who wants to do that?
- Expecting clarity without participation. This calls back to a point in our last blog post that we are in this together, and not expecting answers to your questions/problems without effort.
- Listening to voices other than your own and your trusted experts. We know how hard it is to turn the volume down on all the noise. But taking steps to do so allows you to feel reconnected with your own voice.
Our Approach To Signature Style
Our approach to signature style entails putting the individual client at the heart of our work. We have built a space that encourages honesty, supports vulnerability and self-reflection, all while being there to provide support in the ways that are most needed. When we peel back the layers of who someone thinks they’re supposed to be and give them permission to step into who they truly are, that’s when the magic of signature style happens. When we are in collaboration with rather than prescriptive toward our clients, it invites opportunities for input and exploration.
The moment your signature style becomes clear, decision fatigue is gone, impulse purchases dwindle, and you gain the ability to say no when you want to. You commit yourself to making wiser investments, knowing that what you’re building has lasting power. And ultimately, you gain the feeling of feeling “at home” in yourself. Our Signature Services are designed with these goals in mind, there to meet you where you’re at in your style journey, no matter where that may be.
