How to develop your sense of style

Why you shouldn't care about clothing and how obsessing over your interests leads to developing better style.

This is probably the most common question I get. Figuring out your style within fashion is a journey that may feel daunting at times, but in reality, it's the most exciting part of the process. Acquiring a good sense of style takes time, research and experimentation, which, with experience, should translate into great outfits you don’t even need to think about when putting them together.

This is way easier said than done though, so if you’re actually trying to level up your style then you have to sort of level up your life as well. In today’s newsletter, we’ll explore the idea of how to expand your style, how taste plays a huge role, and discuss ideas you can try to subconsciously shift your taste in a new direction, which, with time, will turn into a better understanding of your style.

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THERE’S NO RULE BOOK

I see a lot of content online that focuses on understanding how to get a better sense of style, and while they aren’t necessarily wrong, there is a lot of repetition between bloggers that I think many people are falling victim to. We’re currently in a taste epidemic where everyone is consuming the same thing—usually in the form of very mid content thanks to TikTok—and this affects people on a massive scale where they start consuming, liking and even dressing in the same thing without even realizing it.

There’s a serious lack of individuality online, so you have to shift your content consumption because it’s not doing anyone any good in the long run. The reality is, and no offence, but there is a lot of bad content out there, and if everyone is looking at it and copying each other, it just creates a never-ending vortex of mid. You must avoid it. So what do you do?

“Wearing vs Styling” is a TikTok trend that has done more harm than good. I don’t know who needs to hear it, but putting on an extra layer and adding glasses is not “styling”

Don’t get me wrong, there is still good content out there, but we’ve come to the point where the garbage in between is overpowering and even affecting the good content in some way or another. On a deeper level, there’s no actual rule book on how to develop your own style, yet I see videos telling people the same mid level advice that’s actually not that great.

My approach to developing a good sense of style requires less focus on fashion, at least at the beginning, and more focus on acquiring good taste. Diving into your hobbies and interests by learning more about them and yourself is a way to expand your mind subconsciously and, with that, affect your overall style. We’re basically still tackling the idea of dressing better but also upgrading a few other things along the way.

Join the SNLetter subscriber chat to join our large community, be part of the discussion, get live recommendations, and more! We have a lot of really great people that all share a similar passion for clothing and it would be nice to have even more.

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IT’S TIME TO LOG OUT

There’s style in everything: books, movies, music, art, sports, etc. Literally anything. The list is huge. There’s so much beyond the internet and the explore page that feels new and refreshing. Plus, this way, you avoid liking and consuming the same thing that everyone else is—shout out to the melting algorithm that has been feeding the same thing to everyone for years. Creating this weird feeling in the air that feels like a cultural collapse.

Figuring out what you like first, before getting too deep into fashion, will actually help you figure out your style faster. Most of the time, the people that I think have a great sense of style tend to have interests and obsessions that are unique to the individual. They lean into those things and then subconsciously express themselves through the clothes they wear. On top of that, there’s a common trait between people like this and where they simply don’t care about clothes that much to begin with—that’s a bit expert level, which we’ll have to dive into later.

This is where time comes into play. You have to go out of your way to consume content that you wouldn’t normally. Explore. I’ve been trying to expand my mind a bit more by consuming more films in my free time, and I feel like it has already left a positive impact in terms of polishing my overall taste. A lot of my taste is built off skateboarding, video games, and early fashion forum culture. I lean into that now because that’s what I’ve always liked, and through those experiences, I’m able to create fashion choices that are unique to me, even though they are backed by popular subcultures.

Cure (1997) — Crazy movie with great style moments. Highly recommend this one if you haven’t seen it already.

Putting yourself through new experiences will help you better understand what you like and don’t like. This also applies to fashion. Try an item in a color you would never think of, if you can do it in person great if not, you might have to simply take that risk. You might surprise yourself because you don’t know how you might feel until you try it. Many times I’ve looked at items and said there’s no way I’d wear this, but then my opinion changed the moment I put it on—it does happen.