What makes someone look cool/edgy?

[upperdown]

I wear similar clothes to a friend, she looks cool, I look ok but a bit dull. Is it down to hairstyle? She has short funky hair, I have shoulder length.

What do you think makes someone look cool, edgy?

I'm not even sure what edgy means let alone how to be it. Can someone define edgy please? Or post a picture next to something that's not edgy so I can compare

Sometimes it’s about the person and not the outfit. I think a person can be edgy in a very classic outfit. Tilda Swinton and Chloe Sevigny are edgy to my mind - Kim Kardashian is not edgy imo.

White formal dresses

@Imabouttoexplode

Height is obviously a divisive issue. I'm 5'8 and feel like a right gallumph (size 10, so objectively know I'm not). 5'10 is hard to get right. Can be more Miranda than Giselle and can look awkward. I think 5'6 is perfect for looking cool/edgy/whatever but you're stuck with your height, so just got to go with it.

Oh I think tall definitely helps with edginess and being slim.

I'm short and fat...very very far from edgy

My sister is naturally cool. She used to pass her clothes down to me but they did not do the same for me, even in our twenties when I really should have been cool. God knows what people think of me now but I genuinely don't care. I dress how I like and feel confident.

@Imabouttoexplode

Height is obviously a divisive issue. I'm 5'8 and feel like a right gallumph (size 10, so objectively know I'm not). 5'10 is hard to get right. Can be more Miranda than Giselle and can look awkward. I think 5'6 is perfect for looking cool/edgy/whatever but you're stuck with your height, so just got to go with it.

I agree. I'm 5' 10" and even though I'm a size 8 I think the sheer tallness can make me look a bit hulking/lurching. My first/main question when choosing clothes is always do I look like Grayson Perry/Alastair Sim in St Trinians?

I have to disagree strongly with all the people saying you need to be tall and slim to look cool.

The late Zaha Hadid was quite fantastically stylish - perhaps even more so before she lost weight. My German teacher at school - whose dress size must have been in the twenties - was by a country mile the best dressed and coolest member of staff. Loads of the most self consciously edgy style magazines use plus size models who manage to look enviably stylish and at ease in their bodies.

I acknowledge that it might be easier to look elegant if tall and thin - doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t make an effort to carve out an individual way of presenting ourselves. Grooming and accessories don’t depend on dress size - and they can have a huge influence on how one looks.

Shoulder length hair can be cool, but just air dried and a bit stringy is a no, and super polished and blown out also a no - needs to look healthy but styled in a very laid back way, think beachy waves

Effortlessly chic is about oversized clothes with a great cut - the reason Kim K doesn't look 'edgy' is because she is overly polished and wears tight fitted clothes

www.stories.com/en_gbp/latest-stories/los-angeles-atelier.html

The woman in these photos is not thin. And the clothes are High St prices.

I honestly think posture has far more to do with looking cool/stylish than height or weight. No matter what size you are, your clothes will look better on you if you have decent posture.

Your just answered your own question I have some balloon trousers but I’m to afraid to wear them ! Bring edgy or cool your not afraid to wear anything u have to be comfortable and confident in your own style ! And trying to be cool or edgy won’t work u just are if u are if that makes sense ? X

Edgy outfit

Another

I don't think I'm cool or edgy or ever will be really. Too many hang ups and confidence issues. Right need to find a new look to aspire to.

Current I guess would be a good start. How can I look more current?

@Hairobsessed123

Edgy outfit

That middle one is very similar to what I'm wearing right now

@Divebar2021 thanks for those comparison pictures. Love Tilda's dress!

I would find one thing that you really love, like a pair of shoes that you like and our a bit different or a jumper you found in a charity shop that's not currently on trend, and then build an outfit around that.

I think it's about consciously rejecting any outfit that is clearly 'in' fashion. I think the clue is in the name - to be edgy you have to be on the edge of current fashion. You'll never be edgy if your entire outfit sits in the middle of whatever is the current 'in' look.

So for practical purposes, copying a really popular outfit /trend is never going to look edgy, hence veja / skinnies / gels aren't going to look edgy.

Incorporating something unexpected (or lots of unexpected items) in your outfit, and wearing whatever you put on with intention and confidence, is always going to work better because you are projecting that you have personal style (rather than just demonstrating that you can pay attention to what everyone else is wearing and then buy the same stuff). Even if others don't always love your outfit they can see that you have personal style.

Also a ballerina slouch helps with the projection of insouciant confidence. I am no good at it because it seems to involve both exceptional posture and also - somehow - a slouch in the hips, rather than a slouch in the shoulders like the rest of us mere mortals. Something to aspire to!

I may have spent way too much time thinking about this.

Putting together clothes with imagination and individuality, eg chain store, vintage, more expensive, but knowing what is enough, and an interest in fashion. Not meekly following the herd, as it were, so no defaulting to dress, denim jacket and white trainers, no matter how popular. Confidence, as others have said, a certain insouciance, and a good eye. Some people pull all that together. Most of us, probably not.

Just to be clear I'm not edgy either; it's much easier to recognise it than achieve it! As PP says you have to have the confidence to just go for it. If you can project an air of intention (ie 'i am dressing for myself and this is exactly how I want to look today') then pretty much any outfit will be a success. If you project an air of 'I wonder if I look ok' it's not going to work. And it's very hard to fake that sort of confidence!

But anyway OP I've seen your updates now and tbh I think just go and try a bunch of stuff on (charity shops, high street, wherever) and try to figure out what shapes, textures and silhouettes you enjoy wearing and feel comfortable in. Then just wear those! Looking like you are comfortable in your clothes is IMO style rule # 1, and everything gets easier from there.

I used to be edgy. Bright red mohawk, punk make-up, short skirts, heavy boots.

Now I'm fat so my look is a bit more "overstuffed pillow". If anyone knows how to be fat and cool, let me know. 👍 I'm good looking which helps, shame my body is such a disappointment.

There's really nothing wrong with being fat Eleanor. I'm sorry society has done such a number on you that you regard your body as a disappointment. There is no moral superiority in being thin, and no moral failing in being fat.

What it does mean of course is your clothes fit differently now, like with any shape change, and so you need to go back to basics again and try on a bunch of different stuff to find out what you feel comfortable in (ie to move, sit, stand, etc), and start your style from there.

I hope you can find your mojo again. Everyone changes shape throughout their lives, whether from simply ageing, illness, pregnancy, all sorts of reasons. Your body is absolutely nothing to be disappointed in.

The coolest person I have met recently just really owned her style, while she looked like something off Instagram she wore the clothes and not the other way round. I don't think she was wearing varnish, definitely not wearing white trainers and hair was tousled.

Actually, I got the impression she would look good in a bin bag she gave off such a self assured vibe. I have also since found out she lives in one of the coolest houses in Britain!

@EleanorDeCleaner

I used to be edgy. Bright red mohawk, punk make-up, short skirts, heavy boots.

Now I'm fat so my look is a bit more "overstuffed pillow". If anyone knows how to be fat and cool, let me know. 👍 I'm good looking which helps, shame my body is such a disappointment.

We have been watching Euphoria and I am in love with Barbie Ferreira. She’s much younger than me (I’m 41) but she’s made me realise how stunning and edgy being plus sized can be (as I am), it’s made me feel a lot more confident about my size seeing some of the looks she pulls off.