Can you be truest stylish without professional help?

[HotSaltyWater]

Question inspired by watching makeover programs and watching a documentary on Adele…

Can ever achieve the same well thought through, “expensive” looks without enormous budget and professional help?

And how to you acquire stylist’s eye without professional training \ Fashion degree?

I think liking fashion helps.
People say I am stylish
It helps to like fashion.
I “people watch” a lot.
Look at Pinterest.
Try not to be too “matchy matchy “
I mix it up… I think the French have a saying which means “ I little bit imperfect” whichI like
Read books about fashion and house furnishing.
Read the fashion pages of newspapers
Read Mumsnet “ Style and beauty”!
I don’t try emulate anybody.
I don’t wear a lot makeup.. sweep eyeshadow, brow pencil, a bright lipstick. I never contour, do false eyelashes … your personality has to shine through otherwise you look like a characteur of someone else.
I would start looking at Capsule wardrobes… like Project 33.
Get a great haircut that suits
Look after your teeth … don’t need veneers of whitening unless badly stained or very wonky.

It might sound boring but decide which shop suits the look you're after and then buy everything on the mannequin head to toe. Unless you're under 25, I'd just go to Jigsaw, Reiss or White Company, places like that.

It is technically professional help since the company's best stylist has decided what would go in the shop window, but it's free

The professional help that you're most likely to want is a tailor, unless you're skilled in tailoring yourself.

Of course you can. Many people look stylish without any help, just a good idea of what suits them.

I don’t rate a lot of the stylists on TV or in magazines anyway - some of the outfits they come up with are just awful. Mismatched, unflattering, unwearable and in no way stylish. But having said that, taste is very subjective, which is probably a good thing. It would be quite dull if everyone dressed the same or mindlessly followed so called experts/stylists.

Yes, I don't think you need a degree or to be a 'professional' to have style. I can think of so-called stylists who are on TV and have written books about the topic and they look a mess, quite honestly. They wear the same sort of clothes that generally don't suit them. I wouldn't listen to their advice.

If you don’t have style but have a big budget or someone professional to help then you can look better, much better, but true style is innate and follows no particular set of rules. It’s also nothing to do with fashion. A good wardrobe & a fashionable one aren’t one and the same.

If you have a very stylish friend and try to emulate them it will be very clear who is copying who. you either have it or you don’t.

Conversely, all the stylish people I know just wear what they like and aren’t ever thinking about anyone else’s opinions or formulas etc so really, that’s the key.

Life is short & there’s only one of you. Wear what you want,

The people whose style I admire when people watching aren’t likely to have paid for a stylist and I am not sure how expensive the clothes are either however what it is that makes them stylish for me is the way they have put their outfits together, the accessories they have used and the styling touches. It also sometimes compares out of comparing what I am wearing at the moment to what they are wearing. I disagree with buying the items that are on the mannequin because I think the way clothes are styled is for commercial purposes and also can be ‘safe’ and that leads to outfits being staid and boring.

I suspect not if my last trip into town was anything to go by. Black puffer jackets everywhere.

I think we’re getting like the Americans where as long as they’re not naked they’re happy & style isn’t even a consideration.

I think it's possible, and also subjective. It depends what you mean by 'stylish'- I think being stylish includes how you carry yourself, and what you accessorise with as well as putting an individual spin on your outfit/ hair etc. It takes effort, and a good eye, which can be learnt. To me, it doesn't mean being on trend but more, having sought out your own style of things that suit you and bring out your personality and uniqueness.

Time and money certainly helps! Classic or quriky/unusual styles look the most stylish I think. I think the ‘on trend’ can look a bit generic and copy paste.

I think it’s true that a lot of money and a bit of professional help can give you a very groomed and polished look, so you take an average person and move them up a few notches and there’s a certain stylishness to that. But plenty of women look stylish on their own.

One thing that helps is having a body that fits easily into clothes. If you’re average height and your proportions are typical, it’s easy to put outfits together.

But if you have long arms you have to think about sleeve length, and that top with the perfect sleeve length doesn’t go with those trousers because of the colour, so your options are limited. Add in a large bust and narrow hips (for example), and it gets much harder to put things together in new ways. And body proportions can’t be fixed with money except, occasionally, via plastic surgery.

I always think it’s quite interesting when you take a good looking person who then becomes ‘famous’- young actress who hits the big time, tv presenter who becomes a household name, pretty but ungroomed girl band who win big tv talent show. Within a couple of years they will look like the best possible version of themselves they ever could do - thanks to nips, tucks, lasers, extensions, tens of thousands of dentistry, stylists, food services and boot camps (where you basically hike, workout and starve, sorry, ‘cleanse’) wardrobe managers, PRs.

Before you say ‘oh that’s not true’ I have worked in media for years, have been under nda to celebs, have friends who are sleb agents and sleb pr.

Im not saying this to criticise them, I am interested and I have a lot of sympathy. They face endless pressure of wondering if they just would have made that new show, the big platform, the big six,seven or even eight figure deal, if they were ten pound lighter or had a straighter nose. Huge amounts of money are at stake in possible earnings. Also, the pressure of constant online criticism is really very harsh - some could easily slough it off and those are usually the people who are successful for decades. Others are crushed.

Back to people who are stylish in real life… I can think of two who I’ve known since childhood who really always get it ‘right’ in their own way. One is in the business I just mentioned and has an innate instinct for knowing what’s coming in and what will work. Over 30 years I’ve been like ‘skinny jeans? Surely not’ ‘khaki parkas? Surely not’ ‘mom jeans? Surely not’ (I am very average!) she is ALWAYS right and a year ahead of something being insanely on trend and two years ahead of it being ubiquitous. The other one is very beautiful and very artistic and just has a bonkers style that looks amazing on her.