Interested to see if there are ‘types’ of people around clothes

[AlertCat]

Just seen a lovely wardrobe with lots of similar items that the owner wears all the time.

I also know several people who always have the same haircut in terms of shape, if not a few inches longer or shorter.

i on the other hand struggle to stick to a haircut for more than a year, i will love an item of clothing and wear it all the time- for a while- but hesitate and very rarely get two or more of very similar items (unless by mistake, having forgotten I had one!). I have some constants, like jeans, but can vary wildly in ‘look’ from hippy to smart to sporty to preppy…

I am wondering if some people know what they like and what suits them, and they stick to that, while others either can’t commit to a particular look for any length of time or for other reasons are style chameleons? Is it deep enough to link to attachment styles or something? 😅

Im trying to work it out after years of wearing uniforms at work and jeans and teashirts at home.
I know I just don't do blazers and very smart clothes, the ones I bought when I lost all the weight have just lingered at the back of the wardrobe unworn.
Im just concentrating on really good quality casuals in lovely colours that will last years and a couple of nice dresses.

I think my overall style is fairly constant but I add/remove as seasons and fashions change. I aim for a capsule wardrobe and good quality but also love shopping way too much so do have a relatively high turnover (I’m working on this). When I find a colour/fit/brand that works I’m very loyal to it (same with my hair!)

Some people have a signature look or a signature perfume and don't deviate from it. At certain points it can make you look "dated" until the fashion cycle turns around again and you now look vintage or alternative.

I think having one particular image of yourself can run into difficulties at certain times of life - post-baby or the onset of menopause. Your body can go through massive changes and you may feel that you have to reinvent yourself. It can be difficult to hold onto a particular look if all your clothes fit differently or make you feel uncomfortable.

Personally I like the opportunity to reinvent myself depending on the day or circumstances. One day I'm in tight lycra on a long-distance bike ride, the next I'm in a Dries van Noten coat at the opera. I'm still me throughout.

I think women tend towards a theme - neat and tidy, couldn’t care less, a bit creative etc. etc
So they will all wear gym wear say, but one will wear whatever the latest version is, one has leggings and a t shirt and one will be in 80’s leg warmers and some random layers.

There are probably many reasons to stick with a signature style. Knowing what suits you and makes you feel confident, also it's probably cheaper and easier to mix and match things.

Not something I could pull off though. Whilst I do have a few more classic or athleisure outfits I also have a ton of retro, boho, dark academia, cottage core, goth, vintage and dopamine/giant toddler outfits!
I dress for my mood more then anything.

This is how I feel!

I’m a mood dresser too! Or perhaps an event dresser.

I like lots of different looks, so will buy an item I love then find ways to wear it.

I can get very into a specific look and sometimes I stick with it for years. Eventually though I get bored. It’s just starting to happen now with wide leg and barrel leg trousers but I’ve been wearing them since the summer of the Brexit vote which makes it 9 years(!) so I don’t feel too guilty. Before that I wore nothing but tube skirts and loose fitting tops for a while. Before that I was all boho. And so on. I do keep things and sometimes come back to them years later but there are too many good clothes to commit to one style forever.

There’s probably an overarching theme to what I like but I don’t know what it is.

Hair though - I’ve had pretty much the same style since I was 18. It’s not entirely out of choice but my hair is very wilful and I am very lazy. Whenever I’ve tried to change it I’ve always given up, and now I refuse to waste any more of my life fighting it so I just ask my hairdresser to tweak it every so often so it looks reasonably current.

I did a style analysis a few years back, and one of the outcomes was defining your ‘style personality’, It made me realise I have two main looks. Also, that there was no point trying to dress a certain way, because that wasn’t me.

My hairstyle doesn’t change much though.

I only tend to throw clothes out when they’re worn out so do tend to accumulate them.

I've had the same shape hair for 30 years, albeit short,shorter and medium length. I do ring the changes with the colour though.

My look is mainly one of convenience. I realised the other day I'd had a few tops get holes and need replacing. But I hate shopping so will only pick something up from the few shops I will be walking past anyway which means it's Bon Marché, Edinburgh Woollen Mill or Sainsbury's.

Sounds like you might be interested in checking out Kibbe - it’s a system to work out what styles suit you according to body shape and facial features.
Since I did it, probably a decade ago, I have a much better wardrobe and know exactly what suits me.
If you add to that your colour season, it’s hard to go wrong.

So I’m a Soft Autumn Soft Dramatic. So I suit warm muted shades (deep rose, dusky blue, chocolate, warm cream etc) and long line clothes that drape and wrap in tactile fabrics like satin, silk, velvet, wool.

I do deviate from colours to mix things up - for example I got the most gorgeous deep lilac midi dress for my holiday - not my colour but so what, I love it and the style is still SD so it works.

Also to avoid looking dated, I do try to add a more current item in every season. So this summer, I’ve added some cropped trench jackets. They are definitely not SD as it’s all about long lines but again, I don’t stick that rigidly to it but it’s a great framework to play with.

I’m an event dresser - I like to be a (I hope) somewhat stylish chameleon.

so if I’m at the beach I’ll have a beach dress and sandals and a slightly bashed up fedora and probably lots of jangly bracelets, but if I’m at Cheltenham I’ll be slightly tweedy with boots and at at work I’ll be in tailored trousers and a silk blouse etc etc.

i think if you put my outfits together they have some similarities - I’m told I accessorise well, but you wouldn’t necessarily know they belong to one person - I’m never going to be a capsule wardrobe person

Attachment styles? Well … I have deep rooted abandonment issues - maybe that’s why I’m so stupidly obsessed with clothes; because they’re more reliable and provide greater long term comfort and companionship than people? 😂

I don’t give a fig for Kibbe, or colour charts, or my (sadly, but hopefully temporarily expanded) waist measurement. I’m much more influenced by which aspect of my life is taking priority. For the last decade or so my wardrobe has been divided between ‘Dries van Noten at the opera’, and stuff that doesn’t matter (Zara / Uniqlo) for home and local pottering. There was a significant geographical and social gap between the two. Now, having recently moved back to a city where I’m in the thick of things every day, I’ve been finding my existing wardrobe doesn’t meet the brief. My ‘home clothes’ are too shabby and insubstantial, and my London arts scene wardrobe is way too fancy for everyday life.

There’s a very nice branch of Toast on the High St, which I used to enjoy visiting, when I was just visiting - and I had anticipated that I might ‘settle’ for a bit of Toast for my new life. But (apart from a beautiful men’s coat) I Just Can’t. I’m not that person.

Instead, I’m waiting for my third delivery in a couple of weeks from the Margaret Howell sale. After all the years when they frustrated me by not providing things for my glamorous, colourful, velvet swathed junketing about - suddenly the drab colours and indescribably perfect seam sewing are exactly hitting the spot.

🤷‍♀️

(NB - it’s mostly MHL, and hardly more costly than the upper end of Zara!)

Ooh what have you got in the Margaret Howell sale @Faineante? I'm trying to stay away.

Sorry for derail. I've tried to do Kibbe but couldn't get past the quiz. I think that, if I have a style type - and I'm not sure I do - it's possibly a bit Mitford sister adjacent. I'm talking about the tweedy glamour, not the fascist lover! Or the country pile.

My hair has always been changeable, but within a specific range or criteria - it has to be easy and something i can achieve myself. As for my clothes, I used to change my look at last twice a year, and I liked that, but then one year I landed on a style that's stuck, and I like that. I no longer randomly and frequently go clothes shopping, so that's a bonus!

I would call my style a bit eclectic; it's always been eclectic - I only adjust variations as I grow older. As for my hair, don't ask. I used to experiment, but now I just keep it dull (dull for my taste).

In an ideal world it should be a case of finding your own, individual, style and what suits you, then adapting it to the stage you are at in life.
I prefer a smart, classic look and gave up jeans aged 50, which I am very glad about. These days I tend to stick to smart trousers and tops/cashmere according to the season, with the appropriate footwear. I absolutely hate the trend for trainers with everything, especially white ones, but that is just me. Trainers are for long walks or the gym.
Obviously there are events I attend, where a slightly more "formal" look is required, but I find dressing each day as if I am going out to lunch is generally a good rule.

I don’t give a fig for Kibbe, or colour charts,

I'd never heard of Kibbe until a couple of years ago but the quiz for it and the colours quizzes just make no sense - it seems very limiting.

I've had various hairstyles and longest was a very well cut , short bob. I can't be bothered with styling mousses and blow drying so it was so well cut it could just be washed and left to dry on its own. I grew it out during Covid and it's now just past shoulder length- worn up / down/ scrunchies/ Alice bands.

Style wise I've always loved Laura Ashley (in its hay day) and following on from that generally anything dramatic and swishy which does extend to Low Country, Scandinavian and Japanese wunderkinds.

I think Kibbe is a massive perv and his "types" are male gaze, Pygmalion-esque cobblers.

There are definitely some colours I am drawn to, and they do seem to "lift" me more than others, but I'm not hard and fast on only wearing them. I think colours may be as much about personality as they are about skin tone and eye colour. Pastels—which can look so pretty on some people—just look naff on me, but I'm not pretty, in either looks or personality.

I tend to live in some variation on a theme of wide-leg trousers and a shirt (or just a crop top when it's too darn hot, like today), with an emphasis on variation—I wear them in loads of different ways, and have some beautiful, interesting shirts.

Can't be bothered styling my hair (it never holds anyway), so I have it cut in a simple, chin length bob which dries nicely without intervention.

My ‘problem’ is that some days I want to wear locks and dungarees from Gringo; some days I want my hair scalp-short; sometimes I want jeans but a long sequinned cardigan. And some days nothing feels right at all. Then I end up with a real mish-mash of things and I feel self conscious about wearing some of them so I just wear jeans and a jumper and look ordinary and boring!

I’d love to have a signature style but I haven’t settled on one yet and I’m probably over halfway through my life 😂

@IHaveAlwaysLivedintheCastle

I love browsing images of vintage Laura Ashley catalogues. It's not my style of dress at all, but the clothes and styling are so beautiful, and very nostalgic for me. In the 80s, my mum decorated our entire house with the most gorgeous Laura Ashley wallpapers and curtains. I have some vintage Laura Ashley home decoration books and just love that Neo-Victorian country style. If I still lived in the UK my whole house would be like this (and my husband, who hates wallpaper, would have to move out).

I certainly have far too many clothes partly because I can't commit to one style and partly because something I think looks great on will suddenly decide to look terrible and vice versa.

I did try the kibbe thing and apparently my body shape doesn't correspond to any of the types which tbh made me feel briefly quite shit.

I think there's always been an element of theatricality, even cos play for me. I've been a Laura Ashley milkmaid, a Hardy heroine, an Edith Wharton heroine, a JCB Cadell's lady in a black hat maybe even a Victorian madwoman. I've done Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn too.

I suppose it's very "look at me". I want to be the person in the room everyone notices - but it's the clothes I want noticed- not the "fabulous figure" or the "that suits your colour" type of noticing.