Topic of Discussion: Personal Style?

Saturday, February 20, 2010



Personal style is always hard to define. What do you compare yourself to when being asked about your personal style? If you don't always have the same look every day how do you describe your personal style when put on the spot? Usually I can only manage to say that I like bright colors and head pieces and reference a few people I admire. I have never been able to give an accurate, in depth description.  Sometimes I even question whether I have a personal style. I mean I certainly do know what I will not wear but, I can never manage to get a good handle on exactly what I will wear when being asked.


My possible reasons for being stumped about my personal style are:


1.) Maybe there are not enough options. We all know that plus size clothing options are limited so, how can you accurately express your personal style when you don't feel like you have all the right resources?


2.) Impulse buying. Sometimes you can find your self just buying things because at the time they look cute but, later on you think,"why did I buy this?" Still though, you're stuck with it and since you brought it you feel obligated to wear it. The problem is when you do you may not feel like you're expressing your self accurately.


3.) Somethings are just simply undefinable. If you're rocking a bright pink dress with leather studded wedges one day and then a peach t-shirt dress with a pair of flats the next how do you define your personal style them? Does this sometimes make you feel like you have no personal style?


4.) A lack of prominent plus size fashion Icons. While there are many straight size fashion icons that we all take queues from,  that inspire us, and that we rate as fashion icons wouldn't it be great to be able to compare your self to a plus size icon other then the obvious choice of Beth Ditto. There are a few more plus size ladies out there with iconic style but, how many of them are know as well as Beth Ditto? I mean don't get me wrong I love her and she is certainly on my list of icons but, I'm just saying wouldn't it be a lot easier to reference your personal style if you had more people that looked like you to reference? Maybe, maybe not. I'm just tossing out ideas here.


So this weeks topic of discussion is: How do you define your personal style when you are asked? Is it hard because you are plus size or just hard in general?

4 comments:

L said...

I think it's both, its hard to define and there is a limited amount of plus size fashion.
The amount of times I've walked down the street only to find another plus size girl wearing almost the same thing as me, and we look at each other and know automatically where we shopped! With straight sized stores, tere is a variety, and I think its only fair that we get the same.

On the other hand, personal style is hard to define. We're not celebrities so we don't have personal stylists dressing us in a certain way. There are days where I want to dress classy, and the next day tribal or folk. Personally for me it depends on the day, how I am feeling, that is a main factor of my style.

But I would have to say my style is just me lol, chic, fashionable, and spontaneous :)

L said...

There**

vc said...

Personal style for me is one of those things that I will forever in my lifetime try to achieve. Since I have been blogging about fashion I have come to realize that my style has evolved through the years as I get older. I don't like to define my style and say its one style in particular like preppy, rocker or boho for example. I love so many different style of fashion, it all depends on my mood at the time. I like to wear what I like and what looks good. Sometimes I go through phases where I am more into one style then I change to another depending on the season. So if I am asked that questions what's my personal style I may have a different answer depending when you ask me. As far as having plus size style role models, there is a big gap that needs to be filled. That's where I think "we" bloggers come in, I have never really been one to idolize celebrities, but I do take inspirations from the ones that style I admire. I think in the past year I have had more inspiration from my fellow fatshionista than any one else in regards to style.

The Lone Gofio said...

Great topic for discussion, and it's not just you; I feel the EXACT same way! I never know HOW to define my style, but overall I think that's a good thing. In a perfect world if everything I wanted came in my size and I had the resources to buy it, my "personal style" would be a lot easier to achieve but would STILL be undefinable. I think in general whether we're size 4's or 24's style is difficult to define on our own terms (we are our own worst critics); I've found it's much easier to ASK OTHERS how they perceive us, and have that serve some introspective purpose. If you can define it, it generally falls into a black or white box "conservative, edgy, preppy", and imo that's worse than having no answer XP.