"What is Personal Style, Really?" - Topic of the day 5/9/25
Fashion: Canada asked this but so are we: what is personal style, really? How important is having a personal style to you, and how important is it for your style to be unique or distinct?
fashioncanada
We’re all obsessed with the concept of individuality—but in 2025, what does it even mean?
In FASHION’s #PersonalStyle edit, we question conformity, celebrate the weird world of niche fragrances and dive deep into how sartorial stereotypes can hinder you from finding your style identity. Swipe to discover the stories and hit the link in bi...
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Maybe im generalizing,
but i feel theres definitely been an over emphasis on being truly unique and original in the past few years
I definitely have felt that way because im lacking a definite meaning / higher purpose in my life and fashion really fills that hole for me for the meantime.
Im glad its being more pivoted away from because at the end of the day your “personal style” should be the things you wear the most often and what you find the most comfortable
If that happens to be super eccentric styling with crazy sillouettes all the more power to you personally, but theres this weird drive to “stand out” that really sours this whole thing for me
It should take time, and a lot of mistakes to find what makes you, you. Wardrobe and all
imo there's an oversaturation of the "death of personal style" happening in a lot of fashion spaces & across editorials rn that i think is kinda cringe and boring.
ill give more thoughts later but it's just like. idk annoying ig lmao.
Its more annoying to see people complain about personal style than anything tbh but its a fun topic imo
so many of those convos are ultimately "people are dressing like my least favorite online community/age range/cultural group and its bad and cheap" and its never a compelling argument imo
All style is socialized, everyone is taking cues from something else. Its how what youre wearing interacts with you and your personhood, as well as how skilled you are as a stylist to yourself that makes style “personal”
great question, in this essay I will
I feel like a lot of the emphasis on personal style comes from people really liking it when they get asked "holy shit that's sick where is it from" and they get to either 1. Gatekeep or 2. Go "this really niche designer I like named x"
But that could be a bad take idk
Everyone wants to be unique
Thats why i just like to boil it down to “what makes you comfortable and what is fun for you”
Because alot of it is like you said, just hating on sub communities
Nah i agree i swear this shit has to have stemmed from those fit pricing videos in the peak supreme days
Longing for the day I get to blow a tiktok slop maker's mind with my niche clothing selection
Hitting a 16 yr old child with “this is a yoko sakamoto persimmon dyed denim jacket” is gonna give me such a dopamine rush
personal style is so cool and very important but it’s also not necessary for everyone on the planet. Some people were made to have general style and that’s very okay. I can appreciate people who look well put together wearing basics and trendy clothes while also appreciating people who have carved out their own specific style
like recently there have been some slop creators posting shit like "personal style, you mean when boys where big pants and little shirts and loafers?" as if style guides havent been a thing since the first ocbd was created in a cave somewhere like
No shit, people create styles together and socialize them and iterate on them and nothing is ever truly new shutup
i think we can also be led to think that individuality is being dramatically different
when it comes to personal style i just have to give a nod to heckle and calla
so very excited and inspired whenever they post anything
What’s that meme where personal style is just a Detroit jacket, carpenter pants, ironic tee and trucker hat
Personal style be what u wearin
Just put stuff on
feels like personal style is becoming less important with each passing day
might be speaking with like 10 years of interest in fashion but
I would agree with this
it's easier to signal "i like fashion" these days than "i have a unique style"
Fuck gonna have to make another plaque commemorating this
and the ever-accelerating commodification of authenticity in fashion kinda degrades that sense that what someone is wearing is unique to them
to answer the prompt, i do think personal style is important but getting less important all the time
social media in recent years has made me aware of the fact that I‘m not as unique as I thought I was and I‘m currently figuring out how to work with that ngl
But I think personal style can‘t exist without the influence of other people either
Following this because I don’t think I can be further from understanding what personal style is supposed to be, like even just in literal definition. When people use it now are they talking about dressing in a way that seems to flout trends? Or does it just mean, “the way in which someone dresses?”
(Read the IG post and a couple articles from their site, but I honestly don’t get exactly what they’re trying to define.) I also don’t follow any other social media so I never know what’s happening lol
What would an absence of personal style be? Dressing like shit? Or someone who constantly changes the way they dress?
I think there’s no such thing as a pure absence, more like a lot or a little personal touch
like i would consider myself closer to the lower end of the spectrum, not really having much identification of style other than jorts lmao
Moreso the latter, but there's this ineffable synergy that "good personal style" encapsulates when someone's clothing, accessories work well with their body and lifestyle. it's a "you know it when you see it" type thing that's hard to define.
personal style isn't typically a binary thing and usually ranges from terrible to incredible with most folks landing somewhere in the fine range if they don't put concerted effort into the way they dress
You can't really have an absence of style, it's the clothing you wear yes but also the way you view the world. Style is a fundamental sensibility that informs your taste in different things everyone has some amount of it.
Gotcha. Saying someone is stylish is the same thing? I didn’t know if “personal style” evolved into some distinct meaning online
saying someone is stylish implies they have good style
right now there's this conflict over whether personal style means unique or fitting for that specific person, which is what this thread is kind of about
can you have good personal style and look the same as everyone else? can you look unique in an era where everyone is copying everyone else?
No. Yes.
I think personal style has a different definition to everyone and people writing articles about it are arguing about semantics
To me, it doesn’t have to be unique but something you find personal to you. If you like OCBDs and raws and dress that way, it’s personal to yourself, just like wearing darkwear is personal to yourself if you choose to wear that
I like this take the best
You might be into fashion for a decade and return to being t-shirt and jeans guy
I chased personal style for a v long time but I recently realized I'd rather be a style shapeshifter and dress in 5 different styles equally badly
Personal style is only cool when it is executed effortlessly and unconsciously and becomes cringe the second you refer to it as an intentional part of your oeuvre
Since the beginning of time it is written, trying too hard isnt cool.
ya it's gotta be "I like weird shit" and not "no one else has this"
:doublehomer:
Social media is a cancer, you are unique and special. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Style is art imo, everything is a remix of something
That‘s really kind, thank you!
Means a lot
My intent with my personal style is to try and present aspects of myself through a visual medium since I don't really have another creative outlet. The wardrobe I have in question is one that I can hopefully draw on each day for when I choose to express a different aspect of self
This is also very true, some people have generic style and that’s ok too. Not everyone has to be dressed to the nines 24/7
I agree with this, when I'm wearing an old sonic youth tee and raw denim I feel like that's my most personal style. Is it unique? No, but it doesn't have to be
Maybe it's also just stuff that I have worn for a really long time so they feel really "me"
the way I see it everyone has personal style even when it's not very showing,
It's at the very least a mix of personal taste on the most basic level ("red is my favorite color" "I like the way this texture feels"), experiences, luck (finding X item on clearance and X item at the thrift), interests, reference groups as well as practical choices driven by your lifestyle
Imo you still have personal style even if you identify with a popular style strongly and follow it, your person will always show in some subtle ways
Even in the least fashion forward folks who just dress because they have to, there's some part that tells a story
It's just expression of your personality, some people find joy and expression in more common styles and others find it in very eccentric/niche styles. As long as they find that fulfillment and joy in it, then it's the same end result.
i get why there's such a focus on it lately, both in theory (wanting to be unique, wanting a nice neat label for things in life) and on a practical level (content creators both wanting content and to be seen as original)
i think the journey to finding personal style is a subset of the journey of self-acceptance (of what one values, finds inspiring, etc.) and that's one that's rarely neat and orderly and academic, as much as people try to argue otherwise.
i think it's no coincidence that people perceived to be stylish or have good style usually aren't fixated on their clothes; they're living their lives, and wearing/figuring out what clothes best suit that
personal style is when I decide to wear tabis
if i wear tabis is that personal style
eg
The whole discourse around people not having personal style tends to hit the same gotcha as “timeless” did. It feels mostly pedantic at this point and not very interesting to me.
I v much agree with Sal’s point above that it’s b easy to signal that you’re Into Fashion than that you’re unique. One of social media’s favorite pastimes is pointless taxonomy so if you spend even a little time online you’ll end up cursed with a mental map that includes every type of guy mapped onto every kind of shoe or some shit
No its when I wear tabis not when you wear tabis