Today I'm walking you through an incredibly simple to-minute process that will get you
crystal clear about your personal style.
Happy Saturday everyone.
I am so excited to be back.
For those of you who haven't met me yet, I'm Lesley Elizabeth, a personal stylist and a
virtual stylist.
You can learn more about me at workinglook.com.
Today I'm going to walk you through a process for defining your personal style.
This is something always take a moment to do with my personal clients and you can use
this video as the do-it-yourself version in this new series that I'm launching to develop
your personal style.
So the first step is to get clear about your vision.
Now often in life we know that, we recognize that our current style isn't working for us
anymore.
We know that we need a change.
Whether it's a pragmatic change - we have a new kind of job, we're going on mat leave,
we're getting back into the career force.
And sometimes it's just an internal shift.
You can feel yourself evolving, or transitioning in some way and the clothes that you're reaching
for in your closet just no longer seem congruent with the woman you're becoming.
When we feel this way - and we all feel this way from time to time - it gets very tempting
to just keep shopping.
It feels like the solution is always one "it bag"away, one new dress away and the compulsion
to shop is very strong.
BUt if you find yourself in a perpetual cycle, where you keep having this compulsive need
to buy something new in order to feel like your authentic self than you need to stop,
watch this video and do the exercise, because it can become a case of when you don't know
what you're looking for, it's impossible to find it.
You always, ALWAYS need to start with the vision.
I call the first part of this step defining your style objective.
Clothes are tools.
Style is a tool.
We use it to have some affect in our life or on our cognition.
So finish the sentence "in these clothes, I will ...". In your new clothes, in your
new style, "in these new clothes, I will ..." And then, write down a few actions, like "I will
step up at work", "I will get my dream job", "I will present with pride", whatever the
case may be.
It could be something much more personal and subtle.
It could be "in these clothes, I will play with my kids."
I mean, that's a beautiful goal and you need to dress for that part of your life too.
Now that we have a clear style objective, I want you to write down 6-10 adjectives that
explain how you feel in these new clothes.
In our earlier example, we talked about somebody who wants to feel confident going for their
dream job, presenting.
Their adjectives might be confident, professional, innovative, creative, leader-like, as the
case may be.
These should be adjectives that are also authentic to you.
You're describing yourself, it's just that it's your emerging self.
So it's authentic, it's real, it's just that you want to be more of these things.
Let's take the example of a woman who's been a freelancer and stay-at-home-mother for the
last, we'll say, decade, and now she's re-entering a more formal work environment.
Her style objective might be to feel confident in the corporate sphere while expressing her
unique creative edge.
So she wants to fit in, in the corporate world, but she also wants to maintain some of what
she's learned, some of what she's been so passionate about in her 10 year journey as
a freelancer.
Her key words, adjectives that she wants to feel in her new clothes ... confident, professional,
creative, innovative, experiential, fearless, fun.
These could all be what she's trying to achieve from her new work wardrobe.
Now once you have that list of adjectives, I want you to distill all of those adjectives
down to two or three words that will then become the name of your style vibe.
So this is how we're defining our style.
In the case of our former freelancer, she may come up with the terms ... she looks at
everything together and she's like "okay, what two words best encapsulate what I was
getting at with that list?"
She comes up with the term "creative professional".
She wants to be an equal blend of creative, free spirit, freelancer with professional,
appropriate, corporate, get-it, fits in, let's do this - right?
So creative professional then becomes her style vibe, her style vision and her guiding
words.
So when she's out shopping with her key defining words and she falls in love with a boho maxi
dress, let's say, she could ask herself, 'okay, I do like this but is this creative professional?"
Probably not.
Same if she were to see a Carrie Bradshaw inspired pink, tulle skirt.
It's cute, but is it "creative professional"?
Not so much.
Instead, when she falls in love with a bold floral blazer, or high waisted pants and a
really bold shirt with a decorative pussy bow, items like that, she'll pick them up
and she'll say, "is this creative professional?
Yeah."
That is how your style vibe words help you stay focused.
In a future video, I'll take you through the next step in this process, which is identifying
your style totems.
Style totems are like a cheat sheet to stay focused on your style vibe and find great
outfits quickly.
So subscribe or stay tuned for that.
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