Personal Style: The TWO-WORD METHOD

Approx. 950 words

3 mental “spoons” per hour required to read, understand, and put into practice

Written by Julie Goodie

Personal style is one of the most immediate ways you can show the world who you truly are even before a word is spoken, even before a handshake is given.

If the way you dress is in alignment with who you really are on the inside and out, your clothes can start working for you the minute you enter a room. The way you show up in your clothes, whether it’s playful, soft, edgy, polished, or other says a lot about you as a person. Whether you like it or not!!!

When you get more intentional about the way you dress, when you start giving it a little more thought, you start feeling more confident and at ease with yourself and in your clothes. You start feeling more like yourself and not like you’re putting on a costume, like you’re an actor putting on a show.

When you start dressing authentically, after having taken the time to discover your own unique personal style, then your wardrobe starts feeling like a true extension of YOU!!!

Plus, showing up in the world as your true self can help you in so many ways from making new friends that you can relate with, to securing that job that truly fits your personality and unique set of skills.

Personal Style: The TWO-WORD METHOD

In interior design, it’s common practice to summarize a person’s decorating style using just one or two words. While using only one word is truly the simplest method there is, it can quickly become constraining, reductive, and quite impersonal. If only a single word is used, someone’s farmhouse decorating style, for example, can end up looking just like everyone else’s farmhouse decorating style. Quite generic.

Of course, interior designers are very well aware of this, so they often add a second descriptor to someone’s main decorating style to add a bit of flavor, to add a bit more of a personal touch. Like, for example, they will add either of the following words to someone’s farmhouse style to make it a bit more unique to them: modern, traditional, minimalist, eclectic, glam,...

Now, when it comes to developing your personal fashion style, know that the same can be done. That you can use just two style words to summarize your style. That two words are more than enough to make all your outfits feel like your own.

When you start playing with more than two words to define your personal style, know that you run the risk of your words starting to contradict themselves or becoming maybe just a tad repetitive.

OK. So, two words sounds like a plan!!! But how??? How do you select your two words???

Well… We are all a mix of who we are on the inside and what we look like on the outside. We all have an inner essence: a unique spirit, a unique personality. Plus, we all have a unique outer appearance: a unique body, a unique face, and a unique way of moving through and interacting with the world around us.

Thus, a good method for selecting your two style words is to make sure you choose one word for each of the following:

1. One that describes your INNER ESSENCE: one word or adjective that describes your personality (what makes you stand out from the rest);

2. One that describes your OUTER APPEARANCE: one word or adjective that describes what makes your body, face, and/or movement unique to you.

To find your first style word, take the time to reflect on your inner essence. Which words come to mind when thinking about what makes you unique – personality wise?

Next, take a look at your worksheet and its first table entitled “YOUR INNER ESSENCE”. Then, work through the following steps:

1. Determine which of the four columns of words represents you best;

2. Choose one word from that column (or another word of your choosing) to summarize your inner essence;

3. Write your first style word in the table at the bottom of your worksheet;

4. Define your first style word (what does it mean to you).

Subsequently, repeat the same steps as above with the second table entitled “YOUR OUTER APPEARANCE”.

Now that you have your two style words, take a look in your closet to check if it contains shoes, accessories, and clothing that are in alignment with your personal style.

Does everything in there fit YOU? Or is there still some work to be done?

Once you have your two style words, they become your guide for everything wardrobe related:

• They help you make decisions when getting dressed in the morning;

• They help you to focus when out shopping;

• They help you determine which shoes, accessories and clothing pieces to keep in stock that will allow you to create just enough outfits for all your fun (and maybe not so fun but necessary) activities.

When you limit the number of things you allow in your closet, you end up creating what’s called a capsule wardrobe or a small and curated collection of clothing items and accessories that permit you to put together a sufficient number of outfits to cover all of the occasions that come up in YOUR life.

If you’ve never created a capsule wardrobe for yourself, and would like to learn how, or even if you’re already an expert on the subject, you will find in the next 3 articles a unique and simple way to create new capsule wardrobes every season that starts from the ground up with:

1. SHOES FIRST;

2. ACCESSORIES SECOND;

3. And OUTFITS LAST.

Here’s to hoping that all I’m sharing with you here and in what follows will help you on your journey… Enjoy!!!