What Does It Mean To Have Style?

Trendy clothes are a double-edged sword for me. I want the funky patterned denim, the crazy rings, and the platform boots! I want to look straight out of a Pinterest board! On the flip side, however, I have become keenly aware that the clothes I like now and that are popular now will be obsolete eventually. 

I have to ask myself, are these influencers and fashion bloggers really fashionable or do they just have access to the hottest new trends? 

And then I wonder, what does it even mean to have style?

Is the one with style the one with many polished and great-fitting basic pieces? Or are they simply boring, lacking any originality? 

Is the one with style completely unique from everyone else? Because in my eyes that’s an impossible feat. No one is entirely original.

Is it really just being trendy? I thought that style was timeless and true. Maybe I don’t know myself enough to know what I really like. 

Lately, I’ve been looking at the majority of the pieces in my closet and thinking, “This isn’t me. I hate these jeans, why did I ever buy them?” The issue is that when I bought them I liked them, but now (coincidentally as they move out of fashion) I begin to dislike them.

Then I remember my Pinterest board from when I was younger… the galaxy print, the high low dresses… I literally thought crackle nail polish was so cool and amazing—how can I ever trust myself?!  

Perhaps this is all to say that I lack individual choice and my taste is easily bought and manufactured by ads and TikTok fashion videos- but this is the fashion industry we are talking about. They survive by making me change my mind and buy clothes that I will hate in 1-3 years. 

Now that I’m a full-grown adult and free from the judgment of high school, I want to start expressing who I am fully, and I think clothing is a great way to do that. In conclusion: wear what you want, have confidence in yourself and soon enough you’ll find your own personal style. At the end of the day there are a million things about you more interesting than the clothes on your back. ?

• fashion
• trends