What is good styling?

I find so many 'wearing vs styling' videos infuriating because they don't actually show you how to get good at styling your clothes. This is my in depth guide to styling an outfit

In today’s newsletter…

👗 what is good styling + 5 stages of styling

❓ your questions answered

👢 this week’s outfit review

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I get so frustrated at the “wearing vs styling” videos on my feed which imply that you either need to perform a magic trick with your everyday tee to make it into an evening top, or layer a million things to make your tee into a good outfit. These videos are interesting, eye grabbing, and capture your attention (like most magic tricks), but they’re not actually lessons in good styling. Even the concept of “wearing vs styling” bugs me - styling doesn’t mean layering, it doesn’t mean accessorising, it doesn’t mean adding to your outfit. It can encapsulate these elements BUT you can also just wear a t-shirt and jeans and still have styled your outfit - even styled it well.

First, I want to establish the difference between styling and personal style. I imagine some of you are expecting me to go into a spiel you’ve all heard before about how good style is an expression of personality. However, I think of style as the result and styling as the method to get there. Your style is the impression you give through an accumulation of outfits over several weeks or months, whereas your styling is the way you have put together one particular outfit. So, if someone has only met you once they can’t really comment on your personal style, only your styling that day.