If your personal style doesn't match where you live this is a question that I get asked a lot and it's also something. That I've experienced myself because I've moved around a lot I was a military kid and then now as an adult. I've moved a couple times and my personal style has adjusted and shifted and changed a little bit based on everywhere. That I've lived and sometimes it's felt more congruent with where I've lived than other times.
So i want to give my input my perspective and some of my tips to hopefully help you if you find yourself in a similar boat so let's get started let's start off with what I mean when I say your personal style doesn't match where you live for some of you you're probably like oh yes. That's exactly how I feel and then for others of you you're probably not really sure what I'm talking about and i think that comes down to the station of your personal style evolution. That you're currently at and the more in tune you get with what you like to wear and what you don't like to wear so for me. I think this perspective comes from a couple different things and the most that stick out to me tends to be the formality and how the casual the place is depending on where you're living you may find that everyone around you dresses very casually or very formally and that either do or does not coincide with your own personal preferences.
So my recommendation to begin this whole thing is to become cognizant of that see if that's even something you need to consider in the first place and then if it is I recommend making a Venn diagram. Where you have on one side the style of where you live on the other side the style that you have or the style you want to have and then in the middle anything. That's similar there is undoubtedly going to be at least one overlap area and that i think is a really good place to start because if you focus on that rather than all the ways you're not the same it can become much more navigable and I think a little bit easier to handle.
So once you have your Venn diagram sorted and you have that middle section of overlap maybe that's one thing or a couple things I recommend starting there focus on those specifically don't worry about anything negative. That you may be thinking might derail your personal style and instead highlight all of the good things and all of the similarities. That you can find and then really spend time working on those so for example, I have a kind of floating personal style. It's evolving I feel like every couple of months it changes a little bit but when I first moved from new york.
Where I started this personal style journey down to the south where it's a little bit different style-wise. Than new york obviously, I found my style changing slightly and I found that it was really helpful to find that middle ground and then we'll focus on that because it made it easier for me to feel like. I had fewer obstacles to overcome. So I wasn't dealing with a personal style evolution trying to fill holes in my closet but then trying to navigate my style as it was changing so I recommend starting. Therefore you as well now let's move on to the part of the process.
Where you focus on the things that are not congruent with your personal style and where you live and how you can adapt them so that you don't compromise your style but you're still able to live comfortably in whatever environment or city or town that you're living in so I think this is really easy to navigate. If you break things into chunks or like steps kind of because that's always been far easier for me than to look at it as one giant thing. I get really overwhelmed and I end up becoming almost paralyzed by the thought of having to do it. So I end up not being productive in it at all so I recommend breaking it into pieces and I think for this in particular. It's really helpful to look at it as individual things that relate to overall style so let's start off with color so color. I think is a really good place to start because it's so easy to see when you go to a place or you live in a place you can see a lot of colors similarities between what people are wearing and maybe what you're wearing and I think that that makes it a really easy place to jump in so using myself as an example.
When I lived in new york and I started this personal style journey I wore a lot of blacks and I did that because I was living in the city black just works for the city. It's a very practical color to wear when you're living in new york especially if you're commuting it's very dirty most of the time so it kind of masks a lot of that and it's just a really good color plus. It goes with my hair color my eye color complexion it's something. That I enjoy wearing so I really loved that about my personal style and as a result, I had a lot of blacks now when I moved from new york down to the southeast you don't really see a lot of black down here and I think that's because it's so hot that black absorbs the heat as I know with my black hair.
My head gets really hot in the summer and so it becomes a less practical color to wear so instead of feeling like oh I can't wear black at all that's a big part of my personal style. That I have to compromise on I started looking at colors that were like black that would give me the same effect but still fit with where I was living so for me that was navy and as a result. I have a lot of navy in my wardrobe now it's a color. That I like to wear in place of black to kind of soften the transition between seasons and also anytime.
I want to feel like I'm assimilating a little bit more with where I'm living so I don't get rid of my black things. I don't recommend getting rid of things you truly love but I think it can be a good way to kind of buffer them a little bit and kind of bridge a gap between your personal style and where you may be living and then also I think it's a good thing you can do in reverse. So let's say you live somewhere that's warm and you wear a lot of white but you're going to move somewhere where white is going to be less practical find a color. That's similar and then go a couple shades darker and play around there and I think you'll be really happy with it so from the color we can move on to fabric and fabric.
I think can be a little bit trickier to navigate when you're trying to bridge personal style and where you're living and especially if they don't really match perfectly and so my recommendation is to not get rid of the fabrics. That you like that maybe you can only wear a short portion of the year or maybe just only on vacation keep those because those are beautiful pieces. You've gathered for a reason and I think getting rid of them would be wasteful but my recommendation instead would be for any gaps in your wardrobe or anything. That's going to become practical to wear something that's going to actually work for most of the year we're currently living. I recommend finding things that you love that are maybe just a little bit thinner version or a slightly softer fabric.
So using myself as an example I really like cashmere and wool I think that they are the best fabrics and I love wearing them and luckily for me. I guess I get cold really easily so I get to wear them a decent amount of time down here even though it is warm the vast majority of the year but when it's not and it's just a little too hot but I still want that effect especially as I'm bridging seasons instead of opting out totally I've opted for very thin very breathable cashmere instead of the thicker things. That I had bought it when I was living in new york.
So now let's say that instead of liking warm fabrics you really like light fabrics things like linen things. That is basically transparent and really breathable and airy and floaty but you're living somewhere very cold no I don't think that means you can't wear linen. I recommend wearing linen but layering it up with other fabrics and other textures I think texture plays so beautiful in personal style and I think that customizing something you really love with where you're living adds a really beautiful element to personal style. It makes it a very personal game which I think is the entire point. So play around with this look for fabrics. That maybe you are accustomed to wearing but going outside of that a little bit don't be afraid to experiment with different things try them out from the thrift store.
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