Are you being intentional with your style?

Are you being intentional with your style? Or are you buying for the sake of it?

These are questions I ask my clients when we’re working through the personal styling process together. The reason I ask it is mainly because of my own experience.

When I was a teenager, I would spend a lot of time in shopping centres - sifting through the rails of TOPSHOP, River Island, H&M and the ultimate time for grabbing items was always sale season. Sale season brings with it reduced prices and cute pieces that you may have had your eye on for months.

I used to buy a lot of independent pieces - tops, bottoms, skirts (the list goes on) but not a lot of it would match together. So I’d get home, buzzing off the endorphins of making purchases, do a little haul for my mum and dad (considering it was probably their money, it was only right to show them where it went) and retreat to my bedroom to swoon over my black bomber style cardigan and a floral skirt.

As my age increased and I got into fashion a little bit more, I quickly came to the realisation that nothing matched that well. I was still struggling to piece together an outfit when I was standing at my wardrobe doors at 7pm on a Friday evening when I was due to head for pre-drinks with the girls at 8.30pm.

Thats when my mindset shifted. I was buying for the sake of it.

When I sifted through my own rails of clothing and couldn’t build an outfit from hundreds of pieces - I knew something had to change. By this stage I was about 20 and I knew I wanted to be more ‘intentional’ with my style but back then I probably just wanted everything to match.

My shopping trips from this age onwards involved a lot more thought and a lot less impulse. It was in the latter parts of this year I created my style page on Instagram and taught myself how to build a website. I wanted to share my ideas around style and clothes, but I didn’t realise that I would continue to do so seven years later.

On that note, I’m going to share some things that help me when I’m out shopping, tips that help me be more intentional with my style:

If you can’t think of three ways to wear it, leave it. I live by this rule so much so that if I pick something up in-store I verbally envision the outfit out loud and think of what’s currently in my possession that would go with it. So if you do come shopping with me, you will find me talking to myself.

Do you have anything like this in your wardrobe currently? I remember on one occasion during 2020 when you were allowed back into stores, I picked up black cycling shorts and a black T-shirt. What was I wearing on this shopping trip? Black cycling shorts and a black T-shirt.

If you don’t have that style in your wardrobe already, are you actually going to wear it?

This applies when you’re tempted to buy something like a printed blouse or a floral skirt. And you don’t usually wear this style. If it doesn’t currently exist in your wardrobe, rate how much you think you will actually wear it from 1 to 10, and even better - name three occasions you can envision yourself wearing it. It helps, I promise.

Do you need it, or is the price just too good to resist? I grew up in a family of females who loved a bargain. Some of my fondest memories are with my mum and her sisters shouting across clothing stores to one another, holding up an item and uttering something a long the lines of, ‘and it’s only twenty pounds!’

Leaning toward being more intentional with your style isn’t just about the purchasing journey. It’s reviewing what you currently have and seeing how the items fit into your new way of styling yourself.

I’m going to be writing an article on the above very soon, so keep your eyes on The Style Diaries.

See you next time,

Danielle x