Fashion Today: How to develop a sense of style from scratch - Use your most-worn pieces as the starting point

Even if you aren’t all too happy with the state of your wardrobe right now, chances are you own at least a couple of individual pieces that you do like. 

An easy, fail-proof way to start upgrading your wardrobe and how you dress is to use those pieces as the starting point. 

Here’s how:

As a first step, figure out what separates your favourites from the rest of your clothes, i.e. why you wear them more often. Think colours, fabric, fit/silhouette, overall style and details.

Again, make sure you are precise at this point. Instead of settling at ‘I like that pair of pants because it’s comfortable and has a nice fit’, find out what exact feature of the piece makes it so comfortable and well-fitting. The all-natural material, the high waist, the thicker fabric?

Once you have defined what you like about your favourite pieces, you’ll be left with a detailed list of things that are all your style and that you can use a guide while out shopping. Since you have been wearing all of those things for a while already, there is a much lower risk that you’ll buy something that will end up un-worn at the back of your closet.

Another thing you can do is to do a little online research to see how other people are styling your most-worn pieces. 

Let’s say one of your wardrobe favourites is a simple mariniere/ striped top. Type in “Striped top” on Pinterest or Google Images, … et voilà: a whole set of new outfit ideas to experiment with.