Click here for part I.

What is a 'style'? It starts with breaking away from convention, smashing accepted reality.
Karl Lagerfeld

Some time ago I scratched a bit from the top of the iceberg called (personal) style. So now I thought to elaborate further on the subject because, ya know, why not? However instead of badly composing some more words for you, I thought that it'd be quite interesting to see what others have thought about style and relating stuff concerning this brain hurting game of getting dressed. A bit like a real research. First establish your own theory, then look at that from others and then decide that you were right from the start. jk.


Fashion has to reflect who you are, what you feel at the moment, and where you're going. It doesn't have to be bright, doesn't have to be loud. Just has to be YOU. 
Pharrel Williams

Fashion is about dressing according to what's fashionable. Style is more about being yourself.
Oscar de la Renta 

When you're walking down the street, or you're at a restaurant, someone catches your eye because they have their own look. It goes way beyond what they're wearing- into their mannerisms, the way they smile, or just the way they hold themselves.
Mary-Kate Olsen

To me style is just the outside of content, and content the inside of style, like the outside and the inside of a human body- both go together, they can't be seperated.
Jean-Luc Godard 

Remain true to whatever you are, celebrate the 'you-ness' of you.
Helena Bonham Carter


The overall opinion you'll find down the road of opinions is that style is a reflection of you. No matter what, you just have to reckon with one thing and one thing only: That what makes you happy.  
The end.

However there are many ways to achieve this goal of happiness. In many ways you dressing as you can be approached with a lot more than just "I put on this shirt with these trousers and now I'm officially not naked anymore". As said by Tavi Gevinson:

Personal style is an opportunity to kind of create your own fantasy. And that can be -and this word is so overused- but empowering in a way, especially when you feel like you have to have a certain force field around you to the outside world.

Style in this sense is not just dressing according to happiness, but goes further than that. Clothes can do a lot of talking for you. And clothes, I believe, are a big part of how you can carry yourself. It's basically a presentation to the outside world which can -again- say a lot of words in your account. However, it doesn't says it all. As Jacquie Tajah Murdock (one of the ladies from Advanced Style) has once said:  

Someone told me that I would even look good in a potato sack. Style is all about how you carry yourself.

Try to always remember that when you feel at your best, you mostly look at your best. It doesn't matter in those moments what you're wearing (although it doesn't hurt). If what you're wearing gives you an empowering feeling or a confident boost, it'll definitely radiate to your fellow clothes wearers. Regardless of what's hot or not, the right clothes for you can give you just that extra boost you need to get through the day (sounds a bit melodramatic, but ya know what I mean...).


I mean yeah, your individual style is your impression to the world.
Taylor Momsen

Clothes always go in and out of fashion, but that's not real style. Style has to be classic.
Kate Moss

I don't believe in age-appropiate dress: just make your personal statement and feel confident about it. Tomorrow is another day and another look.
Debra Rapoport from Advanced Style

My philosophy is fashion says 'me too', while style says 'only me'.
Lynn Dell from Advances Style

I still appreciate individuality. Style is much more interesting than fashion, really.
Marc Jacobs

Style is to show from the outside what you are from the inside, which I really like. When I see someone walking down the street wearing something striking, my heart makes a jump. I'd want to follow him/her right away. They say "Don't judge a book by its cover", but that's nonsense. If a sixty year old woman is dressed from head to toe in leopard print, than I know that she's alright. (...) I love fashion, but style is so many light years more interesting. Fashion is more what people want you to wear, wanting to belong to a certain group. But if you ask me, I find that less sincere.
Paloma Faith (excerpt from an interview with the Dutch Harper's Bazaar. Badly translated back to English by me. It's the idea that counts...)


And another famous one from mademoiselle Chanel:

Fashion fades, only style remains the same.
Coco Chanel

Fashions Fade, style is eternal.
Yves Saint Laurent

Chanel left us with something better than fashion: style. And style, as she preached it, doesn't grow old.
Karl Lagerfeld


There's however nothing wrong with following the fashion industry (and I personally don't believe in socalled fashion victims). The thing with fashion is, especially nowadays, that it's all mostly a rebirth of itself. Just casually quoting The Devil Wears Prada: Florals? For spring? Groundbraking. Or similar statements made every year like Black's Back, Less Is More or contrary Less Is A Bore. But still the cycle of things are very true of nature and true to its time. The continuously can be proved to be influenced by the current society. It mostly looks like a randomized business, however it's anything but.

Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well.
Vivienne Westwood

What fashion expresses doesn't last. Style lasts. But it has to follow fashion to outlive it.
Karl Lagerfeld

Having style is about being at ease with the life around us. Because what's fun, in the end, is to be of one's time.

Karl Lagerfeld


I think a lot of things in life can be approached with the same philosophy. The other day I watched a video by Tom Ridgewell (aka Tomska). He'd made a YouTube video about HOW TO YOUTUBE. His first step (or part) is "watch and learn... and steal". And I think that's just basically the essence of (creative) life. And yes, I consider style and getting dressed being an essential part of (creative) life. He follows with:  

We are what we eat and everything we make is the result of everything that's inspired us. So before diving head first into the world of stuff making, you'll need to watch a lot of stuff. Discover what excites and inspires you and let it shape you as a creative. The more you consume, the sooner you develop a big mess known as "your own style".

He importantly added a footnote to this: It's also important that you don't just watch good stuff. Those who can't remember the past are condempt to repeat it. So watch poorly made and unsuccesful content and try to figure out why it didn't work. Learn from other peoples mistakes. General life advice there for you...

Fashion is like music: there are so many notes... you need to play around with them. We all have to make our own tune.
Karl Lagerfeld

Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself yet identifiable for others.
Orson Welles


There is however still a little guideline for us merely mortals that stands above things like being yourself, following/not-following the current fashion or being either Mademoiselle Chanel or Alexa Chung. I'm naturally talking about the what in what are you wearing? Because style is basically a summary of all the what's.

Whatever it is, you never can go wrong with something that...

1. ...suits your body. See for instance direct quote beneath this paragraph.
2. ...is socalled "classic". This can be seen as the usual 2.25 Chanel bag or a Burberry trenchcoat or black Doc Martens boots etc. OR this can be interpreted as something that's classic in your eyes, that what 2.1 Is so you and 2.2 Suits your body.
3. ...is made out of high quality. This mainly goes hand in hand with something being classic. Or atleast that's what you hope for when you splurge your money on a 2.25. But basically anything that's very durable and probably a bit more expensive.

While other models on castings seemed to adhere to the uniform of skinny jeans, skinny vest, skinny legs, off-shoot I preferred an oversized dinosaur t-shirt and denim miniskirt. Discovering my own personal style came via a long process of elimination, and once I was comfortable with which shapes suited me, I could then experiment within that silhouette. In the early 2000's my bedroom floor was littered with offcuts from various charity shop dresses that I'd hacked apart with some blunt scissors in the attempt to 'rework' the item. I sometimes still do this, and I still like dinosaurs.
Alexa Chung (excerpt from It. Read it. Bleed it. Love it)

Stick to the classics, and you can't never go wrong. I see old ladies on the street who have fabulous style and realize it's because they are probably wearing really classic items that they've had for years and years. I think if you find something that suits you, you should just stick to it.
Alexa Chung

It pays to invest in quality; it never goes out of style.
Ruth from Advanced style

Style is about the right jewelry, the right know-how, the right neckline, and above all, the right attitude.
Joyce from Advanced style

I am attracted to people who make this effort in knowing what suits them- they are individual and stylish.
Vivienne Westwood

The clothes don't have to suit you; you have to suit the clothes.
Karl Lagerfeld


But above all it's important to remember that this brain hurting game of getting dressed shouldn't hurt your brain too much. Not exactly rocket science, is it? 

The trick is to find the style that is right for you. When it comes to trying new clothes, my advice is not to take it too serious- it's all about having fun.
Twiggy

Love,
Dominique