Lost Your Personal Style? Here’s How To Get It Back

I don’t know why it happens, but every summer I seem to get lost. Not literally, as like most small pests, I have a great sense of direction and can easily find my way home back to my nest. Instead, I mean this figuratively, in terms of my style. When it comes to the sartorial side of things, I am whole-heartedly an autumn girl. I love oversized, chunky knits, coats in all flavours and endless cups of tea. At the start of every A/W, this is my ultimate inspiration and where I hope to find myself come the colder months:

But when it comes to summer, I just seem to lose every essence of my personal style. It’s great to try new things, but I find myself hoarding items I’m not really keen on, in hopes of finding the *new*me* that’s born to soak up the summer sun (and that doesn’t sweat from every possible pore). And I relive the same experience at the end of every summer – the wardrobe cull. Goodbye £12 Primark buys I knew I would only wear once, farewell over the top trend item I wasn’t even sure of when I wore it the second time, and fuck off to the unbelievable amount of crap jeans that seem to have accumulated out of nowhere.

Blazers

Jeans

Mules

But then comes the exciting bit. Embracing your personal style once more, and buying lots of new exciting things to fill the void that your frenzied clear out left. One of those items, for me, was this black blazer from Topshop. It’s tailored, chic and minimal – everything that I love – and it was beyond me as to why I didn’t have a single blazer in my whole wardrobe. Rest assured that has been remedied now, but it got me thinking about how to get back in touch with your personal style if it seems to have gone astray. Here are a few – apologetically, slightly generic but definitely worthy – tips to getting back in touch with your sartorial sitch.

Been experimenting? Think about what did work.

Over the summer I tried lots of new trends, shapes and shades that I either haven’t loved or that haven’t felt 100% right for me. Whilst I can write those off and move on to what I know and love (OVERSIZED COATS, BRING ME THE OVERSIZED COATS), there are also new elements I experimented with that have changed my staple style for the better. When it comes to jewellery, I’ve been a strictly silver girl for a long time. This summer I did the unthinkable – tried both gold, and rose gold, and now I’m in love. This necklace is a particular favourite; it’s a rose gold bee pendant from the wonderful people at Hot Diamonds, and I find the rose gold tone so complimentary with silver that I can easily mix and match it into my daily wear to jazz up a plain tee and jeans combo.

Look back at old photos – what did you love?

This is maybe more relevant for those of us that love to document our outfits, but looking back at old ensembles can quickly remind me of what aspects I love. Tailoring is a big one for me, and this often slips away during summer. However, as soon as I see bygone OOTD’s of me sporting a tailored coat, a pair of cropped trousers and some killer pointed boots, it reminds me of the shapes and aesthetic that I not only love the most, but that I feel the most comfortable in. And hey, if you’re looking back and old you isn’t giving you any inspiration, the silver lining is that at least you know what not to do again. Trial and error, my friends!

Pull together a Pinspo board and get pinning

If in doubt, Pinterest it out. Pinterest offers endless amounts of inspiration from all corners of the globe, and as soon as you start pinning some of your fashion faves, you’ll end up seeing a common thread or theme that you can pick out and attribute to your personal style. Unsurprisingly, my Pinterest board is full of big jumpers, blue denim, loafers and tailoring (I also have a board for celeb crushes, but more on that later). Being told to go to Pinterest for inspiration is possibly the most cliched advice a blogger can give – that, and telling you to look at other bloggers – but I promise you it does work. Just don’t blame me for the damage it will do to your bank account.

How do you reconnect with your personal style when you feel you’ve lost touch? Pop your tips down below or come and find me @chloeplumstead on Twitter and Instagram, as I’m just coming out of a style rut as we speak so I’d love to hear your advice!

This post has been sponsored by Hot Diamonds, but all thoughts, opinions and content are my own. That’s fo sho.