Fashion tastemakers: what actually is personal style?

Each week, we are bombarded with a new “it” trend on TikTok: quiet luxury, ballerina core, barbie core, coquette, mermaid core, tomato girl summer, brat summer, Europe core, bimbo core and a plethora of others. With post-modern technology becoming increasingly embedded into our lives, it has become at the forefront of driving trends. Trends are not particular to this generation, however, many of these trends feel uninspired as opposed to past generation’s trends. And let’s keep it frank, everyone is dressed in the same unimagined outfits. We mourn the death of personal style. And we yearn for it. And through our yearning, we are pushed to retrace the essence of personal style. What actually is personal style?

Millennial style icon, Alexis Chung, was asked about how she has cultivated her personal style, and her response was that good style is a byproduct of a compelling personality (Chung, 2022). This makes me think of my personal style icons. Each of them have led fascinating lives that have contributed to the mobilisation of the development of their identities. Much like style, their identities and personalities are on an unending journey of becoming. In turn, this has greatly influenced their personal style to be evolutionary and mirror their lived experiences.

image credit: @AlexisChung

My first style icon is my father. He grew up in Bophuthatswana, specifically Hammanskraal and Mamelodi. These metropolitan townships are known for their agility and fast paced lifestyles as people’s identities are consistently negotiated and mobilised through encountering people from different cultural groups. There is an air of opulence in these townships. People are always dressed to impress, and the Pantsula ‘90s streetwear became an important pillar of showing one’s identity. This opulent streetwear was always a part of my dad’s style. Through moving into the cooperate world filled with stuffy suits, the same leather pieces, he managed to always place an edge of streetwear into his outfits. This became his signature to his style. He would relax his work suits with his signature Tom Ford and Versace aviator glasses and added a different dimension to his outfit with his Ralph Lauren jerseys. In winter, he would layer his leather bomber jacket over his suit jacket! One momentous outfit I remember him wearing was his white Ferrari bomber jacket over a white tee with his True Religion jeans and of course, his signature Tom Fords. What made his style compelling was not the luxury pieces, but his ability to translate his sauvé charm in each outfit and at each point of his life, including in the cooperate world.

Style reminiscent of the influence of Pantsula movement in my father's outfits.

Similarly, Kate Moss has the same effect in her style. Known as Kate Mess in the early 2000s, Moss was known for her party girl lifestyle and the lead model in the Heroine Chic movement. This is greatly reflected in her personal style. Her style is bohemian with an edge of grunge which is in alignment with her love for music festivals and dating grungy rockstars. One outfit that people use to solidify her as being a style icon is the outfit she wore at Glastonbury in 2005. She wore a glistening sparkly gold mini dress tied with a black leather belt and a pair of soiled Hunter rainboots. This look made Hunter rainboots become a fashion statement. However, Kate did not intend to do so. They were the most convenient shoes to wear on a rainy, muddy day at Glastonbury. The draw in this outfit is not her rainboots but rather how it reflected the effortless chic messiness of her personality reminiscent of her quick wit.

Kate Moss at Glastonbury 2005.

I believe that the style mistake people make is trying to keep up with trends instead of cultivating a style around their personality and lived experiences. Style majesty, Iris Apfel, has famously stated that she thinks that the issue people have in developing their style is not knowing who they really are (Robertson, 2024). And there is psychological evidence that suggest this. Cultivating a personal style that is unique to your positionality suggests that there is a deep understanding of who you are, who you are becoming and what works bests for you (De Klerk, 2024).  Research data indicates that people with a strong personal style are more emotionally stable as it instills a natural confidence in oneself. Style is a window to your identity.

When I think about my constant state of becoming through my style, there is a consistent thread of rebellion. Growing up, I was always attracted to countercultures: punk culture, indie sleaze, The Black Panther Party, bohemianism. It reflected my discomfort with historically Eurocentric systems in South Africa. The establishment of democratic South Africa mobilised a sector of black people to be a part of previously white-only spaces; where people live, access to education and healthcare. This placed me as being one of the few black students in a predominately white school. In these institutions, black students tread a line of being seen but never truly heard or felt. This influenced my style to never want to be a part of a system that neglected me. Since then, my identity has always been questioning social norms that work to marginalise vulnerable people. Steadily, my personal style has always gone against the grain. It made me feel confident in knowing that the people around me are forced to see me and hear me even if it is not through words, but through my style.

Thus, good personal style is not about who is able to keep up with trends. Rather, it is cultivated from one’s lived experiences, the parts of their lives they find to be important and reflects their inner world. As Iris Apfel has stated, you cannot learn style; it is a part of your DNA.