Finding Your Signature Style

There is something on my mind that I want to talk about, it is called being basic. I cannot stand the basic. For those of you who haven’t heard the word thrown around, like, “girl, you’re so basic.” To me basic means generic, okay, and I’m going to do a generalization here, it doesn’t apply to everyone, but I find that a lot of bloggers will be in the basic bucket. And to me being basic is following along with what everyone else is doing. A great example of something that is totally basic is everyone is wearing the little cut out shoulder tops. There is nothing wrong with the tops with the cut-out shoulders, I have one, it’s cute, I like it, but I bought it because I like it. It matches with my style, it’s black, it’s pleated, it’s edgy, I like my shoulders, so it works. But when you are being basic or are just following blindly to every trend that is available to you, you’re wearing it because it’s “awesome.” You are like “oh my god, everyone is wearing it, totally awesome, I have to wear it too.” There is no personality in that, so if you look at Instagram, it is loaded with basic, every basic girl loves to drink Rosé, it is the basic drink to have so if everyone is drinking it, they don’t even know if they like it. They are drinking it because everyone else is drinking it. In the summer, basic people love generic pool floats, they are all floating around on a piece of inflatable pizza or a big, pink, dumb swan because everyone is doing it, it’s not because they want to do it. What else do basics like? Basics love Soul Society shoes because all of the little blogger girls and all of the cool kids are wearing them. Then, you feel like you automatically have to wear it too. I could go on and on about basic trends, but we would be here all day and I’d get all fired up.

What trends do you follow? What works for you? The problem I see is when everyone is so focused on following the trends and trying to keep up with what is the coolest and hottest to see if they fit in, it’s so stressful and it’s so inauthentic. You can’t read someone’s personality when they look exactly like a page from People’s Style Watch or when they are wearing exactly the hot trend of the season. There is no originality from that, so when you are working on your own personal style and when I work one on one with clients to develop their style, I’m developing who they are. Once you really figure out who you are, what you like and what you love wearing, it doesn’t matter if it’s in style right now and it doesn’t matter what season it’s from. Since it is you and you are always in style. I love fashion and the majority of my clothes are not even from this season. I don’t care if something is in or out, I know when something is me and that shows through in my wardrobe and how I carry myself. I will never be accused of being basic, when I wear my cut-out shoulder top, it looks like a ‘Lauren’ outfit. It doesn’t look like, “oh, I remember when that was cool.” That means that I can wear that top season after season and it really doesn’t matter. So, my challenge to you is to work to develop what is you. Start understanding what you like. If you see something on that little Instagram girl, ask yourself, “Why do I really like this? Do I like it because I want to be her? Do I like it because I want to wear popular clothes?” If that’s the reason then you are well on your way to being basic. Girls in the “LM” world, the Lauren Messiah world, we don’t do basic. We do what is authentic to us. Think about that and if you need help developing a style that is unique to you contact me. I have a style development package, so you don’t even have to come to California. We do it all virtually and we do you.