the journey

Here's memo of the steps I took on my journey to find my personal style.

1. Observe.
This is the most important starting step. Open your eyes to what people are wearing and when you see a looker (someone who makes you think: Wow, s/he looks great!), try and see what sets her apart from everyone else.
Is it the hair, the accessories, the clothes, the shoes, the bag or the interesting way that the outfit is put together.

2. Read.
Magazines, fashion blogs, street-style sites and sites like StyleDiary offer lots of ideas about how to pull an outfit together. Trends are identified and simplified for you in mags and fashion sites/blogs. Browse through street-style sites and StyleDiary for looks that strike your fancy, save and collate them in one place.

3. Review.
After a period of time (your personal preference; 2 weeks should suffice), you should have a sizeable collection of pics/looks that you prefer. Now go through your own wardrobe and pick out your favourite clothes, the one that you are most comfortable in and the one that get you the most compliments. (This would be a good time to do a wardrobe clean-out.)

Use your own clothes gauge your own comfort level and what type of clothing suits your body type. Pay attention to details like hemlines and cuts. Using this knowledge sieve through your looks collection (don't be too thorough at this stage; leave some for more experimental inspiration, they can be discarded later on)

4. Experiment.
Using your narrowed down collection of pics, try and see if you can effect a similar look with your existing clothes. Try out new ways of layering or accessorising. This should garner you a few different outfit combinations.

After you adjust to new ways of wearing your existing clothes, slowly add new pieces to add freshness to your wardrobe. Use these new pieces to achieve your desired looks. It would be best if these pieces can be combined in many ways with your existing wardrobe, instead of a single stand-alone piece. An easy way would be to start with accessories like a new belt and then moving on to items like coats or blazers. Alternatively, a new coat or a blazer could add instant panache to your look if you chose carefully. (I would suggest a longer period of deliberation before purchase, in case you tire of the look after a while)

5. Advice.
Take pictures of your new looks and evaluate them on your own. Listen out for compliments or criticisms and seek out other's opinions with your new look. (If those around you are totally disinterested, which I doubt, the internet has many avenues for you to solicit opinions. Try StyleDiary.

Note: I'm not advertising for StyleDiary. I just think it is a novel concept and invaluable if you trying to define your personal style.