Does a glance through your closet bring you inspiration? Or does it spark anxiety over clutter and unused pieces? If you’re working toward your dream closet, consider a technique that’ll help you shop more sustainably: identifying your personal style.

“Consider a technique that’ll help you shop more sustainably: Identifying your personal style.”

Nailing down a personalized style and shopping exclusively within that framework might sound a little too adjacent to fast fashion — you know, that desire to curate and recurate your look on a whim with practically no repercussions. 

But finding your personal style isn’t just for off-duty models or influencers with personal brands, and it isn’t about putting yourself in a box — it’s at the core of making sustainable fashion choices.

How does personal style lead to sustainable shopping?

Once you can clearly articulate your own style (even if it’s only to yourself), you can begin to truly shop consciously. Knowing your style well enough to confidently buy a piece you’ll wear for years is where the real slow fashion starts. 

“When we focus on the clothes, shoes, and accessories that bring the best in ourselves, both physically and mentally, we avoid buying into short-lived fads, or worse, overconsumption,” says Yenia Hernandez Fonseca, stylist and contributing fashion writer for Margo Paige.

“Knowing your style well enough to confidently buy a piece you’ll wear for years is where the real slow fashion starts.”

“We’ve taught ourselves that our clothing can only bring a sense of joy the first time we wear it,” says fashion writer and critic Rachel Tashjian in her GQ article “The Most Sustainable Idea In Fashion Is Personal Style.” “But there are ways to train yourself to love something every time you put it on. The real test for me is: can I put it on, forget about it for most of the day, remember I’m wearing it at 4 p.m., and grin?”

What makes someone grin, clothing-wise, is completely different for everyone. And, personally, I find it tricky to identify what feels good to wear because it feels like me, versus what feels good because I’m aligning with current trends. Knowing how to make yourself grin because of something you like on yourself is a powerful tool when it comes to living a more mindful, sustainable life.

The moment of fruition comes with the freedom of wearing something you might not have considered in the past because it wasn’t at all trendy — and feeling great in it.

How to find your personal style

Below, find some tips for cutting out the noise of trend cycles and self-doubt, leaning in to what clothes make you feel good, and shopping more mindfully.

1. Go through your closet

The journey starts in your bedroom. Go through your wardrobe, piece by piece, and identify what you love, what you wear most often, and what you hardly wear.

“Identify what you love, what you wear most often, and what you hardly wear.”

This is a great decluttering exercise, but it’ll also help you engage with your clothing intimately — thinking about why you like (or don’t like) each piece. 

This shouldn’t be a one-day process. Engage with your clothing while you wear it, and keep in mind Tashjian’s 4 p.m. benchmark. What makes you excited to put on, and what keeps you still excited by the end of the day?

2. Use a wardrobe organizing app

Apps like Whering and Save Your Wardrobe help you digitize your closet, letting you mix and match pieces and see where you have gaps. They’ll also help you plan outfits according to the weather and your own style. Save Your Wardrobe can even connect you with tailors for mending, eco-friendly cleaning services, and donating and upcycling centers to responsibly dispose of pieces that no longer serve you.

3. Find inspiration

Pinterest is my go-to here — save looks you like in a board on Pinterest, and the app’s algorithm will try and show you more and more images of the styles it thinks you like.

If you’re having trouble defining your own style, sometimes an app can do it pretty damn well for you. Save anything that catches your eye or gives you that butterfly feeling, even if you don’t necessarily see yourself buying it. This is just to get the juices (and the algorithm) flowing.

“Pay attention to your favorite silhouettes, color combinations, and overall aesthetic that you aspire to embody,” says Fonseca. “Revisit the board for style inspiration, keep it updated, and shop your closet when you’re ready to try out any of the outfits you loved.”

“Revisit the board for style inspiration, keep it updated, and shop your closet when you’re ready to try out any of the outfits you loved.”

– Yenia Hernandez Fonseca, stylist and contributing fashion writer for Margo Paige.

Prefer screenless inspiration? Have a magazine collage session, and invite a few friends over, too. Gather any magazines you have lying around and clip out what inspires you — colors, landscapes, words, and patterns can help you figure out what you like, too. Follow these tips to put together a fashion mood board while you’re at it. 

Remember, this can be a slow process. Save inspiring photos as you find them online, and snag screenshots of cute movie or TV outfits as you see them. After a while, you’ll probably notice recurring themes like colors or silhouettes you gravitate towards.

4. Avoid impulsive buys

To make sure I don’t make any clothing purchases I don’t really need, I keep a running list on my phone of pieces I’m on the hunt for. Just because I see something cute at the store doesn’t mean it fits into my wardrobe in a meaningful way.

“I keep a running list on my phone of pieces I’m on the hunt for.”

This way, I can go shopping for inspiration without the risk of buying what I don’t need.

Take a look at Depop and Poshmark, too — aside from making it super easy to shop more sustainably, these apps let you browse clothes like a catalog and save pieces to return to later, helping you avoid impulse buys.

5. Borrow clothes 

To help hone your style without commitment, borrow pieces from friends and family. Maybe you saw your friend wearing a dreamy midi dress in a recent post that you’d love to try, or maybe you want to host a clothing swap with a few pals.

If you have a lot of events in the coming months, consider clothing rental sites like Style Lend, Rent the Runway, or Le Tote. You’ll save closet space and money by not purchasing garments you’ll only wear once or twice, and you can experiment with new styles, too.

6. Learn to sew 

When you can sew or modify your own clothes, you can hem skirts and sleeves to your liking, take in waistlines, crop shirts, change necklines, and dye garments a different color. Once you identify silhouettes and colors that feel like you, mending opens up new doors for personalizing your wardrobe. And when shopping secondhand, you’ll have a wider range of garments available to you when you can see a piece’s potential. 

“Identifying personal style is for everyone, not just the fashion-obsessed.”

We all wake up and get dressed in the morning, and what you wear can “help you build your identity, your mystique, your confidence,” says Tashjian. Identifying personal style is for everyone, not just the fashion-obsessed. And it’s especially for those looking to pare down their wardrobe and shop more mindfully.

Finding out where a trend ends and where you begin helps you further curate your style and, by extension, your individuality. And once you start further curating your own style, you’ll probably learn a thing or two about yourself, too.

Natalie Gale is a Boston-based freelance journalist. When she’s not writing about art, food, or sustainability, you can find her biking to the farmers’ market, baking, sewing, or planning her next Halloween costume. Say hi on Instagram!