Today’s prompt is: My Personal Style Evolution, but as I edited my post, I realized I talked more about my relationship vs. my evolution. If you want to join me on my writing challenge, see my post here with 30 days of writing prompts.
Where I Got My Love for Style
My style has evolved over the years, and I thank my mom for igniting my passion for styling. She plays a huge role in my love for fashion because growing up I always used to watch her get ready. I would always peek into her wardrobe and try clothes on, and eventually some of those pieces became hand me downs. So I’ve always loved experimenting with my style.
My Past Challenges with Curating a Wardrobe
Right now I’m currently working on curating my wardrobe, defining my style, and sticking to my core requirements. I used to never have any rules with my wardrobe – if I liked a piece or if a piece intrigued me, I’d add it to my wardrobe without really thinking about how it would work with the rest of my pieces. I just defaulted to figuring it out once the time comes. This eventually led to having a huge closet with lots of pieces, but nothing to wear.
You know that phrase “If I like it, I’ll just get it in another color?”
Yeah – I’d also get the same shirt in different colors, the same jeans in different washes… but then I didn’t have much variety in my closet to play around with. I wasn’t super mindful about which pieces I was adding to my wardrobe. It comprised of about 60% trendy and fun and 40% timeless and chic.
I didn’t know what my closet comprised of. Boxes filled with going out dresses, drawers filled with oversized t-shirts that became pajamas, you get the picture. The trendy pieces collected dust and the same shirt and jeans got the most wear because I didn’t know how to style the rest of my closet. Over the past few years, I never really faced the challenge to go through a closet clean out and actually see which pieces I could let go and which pieces I could keep.
I thought that the fix would be to just buy buy buy… but then I wasn’t really curating and the cycle would just continue. The thing I love about fashion is that it’s always evolving and it’s also forgiving. I’ve had different phases of my life where my style has drastically changed. In 2021 I was wearing neutrals, but playing around with colorful pieces and patterns.
My Current Wardrobe Aspirations
Now I’m building out my wardrobe to be timeless, comfy, and chic. These past few years, the pieces that have stuck with me have been my timeless and chic pieces.
I’m in a season of my life where I want to know every piece in my wardrobe. I want to bring those pieces through each phase of my life, wear it in different occasions throughout the years. Focusing on the quality and material will be huge for me as well. I want to take care of my wardrobe – tailoring where I need to. When I sell or donate clothes, I want my clothing to hold it’s value a bit. I’ve noticed that when I try to sell my fast fashion pieces, people would rather buy for just a bit more.
I want refine my taste and stick to requirements when adding things to my closet. No more buying on a whim just because I thought the item was cute. So let’s see. If I could describe the wardrobe I’m building, it would be timeless, comfy, and chic. My rule of thumb when shopping is if it doesn’t hit all 3 points then it’s a no from me. There’s an exception though – I think it’s good to leave room for some fun. I’m aiming for an 80/20 split of foundation pieces to fun pieces.
Quality Over Quantity
Going into 2026, I’m making room to save up for the items that will truly stay in my wardrobe. I’d rather spend a few hundred dollars on a coat that I’ll wear for ages instead of spending the same amount on multiple coats that’ I’ll throw out after a year’ll be thrown out after a year. No more buying items that will collect dust in my closet. When I put an item on, I want to 100% feel confident in it – no “I think I could make it work” or “Maybe I’ll find an event to wear it at.”
In 2026 we’re being smarter with our money and being more strict about what we make room for. I’ve learned that overflowing my closet with a lot of things with no intention created quiet stress for me. Today, I actually cleaned out my closet and I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders. No more holding on to pieces that I think I could make work in the future.
I need to shop my own closet more.
That’s my problem – when I go on a trip I would immediately default to surfing the web to see what I could buy, but then that leaves my closet with clothing that hasn’t gotten their good cost per wear. I don’t want to feel drained by my closet anymore, but inspired.
I want to feel inspired to shop my own closet on a daily basis or when I go on big trips. And a big part of the stress comes from me not feeling like my closet is ME because I’ve bought too many items that just don’t go well with each other.
I’m excited to curate my wardrobe and to be very intentional with how I add to it. I’m also excited to create more collage style blog posts to share my style. Creating collages have really helped me see how my style evolves and what my aspirational style is.
Feel like my writing is all over the place for today’s prompt, but thank you for reading <3
How do you curate your wardrobe? Do you also buy a ton pieces you like without thinking about if it truly fits your style?
