About a year ago, I wrote about a new approach I was taking in conceptualizing my personal style: using 4 style avatars, each representing a certain aesthetic, to guide and inspire my outfit choices. My avatars were: the Prince, the Artist, the Adventurer, and the Bohemian. While there was a fair bit of overlap between these avatars in terms of elements of style (silhouettes, design details, etc.), it was helpful to me to visualize them as separate and distinct “characters”, rather than try to amalgamate them under one arbitrary handle or general description. After all, even something like “preppy” or “Scandi minimalist” can mean so many different things.

The idea of a dynamic character, each with its own range of aesthetic expression, was and remains infinitely more appealing – and practical – to me than a static description that can often feel, simultaneously, very vague and too prescriptive. In my own mind, I know what the Prince wears even if I might sometime struggle to put it into exact words. That is not to say that every outfit I wear falls precisely within the boundaries of one of these avatars; sometimes, necessity or practical realities (my closet is great, but it’s not quite my dream one, say, if money was no concern) dictate that an outfit will be a very loose interpretation of my avatar-based ideal. Which is okay. I feel like I’m hitting my marks, so to speak, more often than not and I’ve never been happier with what I wear.

A reader recently asked me if I might revisit the avatar discussion and, given the intervening time since my original posts, I thought it was a great idea. Updating and reflecting on the avatars is a useful exercise for me; I’ve had time to work with and refine this approach for almost a year, but haven’t really organized my thoughts in any formal way. Enter this post.

Because I am quite terrible at talking about style in a descriptive way (ironic for a personal style blogger, I know), I am going to try to summarize my avatars in a roundabout way, using photos and brand reference points that I feel best encapsulate each aesthetic. A word on the photos: I am very good at finding stock photos of specific items online, but I have the hardest time finding style inspiration pics. Hats off to all those people with beautifully curated Pinterest boards, I have no idea how they do it. I think a big part of the problem is that, as I wrote above, I struggle to articulate my aesthetic goals in (searchable) concrete terms. Regardless, the photos I am using below represent the best of what I’ve been able to find (usually by searching for runway photos from my fave brands).

The Prince

Designer Brands: Rick Owens, AllSaints, Theory, MaxMara, Vince

Mass Market Brands: Aritzia, Club Monaco  

This is the avatar I use the most for office-wear. While black is the core neutral of my professional wardrobe, I do like to incorporate other colours – even bold ones. Even prints! However, overall, this is a fairly minimalist aesthetic, so if I am doing a bold colour/print, I am going to balance it with very simple, clean lines and minimal “clutter”.

Here is an example of some personal outfits that fall within the Prince aesthetic:

The Artist

Designer Brands: Iris van Herpen, Sarah Pacini, Dries van Noten, Maria Cornejo

Mass Market Brands: Zara, COS

This is a dreamier, less austere version of the Prince – the lines are more fluid, softer. But it would not be true to say that it is less structured or tailored; it’s just a different kind of tailoring. While leaning towards neutrals-based and monochromatic outfits, it can still incorporate colour. At its most colourful, the Artist shades into the Bohemian.

Here is an example of some personal outfits that fall within the Artist aesthetic:

The Adventurer

Designer Brands: Haider Ackermann, AllSaints, Vince, The Row

Mass Market Brands: J. Crew, COS, Madewell

The Adventurer is the least cohesive of my avatars, in the sense that it has a few different “modes” – but the spirit is the same! My usual weekend mode is the “classic” version of the avatar, but if I’m feeling a bit sassy, I’ll go into the “futuristic” mode. I don’t know if that’s the best way to describe that particular vibe, but it’s definitely edgier.

Here is an example of some personal outfits that fall within the Adventurer aesthetic:

The Bohemian

Designer Brands: Dries van Noten, Marni

Mass Market Brands: Anthropologie, Zara, ASOS

The Bohemian shares some of the Artist’s DNA, being its more eccentric cousin. Colours, volumes, and textures are more exuberant, but the overall vibe is playful quirkiness, not twee. “Nothing too cute” is my mantra, and as a recovering twee-aholic, it’s not always an easy one to live up to.

Here is an example of some personal outfits that fall within the Bohemian aesthetic:

If you have questions about my style avatar approach, and how I incorporate it into my shopping and outfit-planning, let me know in the comments.

It has been more than 3 months since I adopted a new approach to personal style, one premised on the notion of style avatars or personas with well-defined aesthetic profiles. My chosen avatars – the Prince, the Adventurer, the Artist, and the Bohemian — have helped me to curate my existing wardrobe and have guided my shopping decisions in recent months, with the result that I feel much more comfortable with both the contents of my closet and my daily outfits. There are still occasions when I find myself stepping outside the boundaries of my style Venn diagram (there is quite a lot of overlap between my avatars), with predictable results — I end up feeling like I’m wearing another person’s outfit — but I am trying to be patient with myself. I am so used to wearing clothes in certain ways that it’s not always easy to re-imagine them in new ways better suited to my new aesthetic. Some trial and error is to be expected.

As I stopped doing monthly outfit recaps a while ago, I thought it would be interesting to revisit that concept now and see if the progress I feel I’ve made is actually reflected in my outfits. Below, I’ve compiled my work outfits for the month of July (less a couple of Fridays because of they wouldn’t fit in this format):

What pleases me the most is the cohesiveness of these looks. I used to feel that my outfits in the past were “all over the map”, so to speak; I never truly knew why, but that always bugged me. I think it has to do with what clothes mean to me. Style is an expression of the individual, a reflection of who they are (or want to be). Looking at collages of my old outfits left me feeling like I was someone who didn’t really know who she was. I was wearing things I thought I should – because the clothes were nice, or they looked flattering, etc. But there was no clear intention to it all.

These looks are much less likely to be crowd pleasers, I do know that; but they very much reflect the person I feel I have become. They are quirky and eclectic and a maybe little bit flamboyant, but in an understated kind of way (if “understated flamboyance” is not an oxymoron). They are not trendy, except perhaps by accident. They are pieced together from thrifted finds, because I am a woman who loves finding beautiful things in the rubbish heap. There is some broader life metaphor in there, somewhere.

What surprised me the most is all the brown. I don’t think of myself as someone who loves earthy colours, but there is an undeniable theme happening in these photos. I don’t mind. I have been increasingly drawn to muted colours, from one end of the colour spectrum to the other, because I find them soothing and peaceful. I do still like throwing in a wrench of a bright colour every now and then, though … just to keep things interesting.