Wow. If you did a shot every time I said, “cultivate” you’d be WASTED by now. I guess I secretly long to farm …
Video: Style Versus Taste
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Sally McGraw
Minneapolis,
MN
Blogger, freelance journalist, communications professional, style and body-image writer. Click here to learn more about me.-
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Great video post, Sal! As always, I think you hit the nail right on the head in explaining the difference between these two concepts! I really agree with the idea that you can have great style and compose it of simple and inexpensive pieces and that
1. knowing your figure and what flatters your body
and
2. experimenting ad infinitum
will get you to that happy place of having a well developed personal style and creating wonderful ensembles.
I REALLLLLYYYYY wish I were there this month to meet you in person, I'm so bummed that I don't get to! Have a lovely time with my fellow Chics and we'll just have to meet up the next time it's possible…unless you and Husband Mike have a Germany trip schedule for sometime before next summer?
S.
Fabulous video! I think you've summed this up marvelously.
It's great to get to hear your voice!
I kdj;w kel; lasejeeedlkd…
Oh, sorry, typing while drunk.
Hi Bob!
Tast I got. Style, I'm working on.
Great post! Very true.
When I first started paying attention to my wardrobe after college, the first thing I did was employ taste, and buy beautiful garments. Skirts and shirts of beautiful colors, fabrics, with gorgeous embellishment, and used a showpiece as the basis of each outfit. Exactly like you described!
Then I moved onto using simpler items and attempting to make stylish combinations out of them, and find things that really suited my body type. Exactly as you described!
this must be a universal progression- this is what happened to me too!
I have a 'taste'. I don't know if it is GOOD Taste (but I feel it is) and I certainly have EXPENSIVE tastes, which I try my best to calm.
Style, on the other hand, is this evolving creature that was a tadpole a few years ago and is now a giant bullfrog… that shouts at me every morning to mix it up and wow…
I think that the ability to mix colors and patterns is a skill set that many have an are afraid to use… it is kind of inborn like taste, but it can be learned…
Great video Sal!
Great video! Style is something I am definitely working to "cultivate."
Such a great video! I reall enjoyed watching it!
Some wonderfully cultivated points there, Sal.
Sal, I LOVE your humour! I really do.
I also know what you mean about the Taste->Style progression. I had never thought about it before, but it makes perfect sense.
That was so natural that I kept wanting to jump in and talk back to you. Well said and I would agree with pretty much all of it. XOXO
Great video!
Maybe you just love the word "cultivate!" Go easy on yourself, Sal, everybody loves you!
Love your videos. Informative, and I miss those midwestern vowels. So great.
i think you pretty much got it! of course you can't have great style without great taste… but i also think there is an element beyond the clothing itself that really pulls the outfit together.. je ne sais quoi?
for the first time ever a chart came up in my head! i love you!
I think you are dead on, like always. Like you said, style is knowing how to make things gorgeous.
I completely agree with you, money definitely does not buy style!
Aw yeah, an Already Pretty drinking game!
Seriously, I love this video, Sal — excellent points here. I used to do the same thing with buying one showpiece and letting it carry the entire outfit. The problem with doing that is that you end up with a very disjointed wardrobe, instead of a harmonious blend of items that work well in a variety of combinations.
I get what you're saying, Sal. While I do not see myself as having gotten to the point of being stylish, I do have great pieces that I love, and then end up never wearing because I do not know what to pair it with, or go the easy, boring route of pairing it the plainest items that I buy just to wear with it and then peg myself into the hole of only wearing, say, that embellished skirt with that top. You mention patience as a good virtue to have when you are teaching yourself about your own style and experimenting endlessly until you find a combo that works. I couldn't agree more. I'm new at this stuff. With two young kids at home, my "experimenting" time is limited, and that comes with the territory. I do want to veer somewhat from my safe jeans and t-shirts/sweaters formula, but without that time to experiment, it is hard to get away from it. I find that I am often bored with my clothing, or have "nothing to wear", or end up spending two hours trying to get dressed, with a crying baby in one side and a screaming toddler on the other. Of course we are the only ones who can determine what looks good on us, but it is nice to take a shortcut and use someone else's ideas to inspire us, and then adapt them to our situation, involving what we already own, without having to re-invent the wheel. I think that good taste and personal good style can come from a picture, but I do agree that without developping it on our own, it is just "borrowed" style and not "personal" style
I also may disagree that some has good personal style if their taste is different than mine, know what I mean? Like if someone is stuck on a previous decade, without a nod to the present. It may look great, and be great for a costume party, but not appropriate for today. I personally think that a stylish person can surpass decades and be always current, without being trendy or costume-y, but that's because I consider my emerging style to be classic. Maybe for someone else my style translates as safe and boring because his/her taste differ from mine.
This hit home for me, as I feel I'm still at a point where I am buying beautiful pieces but I don't have style yet. I find that I can wear the same pieces as someone in a blog photo and yet it's "missing" something… the effect isn't the same.
Your site and your videos are just great. I really enjoy reading your posts.