I’ve got good news and bad news.
For all the Gen Z girlies who feel the lack “personal style” or that they’re suffocating under the constant churn of TikTok trends, well, here’s some good news from a milliennial in fashion who’s tried everything under the sun: It’s a rite of passage. You will find your personal style as you get older, and the sartorial mistakes you make along the way are part of the journey. Finding your personal style is as much a process of elimination as it is a daily experiment.
Now for the bad news. After working in fashion for more than a decade, I still can’t say I don’t make the occasional impulse purchase that I very quickly come to regret. Nor can I say with 100% confidence that I’ve nailed my personal style.
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You see, when you work in fashion, especially in this relentless digital age, there’s a lot of pressure to dress a certain way, to wear the latest drops or style the latest trends. And once it’s on the ‘gram, God forbid you get snapped in it again (that part is thankfully changing with people being more sustainability-conscious, but if you look at most fashion influencers’ feeds, you’d be hard-pressed to find a repeat outfit on the grid).
As a fashion editor, I’m bombarded with emails from brands touting a new microtrend and TikTok coining a new ‘core’ every single day. Just this morning an email subject line read: “Fishermancore is the new Coastal Grandmother—shop it now.” To those who have bemoaned that “Gen Z have no style,” I’d like to come to their defence. How could they when even I, someone supposedly older and wiser, have trouble keeping up with this sartorial hamster wheel?
A decade ago, the proliferation of fashion shows coincided with the rise of the Fashion Influencer, resulting in what many would agree was the birth of street style today. The concrete sidewalks became the new runway; and Chiara Ferragni the new Cindy Crawford. Insert little old me, in my early 20s, going to my first shows, intimidated by the hoards of photographers stationed outside shows flashing away at immaculately-dressed attendees. I, too, got swept up in the fray, and I found myself dressing up to impress my industry peers, which at the time meant some highly impractical footwear and questionable outerwear choices in subzero temperatures that made me feel self-conscious and once even catch pneumonia (true story).