No Fear of Developing Your Personal Style| High Latitude Style

Fear to change hold many women back from developing personal style that reflects who they are and who the have become. However, every woman always looks best when her look, personality, and lifestyle match. Read the journey of my personal style evolution, to loose your anxiety of developing personal style.

Contents

Developing Personal Style Is Always in Flow
Your Personal Style Evolves with Your Lifestyle
Re-Discovering My Love for Leather Pants – Rock’n Roll
My 1980s Banker Style Phase
Wearing the 1990s Uniform
Falling in Love with American Classic
Midlife – Turning Fashion into Eclectic Style
Developing Personal Style Means Some Elements May Remain Constant

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Developing Personal Style Is Always in Flow

Having and developing personal style is an active process that every gal can take control of. However, she has to liberate herself from the superimposed style of the parent who buy the clothes and make the purchase or even outfit decisions. Developing personal style is work under progress. Having great personal style is a life long journey of picking the items that are right for you and so you. It is also about knowing how to turn fashion into style.

Style evolution also means learning to turn fashion into personal style.

Nicole in bell bottom jeans in the 70s — Me as a teenager wearing a fuchsia jacket and bell-bottom jeans and wood clogs in the 1970s.

Nicole as a teenager in Indian hand-painted dress — Me as a teenager wearing an Indian hand painted dress with paisley print during my Bohemian tribal inspired style phase. The hem length highlights the ankles.

A while ago, I wrote a post about my fight to wear jeans. Putting my old blue jeans on – a pair of washed Wranglers – was a major milestone on my rocky road to personal style. One of the first style fights with my mom was about my favorite color – black. In the 1960s, it just didn’t seem right for a toddler to wear black.

toddler in pink jacket — Me as a 3 year old toddler in a pink cardigan that my mom had knitted for me.

toddler in lederhose — Me as a toddler in my first lederhose that started my love for leather clothing

Personal Style Evolves with Your Lifestyle

Having personal style means that you will permanently make changes – call it updates or upgrades – as you change your lifestyle. I had my retro style phase as an early teenager followed by a Bohemian tribal style inspired phase. Around graduating from High School and in my early college years, I loved wearing “hand-me downs” or flea market finds as I had to save money for college and in college live on about 600 DM a month, respectively. My mom called that style “Lumpenlook” (shabby look).

Personal style reflects who you are and who you became.

Re-Discovering My Love for Leather Pants – Rock’n Roll

This style phase ended when my brother grew about a foot in a year and hand me down his leather pants. I adopted a Rock’n Roll style. They ended around my ankles and I made my ankles a feature. Today, I still love to highlight them.

At about that time, I had found a job that did pay less than 360 DM a month. However, it permitted buying a pair of cool pumps or booties from brands like Peter Kaiser, or Bally when they were on sale twice a year. I also picked up dancing again after a long break since graduating from High School. Guess what kind of dancing? I joined the University of Cologne’s Rock’n Roll team.

woman working in a casual look at a gas chromatograph — Me in midnight blue jeans and gray turtleneck working at a gas chromatograph at the Nuclear Power Research Center in Jülich, Germany. Wearing neutrals at work was part of my developing personal style in the 1980s.

Rock'n Roll inspired abstract print skirt and red top as a step in developing personal style — Me wearing a self-sewn Rock’n Roll style peasant skirt in abstract print, lace-up sandals with ankle straps and a red top on vacation in Miami Beach, Florida.

My Banker Style Phase

When working on my MS and PhD theses, my style developed towards what was called in West Germany the Banker Style also known as power dressing. It was a cheap version of Euro Chic. This style was worn by young women who wanted to look professional, but couldn’t fork over the money for high quality suits, blazers, pencil skirts, coats and bags – you name it. We made our own necklaces. Faux pearl necklaces were a must-have. We shopped at H&M for cheap business clothes. Denim and anything casual was reserved for the weekends, but statement pumps and a bold statement necklace were a must. Lust items were a swatch or Tissot watch.

young woman in gray jeans and pink cable knit sweater — Me as a PhD graduate student at a party wearing a cable knit sweater with gray skinny jeans, DIY statement necklace, and zebra pumps.

developing personal style in a casual vacation outfit — Me in white Bermuda shorts and red racer back top, baseball hat and Birkenstocks on vacation in Orlando, Florida.

Pink with black were a big thing to do color-wise. The love for black and pink seems like a red line in my style evolution when I see how many posts I wrote about outfits with this color like wearing pink with camouflage or pairing pink with navy for a fall outfit.

Wearing the 1990s Uniform

In the 90s, when working on my second PhD, my style turned to Euro Chic Style with a twist. Think Emanuelle Alt. My closet blackened literally. Black became my Goto neutral. Prints were reserved for silk scarves, silk bows, and some summer weekend and vacation dresses. Blazer, shirt with bow or scarf, dark jeans (midnight blue or black) plus pumps or blazer, sweater, necklace, dark jeans and pumps were my uniform. In summer, I wore straight or pencil skirts with a silk sweater, scarf and pumps or a LBD on warm days, add a blazer for cool days. Lust items were a Festina or Tissot watch. A Swatch was a Must-Have. I never bought the latter one.

young woman in fake black suits in the early 90s — Me in a fake black suit on Crete in 1991 wearing a straight black skirt, cropped jacket with 3/4 sleeves, black silk scarf, DIY belt and red top.

I even wanted a black fit-and-flare wedding dress with a daisies head band. However, my husband had already his gray double breasted suit. He thought the wedding photos would turn out too dark and dull. Therefore, I went for a red skirt suit and a black hat.

wedding attire in banker style featuring red as a constant in my personal style development — My husband and I at our wedding in 1992.

Falling in Love with American Classic

The onset of my American Classic style goes back to 2000, when I spent my sabbatical at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. I fell in love with denim beyond the pair of black or midnight blue jeans. Furthermore, I added denim jackets to my wardrobe and wore them with my straight skirts or over my printed summer dresses.

#fashionover40 midlife woman looking posh chic in denim shirt dress and leather hat — Me in the 2000s wearing a denim shirt dress with leather hat at the Tanana Valley Fair.

My blazers got patterns like herring bone, plaid or hounds tooth. My standard wardrobe neutral black got gray, and blue as companions plus the white button-down shirt. I invested in a pair of riding boots to wear with a tweed skirt. In the 2010s, I revisited the pants in boots style I loved so in fourth grade, but used skinnies instead of wool pants. Developing personal style I discovered the eternal chic of an Irish sweater.

#fashionover40 midlife woman in casual look with Russian scarf — Orvis Irish cable-knit sweater with Russian scarf, Newport New leather pants, Coach Chelsea, and Kieselstein Cord belt and buckle.

Midlife – Turning Fashion into Eclectic Style

I still love wearing black. However, lately, I like to add a very dark brown like dark chocolate to the neutrals. This color still permits playing with the dramatic contrast of my light skin with dark clothes, but the color is more forgiving to my changing skin (read wrinkles).

In menopause, I became interested in Street Style and incorporated elements of it in my looks. When mixing prints and pattern became a Do, my style became more eclectic. Today, I would describe my favorite way of dressing as an eclectic style.

Developing Personal Style Means Some Elements Remain Constant

Other color that have been always in my wardrobe are red and pink. I have always loved 3/4 sleeves, skirts around-knee lengths or slightly higher, leather, great shoes, scarves, abstract floral print on black background. Furthermore, I have always liked to play up my thin ankles either with booties, a hem line at the ankles or buckles at the ankles.