You’ve likely gone through at least one major style transition in your life. If you haven’t, heads up, it’s coming.
Style transitions can be frustrating, awkward, and maybe even painful (hello, puberty). But they can also be an empowering way to update how you present yourself to the world. You feel more like yourself—comfortable and confident about what you're wearing.
In today’s episode, Sarai and Haley talk about how to navigate a style transition.
They cover the signs you might be in a transition, give you some tools for examining that transition, and some actions you can take to evolve your style alongside your life.
Below are the show notes for this podcast episode and a brief summary of what's covered, followed by a full transcript.
Show Notes
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How to Maintain an Effective Pinterest Inspiration Board: Learn how to track your core style, so you can update it whenever you have a style transition. -
Design Your Wardrobe: Our popular course that helps you plan the sewing projects you'll love to wear. -
Style Workshop: This hands-on workshop helps you define your core style. It's FREE for Seamwork members and just $10 if you aren't a member. -
Podcast listeners get half off an unlimited Seamwork membership when you use this link, plus you get to keep that price as long as you’re a member! - Tell us your idea for the next icebreakers for makers!
Tips for Navigating a Style Transition
Determine the cause
The first step is to figure out why you might feel out of touch with your style. You might feel frustrated, bored, stuck in a rut, or confused. Describe what you are feeling.
Here are some questions you can ask.
- When did you start to feel this way? Did it come on suddenly, or has it been slowly building over time?
- Are you experiencing any major changes in your life
- Have you moved recently?
- Are you in transition with your lifestyle, work, body, or physical activity?
Figure out what feels inauthentic right now
The next step is to figure out what part of your style feels inauthentic right now.
Maybe you don’t need a total overhaul. It could just be one aspect that’s not working for you.
You might need some new colors or a few new outerwear pieces, rather than a total makeover.
- What specifically feels wrong about your clothes? When you get stuck getting dressed, whats’ going through your mind?
- Are you feeling physically uncomfortable with the way your clothes fit and move on your body?
- Do you enjoy the colors in your closet, or are you finding them hard to wear?
- Do you have enough pieces to mix and match to create outfits?
- Where do you see gaps in your wardrobe?
Start making a new mood board
Next, start to curate the image you want to express with your clothes. If you have a core style Pinterest board, edit it, delete what doesn’t feel good, and add things you feel excited about.
If you don't have a core style mood board, create one!
We have a video and article that show you why it’s so helpful and how to create and maintain one.
If you're working digitally, make a physical mood board
Creating a digital mood board is convenient, but it helps to have a physical guide when you’re going through a style transition.
Hang your mood board in your sewing space or, even better, in your closet. Then, you can begin actualizing your new style direction as you make sewing plans and get dressed in the morning.
Create a clothing purgatory for garments that aren’t working right now
When you spot problematic clothes as you get dressed, put them in purgatory. Get a bin, a drawer, or even a bag, and tuck away the clothes that don’t make you feel your best.
You can keep them in limbo for six months to a year, then go through them right before you find them new homes.
Here’s a tip: It helps to wait for a year so that you are thinking about clothes in their current season. You might feel inclined to declutter your winter wardrobe during the summer heat, but you can be more objective about them when you’re actively wearing them.
Update your sewing queue to include a few things you're excited about
While you’re in the midst of your style transition, find a project that really excites you. Prioritize it so that you get some momentum.
You can find a quick, satisfying project, like an accessory or a T-shirt, or you can start to dive into something more memorable. Working on a project that excites will provide the energy you need as you concentrate on refining your overall style.
Podcast Transcript
Sarai
I'm Sarai.
Haley
And I'm Haley.
Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.
Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and joy.
Today, we're talking about how to navigate a style transition. So we're going to cover the signs you might be in a transition, give you some tools for examining that transition, and some actions you can take to evolve your style alongside your life.
All right, let's talk about style transitions. So our icebreaker for today, Haley, what was your most dramatic style transition?
Haley
I think that my most dramatic. I almost said traumatic. It may have been that, too.
Sarai
Sometimes the two things go together.
Haley
Oh, that's too good. Style transition was probably adolescence on both ends, entering and exiting. Not that I have any major regrets. I think it was probably more just like whiplash for the people around me, especially, I think, with young women, that transition from girlhood to adolescence is. Man, I don't wish that on anyone.
And it just seems, like, really abrupt. One day you're playing with Barbies, and then the next day you're dying your hair purple and going to the mall every weekend.
Sarai
So what was your style transition? How did that play itself out?
Haley
I think that I dyed my hair purple.
Sarai
Yeah, so did I.
Haley
And started hanging out at record stores and Hot Topic and thrift stores.
I think from the outside, for the adults in my life, it was probably jarring from something that is perceived as more wholesome to something that's more jarring. But I think we also, societally have a little bit better a relationship with the experimentation that is good and normal in adolescence now. So it might have been a little bit of a symptom of the time as well. But for me, that was dramatic and traumatic.
Sarai
Same. I would definitely say that was the time for me, too. It's such a time of trying to figure yourself out and who you are as a person. So you have to kind of try on a lot of identities, I feel like. So I think those first few years of high school, in particular, my style just changed and evolved very quickly.
But same, I dyed my hair first. It was burgundy and then purple. Those are the first colors I ever dyed my hair when I was 14. I cut it into a pixie cut, and then I grew it really long after that. And I started wearing a lot of thrift store clothes and shopping for myself at Goodwill and Salvation Army and wearing a lot of old man clothes when I was probably, like, 14, and then gradually transitioning into wearing a lot of black and, yeah, just a lot of different things I was trying on at that period of my life.
Haley
I think that you're trying on, like you said, all these different identities. And I think it has to do, too, with how much you personally feel compelled to reject what has been societally placed on you by your family and your culture and all of those really direct influences from when you're a child. And I really swung hard the other way.
Sarai
I think the same for me. I was always a really good girl, got good grades, and then all of a sudden, I wanted something totally different. And I think that's very normal for teenagers.
Haley
It is normal. It's not like an always, but I think it's very normal.
Sarai
And healthy, that separation from your family of origin. I think that that was a period of my life that—we talked about this in the previous episode—all that experimentation, I think, really informed my style later on and even who I am as a person. I know fashion and clothing seems very trivial to a lot of people, but I think that kind of self expression at that age really helped inform my sense of self and my aesthetic and what I value in a lot of different ways. And it's not just about clothing. It's also about, again, that separation and identity, that kind of sense of finding yourself. And I think that continues throughout your life. And that's kind of our topic for today.
But before we get into that, if you have an icebreaker, you want to leave for us for a future episode. If you have a question that you want to leave, you can leave it for us at Seamwork.com/go/icebreakers. If you're a Seamwork member, that'll take you to a thread on the community where you can leave your question.
All right, well, let's talk about this topic for today of style transition. So most of us are going to experience several different style transitions throughout our lives. As our lives change, as we change. It's very natural and normal.
It can feel kind of bad. It can feel kind of icky. It can feel almost like an existential crisis, because our style is really how we reflect who we are to the world. And when we feel like we're losing grasp on that language, it can feel like we're also losing a grasp on ourselves or maybe on a part of ourselves. And that can be sort of discombobulating, I think.
So it helps to have some creative ways to handle a style transition and even just to recognize a style transition so that you can reflect who you are in a way that feels true to you and really helps you build confidence rather than takes it away.
Haley, what's your current relationship with your own personal style?
Haley
I would say that I'm in a moment right now. It comes in waves. I think that transitions hit us in waves. And right now, I'm in a really peaceful kind of homeostasis with my personal style where I have a good grasp on it, a good understanding of it, and a good idea of how to execute it. And so I'm just staying present in this moment, knowing that someday it'll be different. And that's okay.
Sarai
Yeah, I kind of feel that way. I feel like I'm very comfortable with my own style. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on what I like to wear. I do think it has evolved in the last few years, because we've had a lot of changes in the world, as everybody listening knows, and also in most people's lifestyles.
For me in particular, I had a big change in my lifestyle when I moved out of the city, and that actually had a pretty big effect on what I wear, just for practical reasons. So I've gone through some personal transitions that I feel like are reflected in my style, but I feel like I've navigated them in a way that still feels pretty true to me.
I also feel like my style is definitely continuing to evolve. I mean, it always is, but I definitely feel like I have a sense of, I don't know, I just have this kind of picture in my mind of would wear as when I'm in my 60s, when I'm in my. I've always felt that way. Like, I've always, for some reason, looked forward to that part of my life style-wise.
And I kind of feel like I can already see the little bits and pieces of how my style is going to evolve over decades, which I think is really, really interesting to think about.
Haley
That's fun, to have that excitement on the horizon for the future chapters, I think. And I think that's a gift that building your personal style can really give you.
I want to ask, when you feel a style transition kind of coming on, what is your first instinct?
Sarai
I think it's exciting.
Haley
Really?
Sarai
Yeah. Because I feel like there are some style transitions that I think feel imposed from outside, and maybe those feel a little bit less exciting. So, for example, if for practical reasons, you love wearing dresses, but now you live in a climate where it's not very practical to wear dresses that can feel not great, and you kind of have to come up with some creative ideas around that.
Or if maybe you used to enjoy wearing something but your body has changed and you don't feel comfortable in it anymore, that can be hard to navigate, and I think we all go through those things, definitely. And if you haven't yet, you will.
But a lot of times, the style transitions come more from discovering some part of myself or discovering something that I find beautiful and finding new ways to incorporate that into my life. And so that feels really exciting to me because it's like uncovering a part of myself or a part of my identity or the way my identity is evolving. I think that's really cool.
So I usually feel really excited about style transitions.
Haley
You're so positive.
Sarai
I am a positive person. What about you?
Haley
My first instinct is usually, purge my closet, and that's also kind of like a clue of what's coming. I feel like, for me, most recently, my big style transition happened four years ago when I became a mom. And I think that I had that I was naive when I was pregnant and thinking of becoming a mother, that in the same way that all many expectant mothers are naive, that this isn't going to change my life that much I can wear all the same things. And, I mean, I guess in theory I could. It just is less practical for me now.
That felt like one of those circumstantial style changes that really blindsided me, which, looking back now, I'm like, come on, Haley.
And so that one was like, a really hard one to navigate, and I just wanted to get rid of it all. But I'm on that, luckily, on the other side of that now. Even though I'm like, I say this, that I'm seven months pregnant, I'm thinking, I wonder if that'll happen again. We'll see. Only time will tell.
So how do you know that you're in a style transition, and what do you think some of the telltale signs are?
Sarai
I think there are a couple of ways it can go. I think one is similar to what you just said when you feel like you don't have anything you want to wear. Personally, I have a lot of clothing. I know I have a lot of clothing, and that's because I sew a lot, and a lot of my clothing is secondhand, and I enjoy clothing. And when I feel like I don't have anything that I want to wear, that is a sign to me that something has changed.
So that could be one thing. I haven't felt that way in quite a while, or it could be just for practical reasons. It's not that you don't want to wear it. It's more practical to wear jeans every day, for example, and you find yourself only wearing a tiny portion of your closet because that's what's practical. So I feel like that is a really big sign.
And then the other sign, I think the more positive sign—or positive in that it feels a little bit better, is when you just are really excited about a certain new style that you are trying to incorporate. I think that can be another sign that you're in a style transition, and that's more of, like, a looking forward sign than I have nothing to wear sort of sign.
Haley
I think that for me, from this most recent style transition that I experienced, some of the signs for me were that I stopped dressing for fun. It was only from a place of practicality. That was a sign.
I wanted to shop because I felt like I needed that instant gratification in my closet more. And I didn't find myself even wanting to wear things that were my favorite things in my closet, things that always were kind of like, my feel good go-to type things.
When those stopped feeling right, that's when I knew, like, something's up.
Sarai
Yeah, I think those are all really clear signs as well.
All right, well, let's talk a little bit about style transitions and how to navigate them. So we've got some tips, things that we've found helpful.
The first one, and I think this is the first step, really is just determining the cause. So if you find yourself in one of these style transitions, I think starting with understanding why is really, really helpful.
So the questions you can ask yourself are things like, when did it start? When did you start noticing these kinds of symptoms? And are you experiencing any major changes in your life that could be leading to this? And those changes could be things like your lifestyle. It could be changes in life stage. Like Haley mentioned, having a child is obviously a huge change to your life. For me, moving from a city life to a country life was a really, really big change in my life.
Those are all things that can lead to a style transition. And I think just examining those causes can make the rest of the process a lot easier if you understand where it's coming from.
It could also be things like your body changing, or it could be your values changing as you're getting older and you recognize that maybe the way you dress isn't really reflective of that anymore. So it could be something that's a little bit more subtle like that. It doesn't necessarily need to be a sudden and dramatic change. And that's where I think it's especially helpful to really think about what's leading to this for you.
Haley
Yeah. Even if you are finding at, like, a surface level that you're just attracted to different things, and that might just be as deep as it is—but taking the time to examine a little bit deeper and ask yourself why over and over again, to see if there's a deeper meaning behind that shift in the things that you're drawn to.
After you take a little time to reflect on that, our next step is to figure out what part of your style is feeling really inauthentic right now.
When you're looking at your wardrobe kind of holistically, it might feel like everything is kind of wrong, the whole direction is wrong. But what's the saying? There's no need to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Maybe you don't need a total overhaul. It could just be one aspect of your personal style that's not vibing with you right now. This is where I think it's really valuable to have your core style words and your style signatures. If you're not familiar with that, we talked about that in the previous podcast episode, episode 183.
So revisiting what those core style words were and maybe some slight pivots that you can make to make it feel a little more authentic to where you are right now.
Sarai
And then once you've done that, you can start doing the fun part.
You can start making a new mood board to kind of re-hone your personal style. So if you have a core style board, maybe on Pinterest or somewhere else, you can edit it, you can delete what doesn't feel good. You can add things that you do feel excited about and just kind of start playing with it a little bit and seeing what you might want to add in, how you might want to evolve it.
If you don't have a core style board or a mood board already that kind of represents what is really your consistent style, you can create one. And we have a video and an article all about that that we can link in the show notes for you. It's called How to Maintain an Effective Pinterest inspiration board, I think it's called. So you can find that in the show notes, and it can help you to start this process.
It's really, really helpful to have something like that ongoing, to kind of provide that visual representation of your overall style, that's something that I have. I know, Haley, you have one. And for me, it's really, really helpful.
Haley
It's really nice to have a place beyond the mood boards that we create for our wardrobe planning from season to season that has those things that are really static in our personal style.
All right. From there, what I like to do when I'm feeling, especially when I'm feeling really kind of out of whack with my personal style, I don't always make a physical mood board, but I feel like this is a really good place to make a physical mood board.
So if you're working digitally, make an analog mood board from your Pinterest board or however else you are gathering your inspiration digitally. Why I like to do this is because I like to then hang it in my sewing space, hang it in my closet, hang it somewhere that I'm going to look at it every day so that I can start visualizing my sewing plans and visualizing my new direction as I'm getting dressed every day.
I feel like having it physically in your space helps you to start implementing it even in those really small, itty bitty ways.
Sarai
I like having physical mood boards. I like having them around me so that I can return to them again and again. I find that to be super, super helpful.
And I like working analog, too. I think it forces you to think in a different way than when you're working digitally, and that's because there's physical constraints on it. When you're working digitally, you can collect so much stuff, and you can spend hours and hours just rearranging stuff. But I think when you're working analog, it really helps you to kind of make those editing decisions.
The next tip is to create kind of a clothing purgatory for garments that aren't working right now. So if you are kind of feeling like a lot of the stuff that you already have is no longer serving you, but you're not sure if you want to just clean out your closet and get rid of all this stuff that you've had, and maybe it even feels kind of wasteful to you, you can keep them in sort of a purgatory for six months, maybe a year, and then go through them before you find them new home.
The way I like to do this is just to get a bin, kind of an airtight bin, put some stuff in there that you're no longer wearing or that you don't feel is right for you right now and seal it up, put it somewhere you can put it in a garage somewhere where you don't necessarily need to deal with it all the time, and then just leave it for a little while, you might find that you don't need it anymore.
You don't actually miss it at all once it's gone. I think most times when I get rid of things in this way, I kind of just forget about them, and that tells you something, but you can also go through them again before you decide to rehome it and see if it's something that maybe you do want to incorporate again.
I like the year time frame on this, just because it'll bring you back to when it's in season again if you kind of do this seasonally, I like that idea, but it could even just be a month or two, a few months, and just see where it takes you. I think this is a really great way to kind of play around with what you already have and kind of figure out how you might want to edit it down without actually making any immediate commitments.
Haley
Yeah, I rarely ever get rid of anything without putting it in a timeout first.
All right. And then the last tip is to update your sewing queue to include a few things that you're feeling excited about from your mood board and making sure that you're prioritizing an exciting project in your near future. Because that can help you feel a lot of momentum and forward movement as you navigate this style transition. I think it can help you move out of that place of helplessness into, like, a more action-oriented mindset and put you in the driver's seat.
Sarai
All right, well, let me just recap our tips for navigating a style transition today.
The first one is to determine the cause. That's step one.
Then figure out what part of your style feels inauthentic to you right now.
The third step is to start making a new mood board. You can either play around with your existing core style board or create a new one. If you're working digitally, we recommend then making a physical mood board something that you can look at.
Create a clothing purgatory for garments that aren't working right now and just set them aside for a little while.
And then update your sewing queue to include things that you're really excited about from your mood board.
So those are our six ideas for navigating a style transition. What's your big takeaway from this episode, Haley?
Haley
I think my big takeaway is how vital it's been to the development and consistency of my personal style to have a core style mood board that I maintain regularly. I think that I've really leaned into this process even more over the last four years, and I think that it's helped me to not dramatize any minor transitions in my style and instead just kind of evolve them in a really slow and steady kind of way.
Sarai
I think a really good point.
What this led me to think about, because we were talking earlier about adolescence and how that's a big transition period where many people, especially women, experiment with their style very heavily. And it just made me think about those times in life where you kind of go through these major transitions.
I think one that a lot of people go through that maybe doesn't necessarily always manifest in the way we dress to the extent that it does in adolescence is entering middle age, which I am firmly in now. And I feel like that's a time where a lot of people, a lot of women, men, too, everybody, I think, kind of goes through a really big transition in the way that they kind of treat their lives.
It's a time where a lot of people, this is kind of like the cliche of the midlife crisis, and I think there's a reason for that. And that I think it's a time where you kind of have achieved a lot of things you set out to achieve, and you're starting to kind of think, okay, what does this all mean?
You're really thinking a lot more about purpose and what's important to you and kind of reevaluating. I think that's really, really common. And so it's interesting to think about how that can manifest in your world, your physical world.
So whether that's through your personal style, your clothing, your environment, if that's something that is important to you, it is important to me. How does that play out? And I think just the knowledge that's very common for a lot of people is, I don't know, it's really helpful for me to think about it that way. And I think our discussion about adolescence really framed that for me.
Haley
That is a really interesting observation that I think is totally true.
Sarai
All right, well, we mentioned the Style Workshop today, and if that's something that you're interested in, it's a 1-hour, hands on workshop that walks you through exercises to help you really identify your core style. And it's also a really great process to go through before tackling any other wardrobe planning.
And it's free for Seamwork members. And if you aren't a member, it's only $10. So it's super affordable.
If you like this episode, we would absolutely love it if you would leave us a review and a five star rating, we really, really appreciate it. We had a review from political Pat. I love that name, political Pat. Political Pat commented on the episode we did with thrifting tips and really liked that episode. So left some really nice comments and thoughts about thrifting and then ended with “really enjoy your well planned and thought out podcasts.”
Thank you. So thanks Political Pat. We really appreciate whenever you guys leave a review, I know it takes a couple minutes out of your day and really appreciate that time that you spend just to say something nice that's really appreciated and it does not go unnoticed.
We read every single review and they totally make our day every single time we read them. So thank you guys so much. That does it for us this week. I'm Sarai.
Haley
And I'm Haley.
Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.