How to Dress Classic or Trendy for Your Best Wardrobe

Ladies,

Fashion advice often comes in the form of focusing on trends. After all, it can be helpful to know what is considered in style or out of style. However, some people dismiss classic clothes as “outdated” confusing classics as things that should be trendy in order to still wear them.

While fun and fresh, trends are not necessarily tailored to your body shape, your best color palette, or even your personal taste. But the best classics for you are tailored to those things.

Identify Classics vs Trends

Just because something is not trendy does not mean it is “outdated”. For example, A-line skirts are not a trendy style currently, but that doesn’t mean it’s suddenly irrelevant. If styles look outdated based on them not being the current trend, then we would have to dress head to toe in trends to avoid looking outdated! But head to toe trends is not a good look, which means there is always a need for classic clothing to even support the trendier items you wear.

Style Wisdom

Once you get to a certain age you see the fashion industry for the never-ending hamster wheel that it is, and you don’t let them dictate to you anymore. You simply use the ebb and flow of fashion for what it can give to you if it can give something to you. By a certain age you have typically worked out what does and does not look best on you. By a certain age you have typically decided what you like the best. There is no shame in sticking with what works for you even if that makes you “outdated”.

What Are “Classics”?

Classic items can and do fluctuate in small ways but are items that maintain a standing as a culturally polite fashion that emulates an element of what is perceived as class (my definition not the dictionary’s). These are flattering styles to the individual that showcase what has been viewed as fabrics and cuts of good taste. Good examples of classics are anything that is not as showy as trends can be and are items that can be paired with trendier items. Typically, classic items are never extremes. Instead of platform shoes, a smaller sole would be a classic item. Instead of a mini skirt or dress, a midi length would be more classic. Instead of bell bottoms or skinny jeans, a straight leg would be classic. Pumps with an almond toe are the classic when compared to an extreme pointy toe.

Classic Items can Look Trendy

Take this wrap dress for instance. The wrap dress became wildly embraced by women in the 1970’s because it gave them a way to look put-together, figure flattering, work appropriate, and for mothers, something nice to wear that was nursing friendly.

Now take the wrap dress in a 1970’s color palette and print and add a wide sharp collar. That looks so era specific, it was very trendy at that time but now it would look like a wrap dress out of the past. Those elements were trendy. But the cut of the dress is classic.

That’s not a bad thing to look trendier. It’s just proof that classic items can transform into trendy looks depending on how they are done.

Classics Staying Classic

Take the same wrap dress style in a non-era specific color palette or print (something that wasn’t overly saturated at any given time), delete the collar and it looks like it doesn’t belong to any specific trend period. By not looking overly era specific, it can have longevity throughout different decades. This renders it a classic.

Classic Fashion Goes with a Lifestyle

Classic fashion looks good at home and out and about. Observe the most classic clothing brands and how they depict people in a refined and dignified way, sitting in a nice chair in their homes, enjoying scenery on their boat, picking flowers in their garden. Trendy clothing brands depict people in a more hyper sense, showing off for the camera, garish behavior like sticking out their tongues, and they are at the club, at a party scene, etc. You can spot the difference in attitude that fashion conveys just by the context that the company gives it around someone wearing it. When looking for classic clothing brands, look for companies that depict calm and elegant atmosphere for daily life. One of the best ways to spot a clothing line of quality is how much they display their garments being suitable for the home and the outdoors. The more classic the fashion, the more the style and quality is meant for daily life.

Classic is modest

Modest is a word that people take differently. While some trends can be modest in style, typically classic items are the most modest in style.

Classic modesty examples include skirts below the knee, sleeves or straps wide enough to completely cover bra straps, necklines that do not let anything hang out, and shoes with a simple or sleek silhouette. You will look classic if you stick to clothing that does not show bra straps, cleavage, or thigh.

Variety of Classic Style

Classic clothing comes in all colors and prints. Classic clothing is not just neutral in color, all white, or all black, or void of personality. Now some prints that get overly saturated in a particular era tend to not be designated as classic, such as chevron print a la 2014. Then there are prints that have been used throughout the decades that are considered classic such as houndstooth, plaid, polka dot, etc.

Quality of Classic Style

While some people are more concerned about looking trendy, classic style is more concerned about looking quality. This is why classic items stay relevant.

Quality fabric costs more and better construction costs more. You can find certain trendy styles in quality fabric and construction, but you can find more trendy clothing made cheaply to sell quickly. Trendy clothing is made to be popular for a short period of time, so it is mostly made up of poor-quality cheap to produce material, poorly constructed, and sold for a cheap price. Typically, the higher priced the garment, the more classic the cut (aka the style).

Quality clothing costs more to make and more to purchase readymade. If you spent more money on every item of your wardrobe, what items would you carefully curate? You may find yourself caring less about what other people declare about trends, and you may care more about what you notice looks beautiful on you.

Happy Styling!