How to Feel Modern Without Losing Your Personal Style

How to refresh what you already own without chasing every new trend

You know I love it in here! I love Substack because it gives me something no other social platform really has, maybe Tumblr at its best: a genuine community of creative people making things because they actually want to make them, not just because the algorithm demands it.

But there is also a lot of constant talk about newness. The next thing to buy. The piece that is apparently going to solve all your styling problems! The magical bean that will somehow make you look like your favourite influencer, thigh gap and all.

And yes, I get it. Shopping is great. I love shopping.

But when shopping starts to feel like the only way to stay relevant, be part of the conversation, get invited to the right events, or look like you belong in certain fashion circles, I lose interest very quickly.

I completely understand the desire to look modern and current. I want that too. But it should not come at the expense of your personal style.

The problem with trends is how easy it is to get carried away by them. You start with one shoe, then suddenly you have bought the whole “how to be a fashion person” starter pack and your wardrobe looks suspiciously like everyone else’s.

So the question I want to explore is this:

How do we look modern without shopping every five minutes, and without losing the things that make our style feel like ours?

Keep Your Constants

Your wardrobe can tell you more about your style than anyone here can. This is why this is the first thing I ask when I work with a client: show me what you’ve got.

And yes, most of the time people are confused or overwhelmed by what’s in there. They have bought too much or too little, kept things from when they went to uni, and collected pieces that belong to five different versions of themselves. But even in the craziest wardrobes, and I have seen a few! you can usually work out what someone has been trying to achieve all along.

What shapes do they keep buying? Which colours always come back? What fabrics, details or aesthetics have survived every clear-out?

So ask yourself: what are the things I always go back to?

For me, it is colour, luxurious fabrics like silk, vintage pieces, interesting details, plenty of boho, unusual jewellery and anything vaguely mermaid-adjacent.

But a few years ago, when I started spending more time on social media, I felt like I needed to fit in with what ‘stylish people’ were wearing, and quiet luxury got me. Suddenly I was buying more neutrals than ever before.

I don’t see it as betrayal to my personal style. In fact, it taught me something useful. I realised I genuinely do love neutrals, and my wardrobe needed more of them! but what I was really craving was beautiful fabrics, quality and simplicity. It was not necessarily the aesthetic of quiet luxury that felt like me, it was the ethos behind it.

And that is what trends can be really useful for. They can help you see your own style more clearly. You try something on, live with it for a while, and work out which part actually belongs to you. Keep that bit. Leave the rest.

The goal is not to avoid trends completely. It is to let them add something to your style without replacing the things that were already there.

Choose One “Current” Element

Once you know your constants, this becomes much easier. You do not need to reinvent your entire wardrobe every season, you just need one or two small shifts that make everything else feel a little more current.

And for me, the easiest place to do this is footwear.

I really believe in the power of shoes. They can completely change the mood of an outfit, even if you are wearing the same dress you’ve had for ten years. Swap the shoe and suddenly the whole thing feels different.

I do this all the time when my outfits start to feel a bit stale. I add a shoe that brings a little bit of modernity to the look.

The best example from this summer were my white flip-flops. I honestly bought them thinking I would probably return them, but once I saw what they did to my outfits, I was very glad I kept them.

My summer outfits tend to be quite busy with colour, and sometimes print, so the clean, minimal white flip-flop gave them a completely different perspective. It felt fresh and slightly unexpected and I feel like it made everything else look more current.

I am excited to try the same idea with a white closed-toe shoe for autumn. If white flip-flops could freshen up my summer outfits that much, I am very curious to see what a white loafer, ballet flat or pointed shoe can do once the heavier clothes come out.

But that is just my example. The question for you is: what kind of shoe would make your own outfits feel fresher?

Maybe you tend to wear a lot of neutrals, in which case a printed mule or a red shoe could be the thing that wakes everything up. Or maybe your outfits lean very casual and you want to add a little more polish, so I would look for something with a bit more structure: a pointed toe, a sleek mule, a sharper shape.

But before you click, click, buy, go and check your wardrobe. Check your shoes. What do you already have? What do you actually wear? And what, if anything, is genuinely missing?

The point is not to buy the shoes I am wearing. It’s to figure out what kind of shoe¹ gives your wardrobe a new perspective. If you need help figuring that out, my Nothing to Wear call is exactly for this: we look at what you already own, shop your wardrobe first, then identify what is actually missing.

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Change the Proportions

Sometimes the piece is not the problem, but the way we have been wearing it for years.

Proportions can date an outfit much faster than the actual clothes do. The same jacket, skirt or pair of trousers can feel completely different when you change the shape of the pieces around it.

Maybe that means swapping slim fitted jeans for something wider, pairing a fitted jacket with a fuller skirt, or wearing an old dress with a chunkier shoe instead of the delicate sandals you always reached for.

This is one of the easiest ways to make your wardrobe feel current without replacing it. And it is also why I am always a bit suspicious when people say a piece is “dated”. Sometimes it just needs a different supporting cast.

Nothing to Wear? Try the 3P Rule

Case Study: The Biker Jacket

While I was flipping through the latest Vogue, I came across the Rag & Bone editorial below featuring a biker jacket styled with an oversized white shirt, collar popped, round sunglasses, and it made me realise something: the biker jacket is such a good example of how proportions can make an old piece feel completely different.

If you are a millennial woman who lived in the UK, the chances that you own, or once owned, an AllSaints biker jacket are extremely high. All the cool celebrities were wearing them back then, usually with the skinniest jeans known to mankind, high heels and tiny tops. You can see the dramatic change in proportions so clearly through Alexa Chung below. Obviously the jacket itself is different, but even if she had kept the original one, the second outfit would still feel relevant and cool today.

Celine sunglasses / Acne Studios biker jacket / COS shirt + jeans + jumper / Gucci Jackie bag / At Present earrings / Le Monde Beryl shoes

And well of course, right now, the versions that feel most current is the second one, a little more oversized, boxier, almost borrowed-from-your-boyfriend.

Does that mean you cannot wear the fitted AllSaints biker jacket you bought years ago? Absolutely not.

You just need to change the proportions and styling around it.

Try it with:

• Add an oversized shirt and let the hem and cuffs peek out underneath.

• Go for a looser, straighter or wide-leg denim.

• Add a colourful jumper over your shoulders or around your waist for a bit more volume.

• Finish with a shoe that feels current now, like a sleek flat, loafer or pointed shoe.

• Keep the accessories sharper too. The sunglasses and red earrings on this moodboard are adding a lot of interest to the look.

• Even the colour palette feels modern: classic neutrals, but punctuated with red and purple, which is such a strong combination right now.

That is exactly the kind of thing I love doing with clients too: taking something they already own and genuinely love, then changing the context around it until it feels relevant again. Because sometimes the answer is not “buy a new jacket”. Sometimes the old AllSaints one just needs better context.

You Don’t Need To Buy A New Fall Wardrobe

The Sustainability Bit

The most sustainable clothes are the ones already hanging in your wardrobe. We talk a lot about buying better, better fabrics, avoiding fast fashion, shopping second hand, but not enough about keeping things longer and finding new ways to wear them. If something still fits, still feels like you and can be restyled in a way that feels current, why should it leave your wardrobe?

Sometimes the most sustainable thing you can do is not buy the new version but to give the old one a new life.

Now tell me in the comments, what’s something currently in your wardrobe that you would like to keep wearing?

Love,

Noelia x

1. I’ve created this ShopMy edit where I keep adding footwear I love for making your outfits feel a little more current without changing the whole wardrobe.