One man’s food, they say, is another man’s poison. This quote also extends to fashion. In fact, it’s the perfect way to describe our individual fashion styles.
Just as no two faces are the same, no two persons dress the same way. While lady A may love to look feminine, lady B may prefer edgy pieces that announce her presence. And that’s because we all have different personal styles.
I’m pretty sure you must have heard this a lot either on Svelte Magazine or other top fashion publications and channels around you. This begs the question:
What exactly is a fashion style and how do you know the one that expresses you?
Let’s find out together in this piece.
What Does Fashion Style Mean?
In fashion, style is the unique way you express yourself through your choice of clothing, accessories, hairstyle, and the way you combine an outfit together. When this unique way becomes peculiar to you as your go-to mode of dressing, it becomes your personal style.
Fashion is a vehicle of expression. Your style is that expression. And to get you ready to express your style, you have to discover the fashion style that stays true to your essence.
Let’s look at 15 popular ones of them:
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Types of Fashion Style
1. Minimalist Style
As the name implies, this style upholds minimalism. It involves discarding unnecessary items and loud details and opting for a simpler yet deliberate look with little fashion items.
This fashion style believes less is more. It usually features neutral colors like black, white, beige, grey, brown, etc.
Furthermore, a minimalist fashionista would wear carefully chosen accessories, simple patterns, and a monochromatic or limited color mix all to create a reserved, functional, and tasteful look.
2. Chic Fashion Style
This style effuses elegance and class. Men who exude this style are regarded as suave and debonair.
It features looks such as monochromatic hues, clean lines, flattering silhouettes, asymmetrical hems, timeless pieces, sophisticated fabrics, classy prints, and beautiful embellishments.
In short, it’s a blend of minimalism and classic fashion. And if you’re a lover of this style, investing in timeless pieces that never go out of style should be a habit.
That aside, this style also comes in different variations. To learn more about it, consult our guide on how to pull off the chic fashion style.
But if you’ll save that for later, let’s proceed.
3. Avant-garde Style
This style features way-too edgy pieces that are considered weird. It’s a great way to make a fashion statement if you’re bold enough to rock it.
The style is an extreme version of the eccentric style. As avant-garde fashion designer, Barbara I Gongini, opines:
“Avant-garde can be viewed as experimental because it has something to do with constantly being on the edge, thinking forward, and exploring new possibilities. Mirroring the times in which we are living provides relevance to the form of expression of the artist.”
Barbara I Gongini
The brand’s blog further reiterates Barbara I Gongini:
“It presumes forward-thinking, artistry, unconventional designs, new forms, structures, and an extraordinary touch that separates the ideas from the mainstream. Avant-garde fashion distinguishes itself through the fact that it embodies a way of living.”
barbaraigongini.com
To pull off this style, you have to be ready to go edgy and dare against conventional styles by rocking bold colors, statement outfits, and mixing different prints together.
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4. Eccentric Fashion Style
This style of dressing deviates from the norm. Some people consider it strange while others simply perceive it as unconventional. And that’s what it is.
It’s slightly different from what every other person would wear and is perfect for making style statements too.
This style is the mild version of avant-garde. If you’re looking to imbibe it, invest in bold colors, patterns, and pieces with standout details. You can as well follow icons like Burna boy, Adebayo-Oke Lawl, Jennifer Oseh, Lisa Folawiyo, Tosin Ogundadegbe, etc.
Want an easy way? Check out our guide on this subject. It’ll show you everything about eccentric fashion style.
5. Artsy Style
This style, as the name implies, features everything art and creative.
It experiments with colors, textures, prints, and what have you. Most avant-garde and eccentric fashionistas are always artsy.
6. Urban Style
This is also known as streetwear. It features youthful, casual, and comfy fashion items such as jeans, tees, sweatpants, hoodies, activewear, caps, tracksuits, and sneakers.
An offshoot of streetwear style is athleisure. It incorporates pieces such as leggings, crop/tank top, sweater or sweatshirt, paired with sneakers. It’s a great outfit for when you wanna look sporty even when not at the gym.
7. Afrocentric Style
This style refers to anything African-inspired. Its goal is to uplift the African heritage and features clothing, accessories and designs made with African fabrics such as kente, ankara, adire, isi agu, etc.
Popular outfits under this category include senator wears, iro and buba, aso-oke, ankara styles, etc.
8. Bohemian Style
Bohemian style depicts a relaxed state of mind and free spirit. It features bright-colored prints (mostly floral), natural accessories, earthy tones, long skirts, maxi dresses, floral scarves, flip-flops, etc.
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9. Nerdy Style
There’s a popular stereotype about nerds: they hardly care about their appearance.
Going by what we see in movies and schools, you may be tempted to say this is true. But in the real sense, it’s not.
Nerdy style isn’t a carefree attitude to fashion. Instead, it’s one in which the signature accessory is a pair of eyeglasses.
Furthermore, most nerdy fashionistas are minimalists. They love dark-colored outfits and their go-to footwear are sneakers, sandals, ballerina flats, or flip-flops. However, this doesn’t mean nerdy women don’t wear heels too.
10. Cowgirl Style
Cowgirl/Cowboy style stems from the 19th century wild west. The signature accessory for lovers of this style is a wide-brimmed hat.
Items under this fashion style include jeans, jackets, hats, cowboy boots, etc.
11. Lagenlook
If you love to layer your outfits, then lagenlook should be your best bet. The style features layering multiple pieces of clothing such as loose pants, tops, scarves, etc., to create different shapes and colors.
12. Maternity Style
Got a baby bump? Maternity style should be what you exude throughout your pregnancy journey.
It incorporates fashion items designed to accommodate your expanding belly.
Maternity fashion is no longer limited to loose clothing— thanks to celebrities like Rihanna.
It’s evolved to include pieces such as pregnancy crop tops, sheer dresses, tight-fitting pieces, maternity jeans, etc.
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13. Androgynous Style
Show me a fashion style that has no gender and I’ll show you androgynous style.
It entails pieces that suit both genders. Yeah, you can call it unisex. Fashion brands like Orange Culture have successfully merged eccentric and androgynous styles together, doling out unisex pieces you just wanna wear.
14. Modest Style
If you don’t like to show skin, this should be your personal style. It’s popular among Muslim women who love to rock abayas with scarves or hijabs.
For women of other religions, this style features midi skirts or skirts that stop at the knee, full-coverage blouses, flared skirts, etc.
Outfits here never show skin. If at all they do, it’ll be the arms, neck, and legs.
Love this style? You’ll most definitely love gospel artiste Mercy Chinwo’s outfits. She’s a great inspiration for you to see how modesty meets elegance.
15. Modern Victorian Style
Remember the series Bridgerton? Yeah that’s a perfect example of this style. It features clothes from the victorian or regency era one of which is the popular corset, long and full skirts, etc.
But this is the 21st century. You wont find women in such clothes. Instead, what you’ll see are tops with a fitted bodice, corset fashion, puffy sleeves, buttons, etc.
Now that you know 15 fashion styles, which of them would you say expresses you? Still don’t know? How about you read our guide on personal style? It’ll show you how to discover your personal style without consulting a stylist.
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