ok I came across this podcast with guest allison bornstein, and I was SO excited to learn more. I love anything that helps you characterize your style, whether it’s a learning style, home decorating, or personal style. or anything else, really; I love to find a new concept and deep dive it, learn as much as I can about it, and figure out how to integrate it into my life. when I heard about the three word concept from allison bornstein, it was no different.
truthfully, i’ve always had a hard time defining my personal and decorating style. allison’s whole idea is that you use three different words to help you better understand your personal style, so you can then filter all of your personal style choices (think both getting dressed and shopping) easier. oh, and the best part? as you change, so can your words. “it’s not that serious,” as she said in one of the other pods I listened to.
the TL;DR
allison has developed a method that has you develop three words to define your personal style. the first word should describe who you are, the second who you want to be, and the third describes how you want to feel. HONESTLY, so simple, and so cool.
my three words
a lot of times, it’s hard to “see the forest through the trees” so to speak when it comes to personal style, so i’ve actually had kind of a hard time doing this right away until I listened to allison on a few more podcasts (I linked them below). I came up with these for my current three words:
I tried on (no pun intended) a few different combinations for a while, with “colorful | polished | edgy” and “cool | classic | funky” being some of my top contenders for a while. where i landed, though, is with a word that i often resisted – “eclectic” – because in my mind, eclectic meant kind of haphazard and random. in doing the work for this exercise, I realized it was the perfect word to describe my style (an how I think about not only my style but everything in my life — an amalgam, a blend, a mix). “eclectic | classy | cool” are my three words for the three word method. when I look at not only my closet, but my personal and customized clothing brand, I can’t clearly narrow it down. I never have a favorite color for that reason – it rotates and I love what is seasonal and comes in and out of style. after three years of working from home, I aspire to be a little more edgy (it’s own kind of polished), and I want to feel cool. when I feel cool, I do good work and I show up well.
3 tips for doing this exercise
- to know more, listen to the linked podcasts with allison. all had good tips on how to come up with your three words. (who what wear pod | life with marianna podcast | freckled foodie podcast)
- use pinterest. I kept tweaking my words and adding “style” at the end in the search bar, and finally narrowed it down to the styles that showed up that best reflected who I am and want to show up as. this took me a few days and I had to keep coming back to it, but I promise it’s a WONDERFUL tool for it!
- write them down. I put it in my phone notes so i can use it as I think about outfit planning for the week and when i’m out shopping.
this process and framework gets a big ‘ol YUP! from me. i’m 100% going to do at least a seasonal/quarterly refresh of this as my style shifts and I shift how I show up in the world.
as with anything you find on my sites and socials, take what you like, and leave the rest.