Style Creativity: Get Out of a Style Rut and Hone Your Personal Style (ep. 2)

The episode explores the concept of style creativity, explaining how divergent and convergent thinking can enhance one’s fashion instincts. It offers tips on expanding style perspectives, building unique outfits, and staying creatively engaged with personal style development. Learn how to build an authentic personal style and get out of a style rut using style creativity

Listen to it:

That’s all well and good Gaby, but I just need something to help me look good today. Oh, friend, you read my mind this time.

Hi, I’m Gabrielle Arruda your host for the Style POV podcast and I’m here to help you learn to trust your fashion instincts, hone your authentic style POV, and find strength through style.

Exploring the Concept of Style Creativity

Creativity.

What an ambiguous concept. If you went up to ten different people and asked them what creativity means or how to achieve it, the results would be pretty varied.

Style Creativity. Even more convoluted. I mean if you asked your mom what style creativity was? versus your best friend… Do you think the answers would even be close?

And if you do this, I’m sorry you might get a few weird looks or confused stares coming at you.

But, turns out there is an actual psychological definition to creativity.

Creativity is divergence + convergence.

Ooohs, ahhs…

But wait, what does that mean? And why should you care?

I hear your inner voice, and I’m going to explain.

Understanding Style Ruts + Creativity

A style rut is simply feeling disenchanted, stagnant, frustrated, or bored with your style. And how would you get out of a rut, you would try something new.

And trying something new would require a creative approach.

Ahhhh… you’re catching my drift now.

But I don’t want your attempt at style creativity to be just throwing spaghetti at the wall, or an exhausting and frustrating deep dive into the depths of your closet hole you call a system.

I want us to learn what creativity is, how you can use it, and apply it to your style so that it guides your unique style POV and stretches your understanding of what your style can be.

Deep Dive into Style Creativity + Style Toolbox

Now, in the previous episode all about the Style Toolbox, I mentioned a process of cognitive molding all of us have undergone.

We are a collection of all of our experiences, external stimuli, and surroundings, and that has all helped us form opinions and a unique perspective.

Good right? Well… yes I want you to be an individual, and be in touch with that, but the problem lies with our natural inclination to to then “jump to conclusions”.

This habitual narrowing of opinions and perspectives as it relates to your visual experience and fashion prevents you from seeing a broader (more creative) picture and visualizing a different end product.

So if you’re in a style rut, or not evolving your style as much as you’d then, then you are most likely leaning too much on your habitual knowledge and are falling into tunnel vision.

A unique pov of view- fantastic. A narrowly defined visual of the POV ends up being limiting.

So here’s where style creativity comes into play.

And to properly heal our relationships with our styles, and tap into this process, I need to nerd out a little bit.

Divergent Thinking + Style

Creativity has been scientifically defined; and it has been defined as

Divergence + Convergence

Now let’s break this down further and then I’ll explain how it relates to your style. This concept can single-handedly change your perception of where you are in your style journey..

In simple terms..

Divergent thinking: is when a person is asked to explore an open-ended task with imagination, creativity, and no one answer.

So if I held up a brick and asked what can you do with this… If you said build a house that would a correct answer, but it wouldn’t be exploring the open realms of possibility and using divergent thinking.

If you said, you could use it to hold open a door or built an entire story around how the holes of a brick could be used to hold fireworks, or how it could be used as weapon to rob someone..

Well, while i might not recommend those actions, THAT is divergent thinking. You are thinking about it a limitless way. Outside of the original referential domain, we have for the object; in this case the brick.

Now what does that mean in terms of style or fashion? It’s about using the data you’ve collected in your style toolbox and visualizing them in different ways.

Look at your style toolbox. Examine your style parameters. What items do you use to build an outfit and reframe/expand/innovate what it can mean?

If you’re familiar with the Kitchener Essences, let’s try an experiment. If not, I have a deep dive series on my YouTube that I’ll link in the show notes.

Let’s start small.. You have a basic white tee shirt, now start imagining using that tee shirt to create an outfit for each of the 7 essences, Dramatic, Natural, Classic, Gamine, Romantic, Ingenue and Angelic.

And if you’re not familiar with the essences, just use those words as adjectives.

Now the rule is you can’t change the tee shirt between each essence outfit. The same tee-shirt applied to each essence or adjective.

Your habitual narrowing and foundational information might have led you to believe that that tee only works for X person.

But in your mind, start creating outfits for each. Pause the show if you need a second to do this

Do you see how you’ve already stretched your creativity to what you might have originally thought? Now, if you struggled to do this, that’s ok, it’s now something you can be mindful of when you’re struggling with someone. That reframing and expanding the answer is an exercise to practice.

We can even take the divergent thinking further and imagine how we could take outside inspirations of fantasies that we are drawn to and find connections to our style and closets.

This is the limitless section of style. It can also include collecting new style information and studying style systems for new elements to add to your style toolbox.

But I want to stress that a style system (like Kibbe) will not teach you how to think divergently. Instead it will give you new information that you process to expand your initial style pov.

Ok, cool. So divergence is all about collecting new, imagination, expanding your mind and style experience.

But I hear those inner voices… “that’s all well and good Gaby, but I just need something to help me look good today”..

Oh, friend. You read my mind this time.

Convergent Thinking: Crafting Your Unique Style Answer

Here is where convergence comes in.

Convergence is the narrowing of that information, focusing on, and finding the quote-unquote “right answer”

So you have your style toolbox, and you’ve deep-dived into style systems, but how does that all relate to the outfit you’re going to create today?

Convergence, in the way that I am using it. Is tapping into the deeper needs of that outfit and finding the right answer yourself.

Now, historically they labeled it as “one right answer”.. but I’m going to extend that for our purposes to “one right answer for your own style POV”.

So while a typical convergent example might be: combining engine, water, and wings and you get “seaplane”.

To form it for our unique style POVs I want us to individually find “our one answer”

How will you know it’s the right answer? Because you’ll love your outfit. You’ll feel good in it. You won’t question whether it works for this system or this season, it will just work.

Now, that’s a lofty goal. One right answer, it may sound so far off.

But, this is a journey that you will constantly be evolving.

There is no finish line. Once you determine your image identity or your color placement or your style needs, you’ve really only “begun” your journey.

And as you grow, evolve, and change, your style goals and style toolbox will evolve as well.

So this aspect of style creativity is essential. It keeps you actively participating with your style so you avoid those ruts. And it allows you to positively progress your style as your grow.

The more style creativity you cultivate, the more the process of evaluating, embracing, and tweaking an outfit will spark joy instead of confusion.

If developing this style creativity is so important and we understand the basics of what constitutes creativity, what might we do to practice or improve this skill?

Practical Tips to Enhance Your Style Creativity

Now there are a few best practices I have in mind that will be met with varying degrees of enthusiasm based on your personality.

So, no one is saying these are the only ways to get your creative juices going, feel free to explore your methodologies as well.

The Croquis concept: I’m a fashion designer and when we are designing we are told to croquis sketch. Which is essentially the act of divergent thinking within a set domain (designing clothes).

You quickly sketch out a design and then continue to do as many variations and tweaks as you can with the design.

For personal style building, this could look like taking a piece of clothing from your wardrobe and trying to create as many outfits as you can using that piece.

Or it could be taking inspiration (whatever inspiration you want, for instance, a black and white photograph of a mountain) and trying to build as many outfits as you can around that inspiration. You could use music, movies, sounds, and words, and let your divergent thinking take off with both the inspiration source AND the outfit building.

Now, a key component of this will be taking outfit photos, so that you can go back and start to hone your “correct style pov answer” – ie your convergent thinking.

If this seems overwhelming or like too much initial action, you can also try a meditation of sorts.

Now, I’m not going to have you manifest or give your breathwork teachings. But studies have proven that lying down motionless, eyes closed, for let’s say 10 minutes, and allowing your mind to wonder on the topic of your style can greatly improve your creativity and this is in fact an ideal state for your brain to utilize divergent thinking.

After those 10 minutes, take a few minutes to jot down any realizations you had, any revelations, or just what that path looked like.

Don’t want to lay down or try on clothes… Well, the next could be the aspect of narrative building and future envisioning.

I have specific steps on how to do this in my linked YouTube video about building your dream or fantasy style.

https://youtu.be/ypjMDdN1Dxs

However, studies have shown that children have a far greater ability to access creativity, and yet their ability to think divergently is not overly developed.

They rely on narrative or world-building. And I link all the studies and resources in the show notes if you’re curious.

But start building your style narrative or your dream style world. In my YouTube video I break down how to take multiple creative inspirations and apply them to one creative fantasy goal, I have worksheets for you to fill out as well, so I encourage you to use that resource as well.

As I already mentioned your style is a journey. We take the daily outfit photos for data, but we don’t want to get so consumed with the details that we lose the larger pictures.

In 5 years, what do you want your style to look like?

Envisioning that, even if it changes over time, can help you stay motivated, can help you keep your style creativity working, and can help you achieve that dream style.

Your style POV, is your superpower. Let’s continue to tap into that, to find our own unique expressions that FEEL right to each of us, and that teach us to trust our own fashion instincts.

And lastly, you could try re-organizing some or all of your closet. Our brains get used to certain information living in certain places. It creates a routine to be able to streamline the information and make our efficiency greater.

So if you re-organize your closet, it has to put more thought into what items go with each other. how you’re building that outfit.

It may actually be a bit frustrating the first couple of times you go into your closet with a new layout, but that discomfort is a good sign. It’s making you more aware of your clothing inventory, and making you more present in the decision-making.

You’re removing the “auto-pilot” outfit building.

Thank you for listening to me nerd out on style concepts.

And, the next episode is going to have you questioning your shopping habits for the benefit of your personal style.

Until next time.