Be like Jane Birkin and Wear Your Clothes
Style is what you do with your clothes once they're on
Anyone can dress well, but having style is not as easy. I think about this a lot. And it’s a common discussion amongst us fashion-loving folk. You can have great taste, you can put an outfit together and look..good, but how someone wears their clothes differentiates the novice from the masters.
Jane Birkin, one of the said masters (we can have a whole separate discussion about my style masters), epitomizes wearing your clothes. It’s how you manipulate and play around with what you’re wearing. Style is verb. How many buttons you leave open on your favorite button-down, how you scrunch your sleeves or roll them, how you tuck in your shirt (sometimes it’s a bit off to the right, sometimes it’s a two-finger-width tuck, other times it’s a two-hand tuck…you get the idea), how you play with pant lengths (sometimes a look needs more skin on the bottom, other times it’s completely wrong to have any skin showing at all—please don’t wear a calf-length anything with ankle-high shoes), how you layer necklines, etc.
Lately this is all I think about when I’m getting dressed. No, not the above image (although I do think about this image a lot), but how am I going to wear my clothes today. Tuck this in here, roll this there, switch this neckline for that one, add another neckline!, wear my necklace long or make it short, or maybe both! Frame the face with bigger earrings? Or does the outfit call for simplicity (see above)? If I can impart any wisdom on you, friends, it’s this—play with your clothes.
Everything I’ve learned about this, I’ve learned from my mom. Since I was little I watched her first put on an outfit (I would sit in her closet as she got ready, it was my favorite thing to do), and then get to work. Popping her collar, rolling her sleeve, tucking in her shirt, etc.
I think this is also why I’m so drawn to
- someone else who wears her clothes. I always pull so much inspiration from the way she manipulates her clothes. A screenshot from last week below - using brooches (see more on my obsession here) as cuff links of sorts to hold up/style her coat sleeves…why didn’t I think of this…
Should I put together a compilation of what it looks like to simply put on your clothes vs style them? Even better—try it yourself and send me pics. <3
Anyway, food for thought friends! I love you all!
xC
P.s. We could have done an entire case study on how Jane styles her Birkins alone. I’m having thoughts about work bags/totes…more on that later…
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Thank you for finding the words for this! It’s something that’s been bugging me for years. The dawn of social media has let clothing and styling to look…costumey. Im thinking especially of people who buy whole entire brand new outfits for events like concerts, take one photo, and never touch those items again. Clothing looks too stiff, too clean, too perfect? I like clothes that look a little worn! It’s why I love vintage and even now, I rent from Nuuly for more modern pieces but I love that they come a bit “broken in.”