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Symptoms of a Style Rut

When Your Wardrobe Starts to Resemble a Second Hand Shop

Jul 13, 2009 Jo Barrett-Lennard

Realising that you have been in a style rut for a number of years can happen quite by accident. You only see one colour in your closet, or an event "shakes our tree".

It can happen when someone makes an offhand comment about your outfit, or you discover you have been given a name, for example “the pink lady”, "farmer", or "dragon lady". It could happen when you become so comfortable with your routine you no longer take either care or pride in your appearance, justifying yourself with “no-one cares what I wear”, or “it doesn’t matter what I look like”.

The Realisation

A style rut can occur to any of us at any age. When it occurs we are too blind to see the changes happening around us, and we tend to stay in the time that formed the best days of our lives. Have you ever seen someone who wears the same outfit they did ten years ago? Do you know the woman who wore a particular outfit to her son’s high school graduation, and then the same one again to his 30th birthday, plus weddings and parties in between?

Maybe the high waisted jeans with the tapered legs you purchased on sale in 1997 still make appearances at the supermarket, or the blue striped tee from 1994 still picks the kids up from school.

Symptoms

Symptoms of a style rut include:

You rarely consider something different to what you already own, and restock during the sales, rather than shop.
You can’t remember the last time you did something different with your clothes, hair or makeup.
You don’t bother looking in the mirror because you look the same every single day.
You own three pairs of shorts, all the same cut and length, and you have three t-shirts that you wear with them: one with spots, one with stripes and the other in a solid colour. And these are your good clothes.
Clothes and fashion are put in the too-hard basket, plus you believe clothes are too expensive.

Justification

Clothing in general can sometimes be more of a chore than something to look forward too. Thoughts that fit with a style rut include:

“I’m too old/fat/busy”
“I don’t have time to shop”
“No one cares how I look”
“I don’t care what people think”

Change

Life changes. Our lifestyle, our jobs, interests, hobbies, our colouring and body shape changes. The same clothing you have been wearing for the past seven years or more probably does not fit your lifestyle anymore, and if it does, does it still flatter you? Realising and accepting that you have been stuck in a style rut is the first step in breaking free and becoming stylish.

Have you ever met a woman who does not want to look her best? All it takes is the will, the commitment and having an open mind to release the grasp of a style rut and be on your way to taking charge over your personal style.

The copyright of the article Symptoms of a Style Rut in Women’s Fashion is owned by Jo Barrett-Lennard. Permission to republish Symptoms of a Style Rut in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Style Rut