How to style trend led pieces into your existing wardrobe

I’ve spoken a lot recently about new season trends, including my favourite trends for Autumn and my favourite pieces on the high street right now. One thing that remains consistent in my mind when thinking about trends, or even when thinking about adding a new piece to my wardrobe at any time of the year, is my own personal style; whether the pieces I’m looking at fit within that and how I would style them into outfits or with other items in my wardrobe.

I tend to try and buy a couple of pieces together, with the mindset that they will go together as a look but can also be interchanged with existing items in my wardrobe, to create one, two or three new outfits. The outfit for this post, for example, was made up of two new items (the blazer and skirt) which I bought to pair together, but I also had ideas of a lot of other things I could put them with to make a completely new look.

There are two main themes that I wanted to write about today and the first one is how to incorporate high fashion, trend-led pieces into your everyday wardrobe. This is something I struggled with for years, number one because I wasn’t 100% sure of my own personal style (I don’t think I could say I’m there even still) and number two, because I would see things on the New York catwalks at fashion week, or in Vogue and try to copy the outfit or style, which almost never works because these looks are highly over styled and pretty much done to the extreme. Meaning they are 100% not appropriate for a 9-5 in the office or a day sat in University lectures.

Looking back now, I definitely had some huge fashion faux pas but I suppose it was all in the name of experimenting with fashion and finding myself within that world.

So, if you’ve been reading my blog or following me on Instagram for some time, you’ll probably be aware that my favourite colour to wear is black and I’m not a huge fan of prints, I’m definitely not into mixing bright colours or clashing print and colour – although I massively admire those that do and can pull it off. I love tailoring, monochrome and using one piece as the key stand-out item of my daily look. These are things that I know work well for me (most of the time) so they are things that I draw back to when looking to incorporate new trends and I will consider whether what I’m looking at is in keeping with my personal sense of style and the overall vibe I like to give off.

The current animal print trend is a great example of this. I love animal print, mainly leopard and snake, so it’s something that I really wanted to buy into straight away for the Autumn. I saw some amazing pieces, like a couple of snakeskin co-ords from Zara, but I know that an entire snake print look would probably not be me, I would wear it a grand total of once and sell it on Depop so instead I’ve opted for individual pieces like this snakeskin midi skirt, that I can wear with all one colour and make a bit of a statement out of.

I’m not saying I will never step out of my comfort zone because there are some pieces you just can’t put down even though you know it’s the furthest thing from what you would usually pick up and that’s absolutely fine. However, the rule of thumb would be that 90% of the time you stick to things you know will suit you and your style identity.

Don’t buy something just because it’s on trend. If you’re not 100% sure when you get it home, take it back. The chances are you will only wear it a couple of times because you either don’t feel confident in it, or because it doesn’t go with anything else you own.

The second thing I promised I would touch on in a previous post, is how to style animal print. If you look to fashion editors on their advice for this coming season, you will see that they say more really is more, to clash your prints not only with other classic prints like check and striped but with other animal prints and to wear leopard, with leopard and even more leopard. This is all true and has come straight off the catwalks at fashion week and is already styled by celebs across the world, but if you’re relatively new to the world of animal print I would ease yourself in gently until you know what works for you and what doesn’t.

Start off with an accessory or two to find your feet, then pair an animal print item with an all neutral outfit rather than clashing prints as this can be hard to pull off. Choose your fabrics wisely as this can easily take you from classy to trashy and begin by keeping it casual with an easy to wear daytime look. You can transition into night time looks further down the line if you want to.

For me, I will continue to wear animal print with an all-black outfit or pieces of a neutral colouring as that suits how I like to dress and fits in with my personal style well.

Shop the look
Vero Moda Blazer
Zara T-shirt
Zara Skirt
Superga Trainers