Bored of Beige? Personality Dressing Is the One Thing All the Most Stylish Women Have in Common

Quiet luxury, pared-back minimalism, classic and sleek: just a handful of the phrases I’ve lost count of using to describe runway looks in recent years. Take this as a full confession that I should, yes, absolutely widen my descriptive vocabulary. Thankfully, those terms will be taking a break for the foreseeable—and not just because I've been hunting for synonyms. Trends and our own interpretations of them are changing, rather sharply. Personality being the word back in full focus.

Fashion brands are stamping their own DNA into each look more firmly than they have in past seasons. And across the Autumn/Winter 26 collections now landing in stores, distinct trends have been bypassed in favour of more individual styling and stronger brand signals. Take Khaite’s military moment, Miu Miu’s girlish influence and Chloé’s focus on craft as just a handful of examples.

Away from the runway, women on the street and our social media style heroines are visibly adding their own mark to every outfit. When I analyse it, I can see that my own wardrobe is starting to look less prescribed and far more personal. Could the era of the trend, of the uniform-like outfit, be over? The answer, seemingly, screams yes. And according to Renia Jaz, a content creator famed for her distinctive style, it all comes down to fashion fatigue.

“We see so many trends and micro-trends come and go so quickly that it can become exhausting trying to keep up with them all. I think people are starting to realise that they don’t need to,” she tells me. The over-saturation of runway trends, in-store clothing rotations, influencer snaps, get-ready-with-me videos and the general breakneck speed of the industry is finally working in the opposite direction: we want to dress for ourselves, not the way the industry tells us we should.

Which is, quite simply, the essence of personality dressing, as Jaz describes it. “Personality dressing is about wearing something that genuinely feels like you. It’s about using fashion to show a little bit of who you are and what kind of person you are, but also wearing clothes that make you feel confident in yourself.”

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“For a while, quiet luxury became such a dominant aesthetic that fashion started to feel a little uniform. There was a lot of the same minimalism, neutral colours and very polished styling, and I think people are now ready to have a little more fun with their clothes again,” observes Jaz.

This doesn't have to mean loud, extravagant or even full of colour. Just a wardrobe that feels like you—not the influencer with 50,000 followers, nor the latest trending look plastered all over the high street. And by leaning further into their own DNA, fashion houses are making a claim on their customer base, pleasing them rather than attempting to convert a wider audience. It may just be their smartest tactic yet.

But how do you rediscover your personal style, or find it in the first place? That’s the question now in need of an answer. According to British designer and stylist Lucinda Chambers, whose wardrobe is a melange of print and colour, it’s all “about stripping back, paring down, clearing out the things that don’t make you feel either comfortable, joyous, elegant or interesting. Those are the rules.” Dressing by heart, essentially.

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“Colour is a great way to start,” Chambers continues, “and not necessarily bright and loud. It can be navy and black, but with shapes and proportions that sit right with yourself. I tend to go for exaggeration, huge trousers and a slim coat, or huge coat, narrow trousers. But size matters to me as I don’t want to slip into normal boring.”

For Jaz, “it’s often in the details and in the way I mix things together”. Think statement earrings, attention-grabbing shoes or the crossover of masculine and feminine elements to add an unexpected twist to something more classic. “I’m a big believer in mixing old and new. I love bringing vintage pieces into my outfits or rediscovering something that has been in my wardrobe for years and styling it with something new.”

And if you’re tapping into a trend, try to make it your own, says Hannah Brown, who has garnered over 300,000 followers on Instagram in just a few months by sharing a daily outfit video before leaving the house. The appeal? Brown has fun with her wardrobe, mixing colour, metallics and fringing.

“The same trend can be worn by thousands of people, but it’s someone interpreting it uniquely that grabs the most attention. I’ll happily borrow from a trend or buy a trending item, but I don’t want it dictating the entire look. I want the outfit to still feel like me.”

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Ultimately, it’s proof that, as Jaz puts it, “You don’t need an entirely new wardrobe to express your personality—sometimes an older or vintage piece is exactly what makes a look interesting and uniquely yours.”

And perhaps that's the most freeing part of all: there are no real rules to break, save the ones you set yourself. “Rules are meant to be broken,” says Chambers. “If we stuck with them we would all look identical and that would be a very dull world”. So, embrace the era of wearing whatever it is you like. The women who have always done so are, in my opinion, the very best dressed.