What Does Style Mean To Me?

When you’re younger, style can feel like something you’re always reaching for. You look at other women, other homes, other lives and think, that’s how it’s done. You buy the dress because it’s everywhere. Paint the room the colour everyone suddenly seems to have. Follow trends because it feels safer than trusting your own eye. I did all of that; some of it worked and some of it really didn’t.. But I think style changes as you get older - or maybe you change, and style just catches up.

By the time you reach your fifties, style stops being about keeping up and starts becoming about coming home to yourself. Or at least, that’s what it feels like to me now.

These days, my style has very little to do with trends. In fact, the older I get, the less interested I am in them. What interests me now is instinct. What colours do I always come back to? What fabrics do I love touching? What shapes make me feel comfortable but still put together? What kind of rooms make me feel calmer, warmer, more myself? Those are the things that matter.

In my home, I’ve realised I’m drawn to layers. Things with history. Old wood, faded fabric and a chair that’s a little worn but still beautiful. Pieces collected over time rather than bought all at once because they “go”. I’ve never wanted a house that looked like a showroom, I want it to feel like a life.

The same goes for my wardrobe. I’m not interested in dressing younger, and I’m certainly not interested in dressing the way someone thinks a woman in her fifties should dress. I just want to dress well.

That usually means good cut, good fabric and pieces that feel easy but strong. Clothes that make me stand a little taller, not because they’re fashionable, but because they feel right.

And I think that’s the real difference with age. When you’re younger, you ask, Do I look good in this? Later, the question becomes, Do I feel like myself in this?

Because style, whether it’s your home or what you wear, is really about recognition and building a life around the things that feel true to you. Not perfect, fashionable or simply because it's been approved by strangers on the internet.

And maybe that’s one of the better things about getting older. You stop performing quite so much, you stop buying things because everyone else has them, and you stop worrying whether your house is current or your clothes are on trend. Instead, you start choosing what you love. And when you do that, tour style becomes clearer.

My house isn’t perfect; my wardrobe isn’t either. Both are a bit eclectic, a bit worn in places, a bit unexpected. But they feel like mine. And I think that’s what style is, really.